Fort Worth Youth Orchestra

I'm saddened to see negative reviews here. The Fort Worth Youth Orchestra is a wonderful community of talented musicians and staff. Management cares about the students and strives to create an atmosphere of excellence. We've never had a negative experience in our four years there and have not heard about any others. All of the conductors and personnel are top-notch and know how to work with kids. FWYO played an integral part in my daughter's musical progress and has contributed greatly to her preparation for a career in music.

I can't say enough about the Youth Orchestra! 50 years of service to the young musicians of the greater Fort Worth area! Last year my daughter was in the beginning orchestra there, the Junior String Orchestra, and it was an amazing experience! Two major concerts at Bass Hall! Can u imagine a 13 year old playing Ball Hall? It was glorious and inspiring for her! Ms. Musser, her conducted/teacher is absolutely amazing. Warm, years of experience, a quality teacher and human being...we almost didn't want to advance to the next level because we had to leave her behind! But we know the conductor of the Symphony orchestra for the older kids, Mr. Branch has been leading it for ten years! He is also superb! We can't wait for all the great experiences our daughter is going to have this year at the FWYO!

While the conductors of the four different orchestras are all excellent human beings and wonderful musicians, the (new) management behind the scenes is terrible. Sadly, the management can really make or break a program, and we've been disappointed.A few specific issues:-Parents have been asked to leave holiday concerts because they oversold it and had no room for everyone. They continue to use a venue that is far too small.-The new management replaced many of the staff members with family members. -The private lesson program used to be thriving at Orchestra Hall, but they let their best, most experienced teachers go with no warning to parents.-One of the big draws for us used to be the Bass Hall performance opportunities for our kids, but they have reduced/removed those.-At a rare Bass Hall performance, parents are not allowed to accompany their (sometimes VERY young children) in to the separate building where instruments and cases were kept. There was no one to help the children inside, and my child got lost and was terrified. -At that same Bass Hall performance, we experienced instrument damage from when the instruments were transferred to that building. No one from FWYO was willing to help rectify the issue and we had to pay for a repair ourselves.My kids were involved with this program for four years and we're looking elsewhere right now because of the management issue. I would recommend looking into the Dallas or Arlington youth orchestra programs instead.

My kids have been a part of this program for quite a long time over 3 years and while the opportunity to play great music is there, the staff is cruel to children. Chastising them verbally and loudly in front of everyone for not having the right socks or proper shade of black on the day of the concert. The orchestra manager Linda Moore is the worst of them all belittling children for pleasure and Willa Dunleavy is no better. They are power hungry bitter people who will put on one face in front of paying parents or patrons and then be down right cruel to the children backstage even making them cry. We had to pull our children out because the experience was so bad my children didn't want to play their instruments any longer. This is a great program if you have enough money to donate to the program. Basically it protection money and your kids will sit high in the orchestra if you donate enough, or you are on the board. I would not recommend this program for anyone