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It began with a father who rewrote the music instead of turning children away.

Dr. Hiao-Tsiun Ma fled China in 1936, settled his family in New York, and founded the Children’s Orchestra Society there in 1962. His first two students were his own children. One of them still runs the place.
The film

Six decades, told by the people who lived them.

Seven minutes, filmed for the 50th anniversary. Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma and Michael Dadap on the founding, the seven dormant years, the $2,500 that restarted it, and what they were trying to build. Almost everything quoted on this site comes from here.
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COS 50th Anniversary
Jump to a moment:
0:25 · The founder’s idea
0:58 · Seven years without an orchestra
1:24 · “This better run”
2:00 · Playing with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma
2:55 · Why musicianship exists
3:25 · Chamber music, and the language on stage
4:36 · The alumni come back
5:22 · Why COS needs an endowment
5:54 · What music does for a child
Gold Winner, 2020 NYX Awards, Non-Broadcast / Nonprofit. Produced by Nimble Dragon Studios. Directed by Nuby DeLeon, shot by Jeffrey Castro.
1962

He wrote parts instead of holding auditions.

Dr. Hiao-Tsiun Ma was a violinist, composer, and musicologist. He faced the problem every children’s orchestra faces: the players are never at the same level. Instead of filtering the children, he rewrote the music. A child who could play one note got a part with one note in it, and that note mattered to the piece.
His daughter Yeou-Cheng, born in Paris, and his son Yo-Yo were the first students. Months after the founding, seven-year-old Yo-Yo and eleven-year-old Yeou-Cheng performed for President John F. Kennedy and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower at “An American Pageant of the Arts,” introduced by Leonard Bernstein. Yeou-Cheng gave her first public performance at seven, and played piano with her brother for over a decade.
1977 to 1984

Seven years when there was no orchestra.

Dr. H.T. Ma conducted until he retired in 1977 and returned to Taiwan. COS went dormant and stayed that way for seven years.
Michael Dadap, a Filipino guitarist, composer, and conductor, had come to New York in 1971 to study at Mannes and Juilliard. He met Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma in 1981 and told her he wanted to start a children’s orchestra, which was the same orchestra her father had already built. In 1984 the two of them restarted COS with $2,500 and eighteen students, and had a concert on stage by December. They have led it together ever since.
When COS marked its 50th anniversary in 2019, it was counting operating years, not calendar ones: fifteen under the founder plus thirty-five since the revival. By that same count the program has now been teaching for 57 years.
All the money we had in the bank was $2,500, so we put it all in the name of the orchestra. And I looked at Michael and said, this better run, because now we don’t have mortgage for next month.
Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma, from the COS 50th Anniversary film
The long version

Sixty-four years, in order.

Milestone
Year
Founded in New York City by Dr. Hiao-Tsiun Ma
1962
Dr. H.T. Ma retires and the orchestra goes dormant
1977
Michael Dadap and Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma meet
1981
COS restarts with $2,500 and eighteen students
1984
The Young Symphonic Ensemble is established
1990
The Discovery Competition is established
1993
Discovery Concert Series begins at Alice Tully Hall; Olivia Martinez is the first winner
1995
Carnegie Hall debut with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson
2007
Yo-Yo Ma stages a private concert during the financial crisis
2008
50th Anniversary Discovery Gala at Carnegie Hall with Ray Chen
2019
Permanent Long Island home at the Community Church of Syosset
2021
Three-week tour of the Philippines and Taiwan
2025
Twice nearly lost

The organization keeps being saved by the people it taught.

When the market crashed in 2008 and arts organizations were failing nationwide, Yo-Yo Ma staged a private concert to raise the funds that kept COS going. When the pandemic closed the building, the faculty taught remotely for sixteen months, and the orchestra returned to Lincoln Center in June 2022 with News 12 Long Island there to cover it. The Long Island Herald has named COS the best music school on Long Island.
Leadership

A physician and a composer, forty-two years in.

Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma, M.D.

Executive Director since 1984. A graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School, she works with children with developmental disorders at the Kennedy Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, and has served as Medical Director of the Mount Vernon School District. She holds an honorary doctorate from St. Joseph’s College and was named a Woman of Distinction by the Queens Historical Society, in an exhibit alongside Betty Friedan and Helen Keller. She lectures internationally on music and healing, and still teaches here on Saturdays.

Michael Dadap

Artistic Director and Principal Conductor since 1984. Born in the Philippines and trained in philosophy at the University of the Philippines before studying music at Mannes and Juilliard. He received the Artist of the Year Award from the Flushing Council on the Arts in 2000, and the Philippine Presidential Award, Pamana ng Lahi, from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006. His compositions have been performed internationally.
The board is chaired by Loida Nicolas Lewis. Past members have included Dr. Maclyn McCarty, who co-discovered that DNA carries genetic material, and Janet Avery Fisher.
Where they went

Some of the children who sat in these chairs.

Alumni have earned the Avery Fisher Prize, Naumburg Awards, and the Young Artist International Award.
Alumnus
Where they went
Yo-Yo Ma
Cellist, 19-time Grammy winner, Presidential Medal of Freedom
Astrid Schween
Cellist of the Juilliard Quartet
Caroline Kennedy
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and Australia
Antony Rudel
Station Manager at WCRB-FM/WGBH, Boston
Kevin Shue
Violinist praised by The New York Times, now COS faculty
Rabbi Shira Stern
Religious leader and community advocate
Jordan Bak
Violist, returned as soloist for the 50th Anniversary concert
Olivia Martinez
First Discovery Competition winner, now COS faculty

Sixty-four years later, the method hasn’t changed.

Bring us your beginner. We will write them a part.
Start with an audition