Community Partnerships
In addition to our school partnerships, Play On Philly regularly partners with arts and community non-profits. These partnerships enrich our students’ musical and creative experiences while also playing a role in strengthening the Philadelphia arts community. Through these partnerships, our young musicians engage with incredible local and national artists and build experiences engaging with the greater community.
POP has partnered with many arts and community non-profits and organizations over the years for annual and special community concerts and projects, including:
ArtWell
Astral Artists
BalletX
Chester Children’s Chorus
Comcast
Commonwealth Youthchoir
Fleisher Art Memorial
Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music
Haverford College
Heights Philadelphia
Mann Center
Mural Arts Philadelphia
Partners for Sacred Places
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Philadelphia Young Playwrights
Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement
Philly Music Fest
Project HOME
Read to Succeed
Swarthmore College
Teaching Artist Training Institute
Temple University
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
WRTI
Partnership Spotlights
Astral Artists (Young At Art Collaboration)
Play On Philly and Astral Artists have collaborated on several community projects and concerts in Philadelphia over the years. Community concerts have included Playing and Preserving in collaboration with Partners for Sacred Places in 2019 and Young At Art, a collaborative project that launched in 2021. The focus of this project is to experience the arts through fresh eyes, seeing new connections through different genres, ages, and stages of artistic development together. Young At Art began as a series of virtual mentoring visits and concerts where Astral Artists and Play On Philly musicians explored music’s relationship with visual art in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia. In 2023, Young At Art explored the interconnection of music and dance through Astral Artists rising professional musicians, Play On Philly musicians, and BalletX emerging dancers in their Dance Fellowship and Dance eXchange Dream Team through a collaborative concert that celebrated the dance music of Latin America and Latinx composers.
BalletX
Through BalletX’s Dance eXchange program, POP Summer Program students have learned and experimented with the basics of choreography, created routines, and performed for peers and families. Learning creative expression through music also supports young musicians in building their internal rhythm. BalletX also provides instruction throughout the school year as part of our Music Center programming at St. Rose of Lima School.
Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (Composing for Young Orchestras Project)
In collaboration with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, the Composing for Young Orchestras Project brings together diverse emerging composers from around the United States to work with our young musicians to create and perform new works of music for youth ensembles, expanding the representation in the cannon of musical pieces written for youth orchestras and beginner ensembles. Premiering at the 2024 and 2025 Jubilee, these new pieces incorporate ideas from POP’s musicians and each composer’s reflection on Philadelphia from their in-person and virtual visits.
The composing for Young Orchestras Project’s lead sponsor is WRTI.
The Composing for Young Orchestras Project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society has proudly partnered with Play On Philly since POP’s beginning in 2011, providing opportunities for POP’s young musicians to perform for world-class chamber musicians in masterclasses, and experience PCMS performances at school and in concert halls. POP provides free access to transformative music education every day to preK-12 students. Engaging with world-class musicians through collaborations with organizations in the community like PCMS provides enriching musical experiences that create inspiring musical role models for POP’s young musicians.
