ISYM Celebrates 75 Years of Musical Excellence

Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Each summer, ISYM brings over 1,000 students and 150 faculty and staff to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus for three weeks of intensive music tuition. Students can choose from 20 different programs, from large ensembles to solo instruments and even music technology and hip-hop. Programs are offered to meet the needs of students of various abilities and experience levels, with junior, senior, and pre-college divisions, ensuring there are options for everyone, from relative beginners to aspiring professionals.

While on campus, students get a taste of life at a Big Ten university, staying in dorms and eating at college dining halls near the School of Music and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Most participants hail from Illinois, but some come from farther afield, even traveling internationally to attend. Local students also have the option to participate as “commuters,” paying reduced tuition while residing at home instead of in the dorms.

In addition to daily rehearsals, lessons, masterclasses, and coachings, students enjoy faculty performances and recreation activities in the evening. Participants also choose from an extensive list of electives to round out their experience. These courses build skills essential for any aspiring musician or music teacher, such as beginning piano, conducting, music theory, and guitar, as well as practical behind-the-scenes skills like music technology and coding and sound recording and editing. Yoga is also offered to promote breath control, bodily alignment, and stress relief.

School of Music professors and graduate students as well as leading music educators from across the country serve as ISYM faculty. Counseling staff are often also young music educators themselves, enrolled in the summers-only Master of Music Education program at the university.

The mission of ISYM is to “provide each student a safe yet challenging environment where they may experience music-making with other highly motivated musicians from across the state of Illinois and beyond.” But the impact of ISYM reaches beyond just the enrolled students; the young musicians return home armed with what they have learned, enriching the music programs at their own schools and programs.

Over its 75 years, ISYM has produced tens of thousands of alumni, many of whom go on to become professional musicians and music educators or passionate avocational players. Some even return to the University of Illinois for college after the experience. Examples of prominent alumni include Kevin Geraldi, current Director of Bands at the University of Illinois, and John Hagstrom, second trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Scholarships are offered by numerous local service organizations, booster clubs, and individuals to ensure ISYM is accessible to as many students as possible. Plus, in honor of the 75th anniversary, ISYM has reduced fees for many of its programs this year.

ISYM has expanded and evolved since its inaugural year in 1949. An extension of the university’s summer session, the first ISYM began with a two-week residency of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra augmented by additional area music students. The next week brought together orchestral musicians from some of the state’s smallest schools, followed by a two-week choral session.

The last two weeks were supposed to be for the ISYM band, culminating in a performance at the state fair. However, a spike in polio cases shut down the course. On July 30, the day before the band session was due to begin, University of Illinois Provost Coleman R. Griffith announced, “In the interests of public health and safety and in cooperation with other public agencies, all group meetings of children of ages 16 or less under the supervision of the University will be suspended immediately and until further notice.” Other summer camps were canceled, public pools and parks were closed, and parents were encouraged to keep their kids away from densely populated areas.

Until the polio vaccine was made available in 1955, the late 1940s and early 1950s saw upticks in polio cases each summer. ISYM’s inaugural year was especially bad, with 42,173 cases and 2,720 deaths in the United States, including 22 in Illinois in July alone. Fortunately, ISYM was able to continue during subsequent summers until, of course, 2020.

ISYM’s early years focused on junior and senior orchestra, choir, and band. In 1956, solo piano and violin programs were added. By that year, enrollment had already grown to 700 kids. Ensembles rehearsed and performed outside in a canvas tent nicknamed “the big top,” located in Illini Grove north of Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall.

Over the years, more programs have been added to meet the needs and goals of today's young musicians. This has meant expanding programs to include nonclassical genres, such as hip-hop, rock ‘n roll, and electric strings, as well as offering courses in music technology to prepare students for careers in music in the 21st century.

ISYM 2024 is already in session. For a schedule of final concerts, see ISYM’s website. If a child you know is interested in taking part in a future ISYM course, keep an eye out in early 2025 for registration details.