The Challenge

For many years, the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra (and its affiliated Junior Orchestra) operated as The Ridgefield Symphony Youth Orchestra, an arm of the Ridgefield Symphony, offering youngsters, through high school ages, a chance to receive quality orchestral training and to perform publicly. Increasingly, however, the Youth Orchestra began operating independently, ultimately concluding that it should separate completely from The Ridgefield Symphony. To help it navigate this process, it turned to NESC.

The NESC Solution

The NESC team served as a kind of midwife for the youth orchestra’s rebirth as an independent organization. First the team interviewed the group’s key board members and sent a questionnaire to the full board and all officers to solicit their views on the priorities and operations. Then the NESC team attended and led the group’s initial board meetings, helping streamline the agendas, set priorities and organize committees. With this NESC guidance, the board elected a new chairman, appointed an executive director, adopted a vision statement and by-laws, and crafted a new logo and new name — The Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra.