A majority of music colleges and universities currently have few persons of color in their string programs. This partly stems from the lack of musical opportunities provided in underprivileged communities. In hopes to change this, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), and the University of California (USC) Thornton School of Music have come together to create the Los Angeles Orchestra Fellowship.
This program, launched in August, provides four string musicians looking to further or begin a musical performance career with a variety of opportunities. These opportunities include: training with LACO musicians, performing in a variety of concerts around the city, teaching young musicians at ICYOLA, and pursuing a music certificate at USC over the course of two years.
This year’s fellows are Bradley Parrimore, a recent Manhattan School of Music graduate; Sydney Adedamola, who recently graduated from USC; Ayrton Pisco, a violinist who first played with the Brasilia National Orchestra at age five; and Juan-Salvador Carrasco, who has performed in orchestras under Plácido Domingo and Yo-Yo Ma. The four fellows live in the same graduate dorm building and perform together in a string quartet.
