The NY Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts Program Marks a Milestone

By Karen Peterson | From the November/December 2024 issue of Strings

Priscilla Havemeyer was 13 when she first heard Debussy’s dreamy “L’Apres Midi d’un Faune.” After the concert, she wrote in her notebook that the music made her think of “cool water flowing over stoney cliffs and green grass with ferns . . . It makes me feel sleepy and nice.” 

The music that enchanted the teenage New Yorker that Saturday in 1937 was part of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts (YPC), an annual series of symphony performances and classical music education, then in its 13th year. The YPC called on the best musicians, composers, and maestros to ensure that the music of the masters thrived—not just in the present but well into the 20th century and beyond.

So far, so good. The YPC turned 100 this year—and so did Havemeyer. When the NY Philharmonic officially celebrated its 1924–2024 centennial, Havemeyer’s original notebook, which she had faithfully completed as part of the YPC “Notebook Contest,” was put on display.

One thing led to another, and Havemeyer was located and invited to the gala event. She wasn’t able to make the trip from Philadelphia to David Geffen Hall, but she remembers clearly through her daughter, Carley Smith, “the fondness” she felt for pianist and conductor Ernest Schelling, co-founder of the Young People’s Concerts and much honored as its heartbeat. “He was such a nice man,” she recalls.

Havemeyer is among the millions—yes, millions—of young people from New York and around the world who have fallen (and still fall) under the spell of the YPC, as designed by Schelling and modulated over the years by the NY Philharmonic’s distinguished music directors and guest conductors, most famously, Leonard Bernstein, who led and defined the YPC for 14 years beginning in 1958, when he joined the NY Philharmonic as music director. Bernstein literally brought his love of music and education to the global stage: the 53 Emmy-winning YPC events he hosted were broadcast live from Carnegie Hall on CBS—a first in television and music history.

The Right Time and Temperament

The NY Philharmonic estimates that at their peak, Bernstein’s hour-long primetime concerts attracted 10 million viewers in the US and 40 other countries where the concerts were syndicated. The first concert aired on January 18, 1958, reached an estimated 2.5 million American households, and immediately thrilled the young audience: Bernstein opened with the William Tell Overture by Rossini—better known to his audience (and his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Jamie, in attendance) as the theme for the popular TV series The Lone Ranger.

To the giggling, but now attentive audience, Bernstein underscored the message of the evening’s talk—and the purpose of the series itself—by saying, “No matter what stories people tell you about what music means, forget them. Stories are not what music means. Music is never about things. Music just is.”

Believed by the NY Philharmonic to be the world’s longest-running family concert series, YPC under Bernstein, “paired with his charisma and the fact that TV was just coming into its own,” which led to “staggering numbers of viewers,” says Gabryel Smith, director of the NY Philharmonic’s bountiful archives.

The timing couldn’t have been better. Television was a new and exciting medium, and the man bringing the classics to life was young and enthusiastic. Together, they brought classical music to the Baby Boom generation. And while Boomers may have been distracted by their own new music genre, historic in its own right, Bernstein, says Smith, “laid the groundwork 50 years ago for the audiences that are coming to symphonies today.”

And that is exactly why the NY Philharmonic, then and now, and orchestras across the country—Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Chicago, Tucson, Atlanta, Boston, Chattanooga, Knoxville, et al—offer programs for younger audiences: to keep the classics alive with a future audience in the wings.

For his part, Bernstein considered the YPC his “educational mission,” according to the Leonard Bernstein Office, and referred to them as being among the “most highly prized activities of my life.”

From Schelling to Dudamel

From the start, the concerts and the lessons that accompanied the music were meant to appeal directly to the audience, friendly in tone and conversation, like a Mr. Rogers musical neighborhood.

The first director, Schelling, was known as “Uncle Ernest” to his students. He had a cosmopolitan style and bon vivant presence that was fitting in New York City of the Roaring Twenties, and he apparently had a sense of humor. His faithful companion, a dapper English terrier named Nicolas, was often pictured wearing fashionable gentleman’s hats.

Following Schelling’s lead, each new host brought something unique to the YPC conversation, based on their experiences and passions. “It is a program that has evolved over time,” says Gary Padmore, vice president of the education and community engagement team, which oversees the YPC series. 

The unfolding of the program mirrors the distinguished musical directors that served with the philharmonic between the Schelling and Bernstein eras, including former directors Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Alan Gilbert, and guest conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Aaron Copland, Tania León, Bobby McFerrin, and Helen Quach.

In April of this year, Gustavo Dudamel, who will become the NY Philharmonic’s music and artistic director in 2026, was a guest conductor at the Spring Gala for the YPC centennial celebration, which included a performance by a 95-member youth orchestra whose players were chosen by schools in the New York area.

It’s not a prerequisite that the conductor hosts the YPC. But noting Dudamel’s well-known commitment to youth and music education, Padmore is eager to see “what his footprint might be” if he does. “To have the music director equally committed to presenting education programs for young people is pretty unique, especially at this caliber,” says Padmore of YPC and its directors.

Music in All Its Forms

The NY Philharmonic has long invested in education, from within its own halls to New York City schools to community outreach initiatives to platforms throughout the world, and it is part of its mandate to explore the impact of music on society, especially in times of change or turmoil. Going back centuries, says Padmore, musicians and composers dealt with all sides of the human experience.

Consider Shostakovich, who will be featured during the 2024 fall season, and his relation to the Soviet Union under Stalin. “There are so many examples of composers who utilized their skills and creativity to respond to what they were seeing in the world,” says Padmore. “We’re proving to young people that it is in our blood as humans to use the arts, and music specifically, as an outlet to voice how we feel.”

The YPC is pushing that envelope, insisting that “the repertoire be more representative and inclusive, with a broader swath of demographics. For example,” he says, “ensuring that women are represented as composers, also living composers, also composers of color” and, of course, young composers. Even the “very young.” 

From Young to Very Young

In 2005, the NY Philharmonic changed the name of its “Elementary” program for kids aged three to six to the Very Young People’s Concerts. It is a series of 30-minute introductions to music with games, stories, performances, and an effervescent host, dubbed by colleagues (and to her delight) “the Carol Burnett of the Philharmonic,” Rebecca Young, the orchestra’s associate principal violist.

Young is herself a veteran of the Young People’s Concerts, beginning at age two and a half. “It was Leonard Bernstein back then,” says Young. “I remember not so much the music, but his voice and his passion for the music. Yeah, I fell in love.”

She knew then, unequivocally, that she would be a musician and play specifically with the NY Philharmonic, which she joined at age 20, not yet out of Juilliard.

In all seriousness and respect for the music, Young believes it should be fun, “certainly if you want to get kids to be your future audience. I want to give them a treat. I want them to like it so much that they want to come back—that’s all.”

Seems that some of the budding musicians are listening. Occasionally recognized by mothers whose children attended the Very Young series, Young recalls one mom’s story about her kid in the stroller urging, “Mommy, push more allegro.”