ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how youth music programs can best contribute to young people’s social, emotional, cognitive, and artistic capacities and support youth in contributing to their communities and societies. It aims to define the purpose and goals of music learning throughout the lifespan as human development, discusses innovative approaches to music learning as youth development, and explores the implications of an approach for music learning in the twenty-first century. The book also aims to foster conversations between researchers, music educators, school and community youth music program leaders, parents, university faculty and students, young people, and other stakeholders invested in young people’s development about the purpose and role of music learning in their lives. It provides an ecological view of how different factors and stakeholders can and need to be catalysts to support and expand music learning as youth development.
