Young Musicians Wanted

- Thu 29th May 2003

Hampshire County Council's award-winning Youth Orchestra is looking for ambitious young musicians to join the group from September.




Auditions by the Music Service for one of the county's leading youth orchestras, which performs a variety of music from classical to contemporary, are being held in Winchester throughout June. Anyone interested in taking part should be under 19 years, be of a standard equivalent between grade 5 and 8, and live in, or be in full time education in Hampshire.The orchestra and its two training orchestras regularly perform all over Hampshire and London. They have also undertaken tours as far away as Chile, South Africa, Poland and Italy. The orchestra has won a number of national awards recently including an Outstanding Performance award at the National Festival of Music for Youth, and been a part of a series of broadcasts on Classic FM under the auspices of Sainsbury's Youth Orchestra Series.




The Orchestra also has permanent associations with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has been selected to take part in `Masterprize', the prestigious international composers' competition being held at the Barbican, London.




As well as running a full symphony orchestra, the youth orchestra, which recently moved into its exciting new home - the purpose-built concert hall at Thornden School, Chandler's Ford - has its own string and wind orchestras and a recently formed double reed ensemble.




Hampshire County Council's Executive Member for Education, Councillor Don Allen, said: 'Hampshire County Youth Orchestra is full of extremely talented musicians who have achieved great success and national recognition, and I always thoroughly enjoy listening to the accomplished music they produce. They are a credit to our Music Service and I hope many youngsters will choose to audition so the orchestra can continue its tradition of being one of the top youth orchestras in the country.'




Auditions must be pre-arranged before the end of May. Application forms for the auditions can be downloaded from www.hants.gov.uk/hcyo or requested by contacting Hampshire Music Service on 01962 861502.

By forum user, Mat