Youth Orchestra Participation and the Potential Support for Player Resilience: : Conductor–Music Educator Perspectives

Resilience is a key capacity for coping with challenges and adversities. With increased reporting of anxiety and depression among young people in Australia, finding effective strategies to help bolster resilience is an imperative. Community youth music organizations, such as youth orchestras, play a unique social, cultural, and educational role and are well placed to foster the development of resilience in young musicians. Drawing on research conducted in collaboration with Tasmanian Youth Orchestras, this article explores how conductors in such organizations have the potential to enable the development of resilience in young musicians through specific educational practices. The findings shed light on the importance of the non-performative activities of conductors: repertoire selection, planning for engagement and inclusion, knowing individuals, and providing feedback in safe, supportive ways. These all feature strongly in conductors’ work and have clear potential to enhance the skills associated with player resilience.