Since 2012, Youth Music Project (YMP) has been supporting musicians and giving them experience to pursue their passions. Hundreds of students fill its halls as they learn and grow from experienced instructors. 

Offering lessons in musical skills such as singing, fiddling, drumming, and piano, YMP has something for everyone. Travis Magrane, executive director, has been a part of YMP since 2013, when he was hired as an instructor. 

“Think about a big orchestra, and I am a conductor. I try [to] keep the whole orchestra working in concert together,” Magrane said. “You’ve got different groups of individuals that have different responsibilities, and I work with all of those individuals and make sure that we’re all on the same page, in addition to reporting to our board of directors.”

YMP serves around 700 students every week. One part of YMP is its intern program, where they hire high school students to help teach a class of students. Masha Thiel, senior, started taking bass lessons at YMP in eighth grade and is an intern for this program.

 “I hadn’t played any music before, didn’t know how to [read] music, didn’t know what the strings on the bass were, or anything,” Thiel said. “From there, I’ve been able to do things like go on to play in the show harmonic. This year, [I] auditioned for college-based programs and Jazz Studies. My experience with lessons has been pretty full circle; I’ve gotten to be on both sides of the teaching experience at YMP. It’s been really awesome, getting to give back to a place that helped me and, in turn, being able to help other people explore the world through music.”

Students at YMP have a variety of lesson types to choose from, private and group, as well as their extensive summer camp program. Interns assist in those classes and camps.

“The intern roles are important for a couple of reasons. It’s a great opportunity for local teens to come in and have opportunities with music teaching, they basically perform as classroom assistants in a lot of our music programs. They get a chance to see what it’s like to work with kids and to be a music teacher,” Magrane said. “Beyond that, they also get the opportunity to run our monthly Teen Open Mic Nights. They’re doing everything from emceeing to scheduling to checking in to running sound, they’re running a show here in this venue. And then, in the summertime, they’re really instrumental in helping us run our summer camps for kids.” 

Live performances, like the Teen Open Mic Nights, are very important to YMP. In 2025, they had over 125 concerts in their performance space, with over 2000 students performing. 

“It’s one thing to be in your bedroom, practicing, learning [an] instrument. It’s another to get on stage, under the lights, in front of your peers or strangers, and perform,” Magrane said. “The benefits that come from that, that sense of confidence and sense of accomplishment and positive sense of self, is really powerful, and we see it when kids perform again and again.”

This aspect of live performance is something that YMP focuses heavily on. Shannon Wiancko, senior, started at YMP at age five and now works as an intern. 

“These [kids] are the people that are going to be writing [the] songs that will be played on your radio. You’re going to be buying concert tickets to [see] these kids,” Wiancko said. “I think when you see a five-year-old, you’re like, ‘that’s just a five-year-old.’ And it’s like, ‘no, this could be the next Beyoncé.’ You just have to put faith in them, because all these big stars were chosen once.”

Studies have shown the importance of music, as it improves memory and cognitive functions. It can also help improve academic performance, as well as motor function.

“Music lights up the brain in ways that really no other activity does. Anybody that listens to music knows that it can speak to the body, you might want to start dancing. It speaks to the brain,” Magrane said. “And most importantly, in my view, is that it speaks to the heart and its spirit, music that can move you to tears, to laughter, or joy. The other thing that’s really good for kids is that it provides them [with] an outlet. Creative outlets are really important to process changes, transitions, [and] the world. So all these things that we go through as humans day to day, sometimes need a way to get it out, or de-stress, and playing music does that a lot, helps [people] release some stress of the day.”

While music is great for all these skills, it’s also good for something else: interpersonal skills. People can learn to listen to others, to work with them, and grow their confidence and empathy. 

“You can learn literally any skill, I very strongly believe that they’re interpersonal skills, perseverance skills, and literal technical skills,” Thiel said. 

Even if students choose not to continue with music, they can still get these benefits. Even if that benefit is just a supportive environment, YMP wants something advantageous for every student. 

“Our bottom line is [that] we want to create positive musical experiences for kids. Of course, we want them to pursue musically and gain some mastery in musicianship, that’s a big part of what we do,” Magrane said. “But we want to see them have a sense of place, a sense of belonging in the community, to build confidence, and recognize the cause and effect of, when you put effort into something, it often produces results. And you can really see that with music. If you practice week after week, day after day, you can see that. Building some of those intrinsic values into developing youth is really important to us, and that they feel like they have a space.”

The students who put in the work can succeed, like Wiancko, who met her producer through YMP and is now signed with Sucker Lake Records, and releasing music with them.

“[YMP has] supported me in many ways. I’ve taken lessons from pretty much every instructor. They have all helped me with different techniques. A lot of them have helped me on guitar, and others have helped me vocally. There’s a lot of different ways that they have contributed to my artistry in general,” Wiancko said. “Also, the supporting aspect, they’re very positive, they have faith in me, they believe in me when I don’t believe in myself sometimes.”

YMP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with nearly 40% of students taking classes there with support from their tuition assistance fund.

“The heart of our mission is providing access, reducing barriers to access. We believe all these benefits should exist for every kid who wants music in their lives, not just the ones that can afford to pay for it,” Magrane said. “So we make sure to work really hard to not turn anybody away who can’t afford it and provide them assistance to be able to come in. So if you qualify for tuition assistance, you can take lessons between 50% to 100% off, and the vast majority are 100% free. That’s really key to what we do.”

YMP has a Teen Open Mic Night on the first Friday of every month, and not just for students; any and all teens can come to perform, and everyone is welcome to come watch. 

“The world can be a challenging place,” Magrane said. “We try [to] be sort of a light in the community, where people can come in and, regardless of what’s happening in their lives, when they come into this building, that it can all kind of drip away for a minute, and they can just be in this really positive community exploring creativity and music.”

For more information on YMP, you can visit their website.