Youth Programs
The Grande Ronde Symphony supports several youth programs. These programs introduce music and instruments to students from second grade into college. We support efforts across Eastern Oregon to support live music, music instruction, and opportunities for these students to perform.
Without an investment in youth music programs, the Grande Ronde Symphony and other music organizations would not be what they are today.
String Instrument Introduction
Each year, musicians from the Grande Ronde Symphony volunteer to introduce stringed instruments to second grade students in the La Grande School District.
Conducted in May of each year, a strings’ “petting zoo” offers second grade students an opportunity to hold and explore violins, violas, cellos and basses. Volunteers introduce the instruments and show students how to hold the instrument and encourage them to use the bows of the instruments with the instruments to create sound.
Fiddle Club
Fiddle Club is available for 3rd through 6th grade students as an after-school program offered in conjunction with the La Grande School District. These clubs occur at the Central Elementary School and are for beginning students who want to learn a stringed instrument and graduating to various higher levels of proficiency. Students can learn to play an instrument (violin, viola, cello, bass and sometimes other instruments) in this after-school program offered and funded by the La Grande School District.
Carla Arnold (fiddle, guitar, mandolin) is a retired Elementary Music Teacher having been with the La Grande School District for the past 29 years. As an Orff levels certified general music teacher , she created and built the after-school fiddle clubs for the La Grande School District.
In 2026 Jacie Sites will take on the directorship of the Fiddle Club, along with becoming the Music Director for the Grande Ronde Jr Symphony, sponsored by the Grande Ronde Symphony Association. Ms. Sites is a five-time National Fiddle Champion and is very excited to work these young musicians. Jacie is known for her expressive playing and deep commitment to traditional music, but she is classically trained in the violin and the cello.
