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Masterprize
Tel: +44 (0)20 7233 0111 Masterprize site designed by Room101 Ltd |
BEDFORDSHIRE COUNTY YOUTH SECOND ORCHESTRA
Conductor Ian Smith
Musically, Bedfordshire is a very lively county with five county orchestras, three county concert bands, two county choirs, two county percussion ensembles, a county jazz ensemble, and a county youth opera. The County Youth Second Orchestra, whose membership ranges in age from 12-19, draws its members from the whole of the county (and from Luton and Milton Keynes, with whom it works in partnership). Entry is by audition, and in due course most of the members progress, again through audition, to the County Youth Orchestra.
The orchestra meets three times a year, in every main school holiday, for intensive rehearsals. Each course ends with a concert. These concerts are usually given at The Corn Exchange in Bedford, but other venues have also included the Royal Albert Hall, Compiegne in France, and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The orchestra regularly plays at the National Association of Youth Orchestras "Festival of British Youth Orchestras" in Edinburgh, which is part of the Edinburgh Festival.
The orchestra has a policy of including contemporary music in their programming. Indeed, the programming covers a wide variety of styles of music. Their conductor for the last 19 years has been Ian Smith, who is currently Head of the County Youth Music and Arts Service for Bedfordshire.
BROMLEY YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conductor Peter Mawson
The Bromley Youth Symphony Orchestra is the flagship of the many and varied ensembles meeting on a regular basis in the borough. The orchestra rehearses every Sunday morning during term time, and performs works from the major symphonic and choral repertoire.
It has worked with many eminent soloists, including Hugh Seenan (Horn), Adrian Thompson (Tenor) and Lionel Handy (Cello) and with conductors such as John Georgiadis, James Lockhart and Wayne Marshall.
The highlight of their present season was a performance of Britten's "War Requiem" in the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, which was received with great acclaim.
Conductor Peter Mawson was born in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. He took up the trombone almost by accident at the age of 11 and later studied at the Royal College of Music. After this he was a trombonist in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Five years later, Peter turned his enthusiasm to education, and joined the London Borough of Bromley in 1976 as a senior brass teacher. He is now the Principal of the Bromley Youth Music Trust, which is the independent instrumental service for the London Borough of Bromley and divides his time between administration, teaching, coaching and conducting.
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Conductor Nick Wilks
The Hampshire County Youth Orchestra gives the best of the county's young orchestral players the opportunity to perform in a full symphony orchestra. Formed in 1971 by Edgar Holmes, the orchestra performs several times a year in a wide range of concert venues both in Hampshire and further afield.
The Hampshire County Youth Orchestra consists of around 110 players who are drawn from schools all over the county. Yearly auditions take place, and new members are welcomed into the orchestra each September. Rehearsals are held on a fortnightly basis, and the orchestra holds a residential course during the Easter holiday at Bryanston School, Dorset.
Throughout the year players receive expert coaching from professional musicians, and an association with the London Symphony Orchestra began in 1998.
In addition to the HCYO, the Hampshire County Youth Chamber Orchestra extends the range of playing opportunities to members in terms of both repertoire and venues. Two further performing groups for wind and string players act as training orchestras, each having its own conductor and team of tutors.
The Hampshire County Youth Orchestra's Director of Music is Nicholas Wilks, who was appointed in September 1996. He is currently Musical Director of New Youth Opera, the Finchley Children's Music Group and the Haringey Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also studied the clarinet, he has conducted a number of first performances, including works by Howard Goodall, Christopher Gunning, Roderick Skeaping, Alan Mills and Brian Chapple. In May 1997 he worked with Sir Colin Davis and the composer Piers Hellawell on the premiere of Hellawell's "Do Not Disturb", written for the Finchley Children's Music Group and commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra as part of their education project, "Discovery". He has broadcast on Classic FM, BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, the World Service and BBC television. His recordings of Britten's "Noye's Fludde" (recently recommended by BBC Music Magazine) and "A Ceremony of Carols" with the Finchley Children's Music Group were released by Somm Records in December 1997. His most recent project is a series of recordings of Jewish American music for the Milken Archive. In July 2000 he made his conducting debut at the BBC Proms with the premiere of Alec Roth's "Earth and Sky", commissioned by the BBC for the Finchley Children's Music Group, Ensemble Bash and Joanna MacGregor. Recent work has included a series of concerts with the Channel Islands Youth Orchestra in March and Weber's "Der Freischütz" in London. He will also be touring Chile with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra.
LEICESTERSHIRE SCHOOLS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conductor Russell Parry
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1948 by the county's first music adviser, the late Eric Pinkett OBE. With the support of Leicestershire's education committee, the orchestra quickly established itself as one of the very best of its kind. Early associations with leading guest conductors, soloists and composers, brought the LSSO to the attention of the world of professional music. Sir Michael Tippett regularly visited the LSSO as guest conductor and toured with the orchestra to Belgium and Germany. He wrote "The Shires Suite" for the LSSO as a result of this association, and until his death was the orchestra's Patron.
The orchestra has always been at the forefront of the British youth orchestra movement. Its development, together with a supporting staff of specialist instrumental tutors, has set a model which many other cities and counties have followed. The link with new music has remained a trademark, and the LSSO now has a proud record of world and British premiere performances to its credit. For almost fifty years, the orchestra has also toured abroad each summer playing in many of the great cities and concert halls of Europe. Recent foreign tours have included visits to Italy, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic. The orchestra has also performed as part of the National Association of Youth Orchestras at the Edinburgh Festival.
During the last five years the orchestra has undertaken joint concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra. This includes a world premiere performance of "Savannah, Concerto for Two Orchestras and Percussion" by Tunde Jegede with percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The orchestra were also winners of a Sainsbury's Youth Orchestra Series award.
Russell Parry has been conductor and Head of Instrumental Tuition of the LSSO since 1997. His studies as a flautist at the Royal College of Music in London culminated in a performance as soloist in the Ibert Flute Concerto at the Guildhall in London. This performance led to a successful audition for founder membership of the Ulster Orchestra.
After nine years with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, an inner need to become more involved with music education took over, and 2001 was his twentieth year in Leicestershire, where he started as flute teacher and has gradually become more involved with the county's many young people's performance groups.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNTY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Conductor Peter Dunkley
Northamptonshire County Youth Orchestra has developed a reputation as one of England's most outstanding youth orchestras, having won numerous national awards for the quality of its performances.
Administered as part of the area's Music and Performing Arts Service, a department of Northamptonshire's Education and Community Learning Service, the ensemble is the most senior of the county's three full symphony orchestras, three concert wind bands, three brass bands, four choirs, numerous chamber groups and four jazz groups. All the orchestra's members are of school age (13 &emdash; 19 years) and the orchestra meets for rehearsals every Saturday morning of the school year at a central County Music Centre in Northampton. Members are auditioned annually.
Most of the students play their instrument as a hobby, but many have gone on to pursue a career in music, some as principals of England's most prestigious national orchestras.
The orchestra maintains a very full schedule. Recent events have included tours to Finland, Belarus and Poland, and concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and their own local concert hall, Northampton's Derngate Theatre. The orchestra performs a demanding and varied repertoire and regularly works with professional soloists, most recently performing Vaughan Williams' "Oboe Concerto" with soloist Liz Couling, winner of BBC's Young Musician of the Year Woodwind Prize in 2000 and a former member of the orchestra.
In July 1999 the orchestra performed at the National Festival of Music for Youth at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and subsequently as part of a grand choral production including 600 performers at the last night of the Schools Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. Following an award at the 2000 Festival, the orchestra was delighted to be invited again to play at the Schools Proms on 6 November 2000.
The orchestra regularly tours abroad, and has recently returned from Finland where the orchestra played to great acclaim. Repertoire on this occasion was particularly, though not exclusively, well known English composers such as Elgar, Arnold and Vaughan Williams.
SUFFOLK YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Conductor Philip Shaw
The flagship of Suffolk County Council's extensive programme of youth music opportunities, the Suffolk Youth Orchestra, led by Susie Watson, is a full symphony orchestra of 90 players, all between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one years. It ranks among the finest of its type in the UK.
As well as appearing in prestigious venues at home, including annual visits to the Snape Proms, the orchestra has toured extensively in mainland Europe. It was the resident orchestra for the nationally acclaimed National Youth Music Theatre production of Richard Taylor's "Creation", which was performed in major UK cathedrals, and of which Richard Morrison wrote in The Times "Suffolk Youth Orchestra plays magnificently". The orchestra is proud to have been showcased in Sainsbury's Young Classics, broadcast on Classic FM in May 2000. It has for two consecutive years earned a "highly commended" award in the National Festival of Music for Youth at the Royal Festival Hall, leading to a memorable performance in the Schools Prom Series in November 2000 at the Royal Albert Hall.
The orchestra has recently undertaken a concert tour to the Liguria region of Italy, and performed in the prestigious Snape Proms series in August.
Philip Shaw was appointed Senior County Music Adviser to Suffolk County Council in 1987, following education in Bradford, Nottingham and Manchester and extensive experience as a performer, teacher and community musician. As conductor and director he has worked with ensembles of every size, style and age, from big band to symphony orchestra, in theatres and concert halls in Britain and abroad. Under his musical leadership, the County of Suffolk has established an enviable reputation for the quality and breadth of opportunity available to its young musicians.
SURREY COUNTY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Conductor Keith Willis
Surrey County Youth Orchestra (SCYO), formed in 1967, is a full symphony orchestra, comprising around 100 instrumentalists from all parts of Surrey, and performs a varied repertoire from the 18th to 21st centuries. The orchestra, conducted by Keith Willis, rehearses each week during term-time and is tutored by a team of teachers and professional musicians.
The orchestra aims to give one or two concerts each term, performing regularly at The Harlequin in Redhill, Dorking Halls, Epsom Playhouse and Guildford Civic Hall, as well as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Its reputation has steadily increased as the result of very successful concerts under the baton of a number of conductors including Sir Charles Groves and Anthony Hopkins. Concerto performances have taken place with John Lill, Jack Brymer, Robert Cohen, Julian Lloyd Webber, Crispian Steele-Perkins, The Chillingirian Quartet, Michael Collins and Emma Johnson, as well as gifted students from the Yehudi Menuhin School and the London Music Colleges.
As part of the Sainsbury's Youth Orchestra series, SCYO was one of just five youth orchestras from all over Britain to be selected to present Sainsbury's Young Classics Concerts, recorded by Classic FM and broadcast in May 2000.
In December 2000, SCYO joined the Surrey Massed Choirs of 2000 young voices along with other Surrey County ensembles at the Surrey Youth Music & Performing Arts gala concert "Out with a Bang" at the Royal Albert Hall. Biannual overseas tours are an integral part of the Orchestra's activities, with the latest being a tour to Berlin, Vienna and Prague in July 2000.
Young people who wish to study music seriously have found the intensive professional coaching available in the orchestra invaluable. An increasing number are now finding their way into the music profession, a few as soloists and recitalists, others as members of leading orchestras and many more as instrumental teachers in universities, colleges and schools. The SCYO includes several National Youth Orchestra players and former members have auditioned successfully for the European Union Youth Orchestra.