Tacoma Youth Symphony Association

In the summer of 1963, the Tacoma Arts for Youth Council, an arts advocacy organization comprised of community volunteers, offered a summer string orchestra program at Pacific Lutheran University. The 28 students who participated fell in love with the experience and asked if the ensemble could continue during the school year. Virginia Morrison, a member of the council, was determined to keep such an opportunity available for Tacoma youth. Mrs. Morrison was born in Tacoma in 1919, and as a student at Lincoln High School, played clarinet in the marching band, orchestra, operettas and musicals. Those experiences clearly impacted her, as she went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Conservatory Diploma in Music Teaching from Whitman College. It was always her dream to start a youth symphony, and having her own children only strengthened that desire. She persuaded a conductor she knew, Dr. Paul Oncley, to volunteer his Saturday mornings for the following school year to rehearse with the new Tacoma Youth Symphony. Rehearsals were held in the new University of Puget Sound music building, and concerts were held at PLU’s Eastvold Auditorium and other local schools. The Tacoma Youth Symphony was born! Mrs. Morrison led the fledgling organization for more than a decade, overseeing significant growth as well as two international tours. Virginia and her husband, Judge E. Albert Morrison, would go on to support the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association for the rest of their lives. The couple had four children, three of whom participated in the Tacoma Youth Symphony. Virginia joked that the Youth Symphony was her fifth child. With such origins, it should come as no surprise that the organization has cultivated a family-like atmosphere. That atmosphere has thrived despite TYSA’s dramatic growth and change in the decades which followed. After Paul Oncley’s initial turn at the podium (1963-1965), the Tacoma Youth Symphony has since been led by a series of illustrious conductor/educators: C. Irvin Wright (1965-1981), Stanley Chappel (1977-1978), Steve Amundson (1980-1981), Harry Davidson (1981-1995), and Dr. Paul-Elliott Cobbs (1996-present).