Membership Fee & Volunteer Hours
Membership Fees
MAYSO is partially funded through membership fees. This covers approximately one third of the annual budget of the organization. Scholarships are available for students who might be prevented from participating due to fees (please see below). Fees are based on one year of membership (Fall & Spring session). For one semester the fee is half the cost. Fundraising is available to all students and funds earned go directly towards students accounts to lower cost of tuition. All students are asked to volunteer and hours are based on your group with no more than four hours total required.
Tuition rates are:
Youth Symphony Orchestra
$360 (Fall & Winter session)
$180 (one session)
Youth Philharmonic
$260 (Fall & Winter session)
$130 (one session)
North Star Strings
$160 (Fall & Winter session)
$80 (one session)
Play a secondary instrument in NSS
$60 (Fall & Winter session)
$30 (one semester)
Payments by cash or check (payable to MAYSO) may be submitted at rehearsals.
Pops Session
New for the 2024-2025 season, Pops Session will be free for any student interested in participating.
Volunteer Hours
MAYSO relies on volunteers for many of its operational needs. Therefore, volunteer time is required of each participating family. Volunteer hour requirements are per family, not per student or per ensemble. Those families with students in more than one ensemble are responsible for the greatest number of volunteer hours. All volunteer hours must be recorded on the MAYSO website.
Required Volunteer Hours:
Youth Symphony Orchestra - 4 hours per year
North Star Strings - 2 hours per year
Volunteer hours are pro-rated if a student is enrolled for only one semester.
A buyout of volunteer hours is available at the rate of $25 per hour (for example, if you feel you can only donate two hours and have a student in YSO, you can pay an additional $50). If volunteer hours are not completed by the end of the season, you will be billed for buy-out of those uncompleted hours.
All scholarship student families are asked to volunteer an additional two hours per year to the organization. Tuition Scholarship students are required to fundraise in the Fall and Winter. If volunteer hours and/or fundraising is not completed, the student will not be eligible for further scholarships.