youth orchestra

[filmmaker]

Does anyone know of a youth orchestra in the area. My son plays the violin and is keen to join an orchestra. please let me kmnow if you know of one.

[apenn]

How old is your son? I am a member of an orchestra is Streatham that rehearses on Monday nights. It's a community orchestra not a youth orchestra, but we have had players as young as 16.

[filmmaker]

My son is 10, is that too young for an orchestra. He's very keen, which normally goes along way in my book.

[east-of-the-Rye]

Hi,

I got this from an email group at Ivydale School, that I'm still on, even though my boys have left.

"The music service is going to be starting an orchestra for grade 5 standard pupils and above in the school holidays starting on 1st and 2nd June during half term - there will be a further 3 day course during the summer holidays. They have provisional permission to run this at St Thomas the Apostle School in Peckham."

There was no telephone number given, but the Music Service is, I think run by Southwark Education Department, so you could try them. Or ring St Thomas the Apostle and ask for the contact who is booking their premises at Half Term.

My other thought, which you've probably had already, is to ask the music teacher at his school, or his own violin teacher?

Good luck.

[apenn]

If he could play at least grade 5 it might be OK. We always need violins! I could check with the conductor. Rehearsals are on Monday nights from 8-10PM though. Is that too late for a 10 year old?

-A

[Smiler]

As east-of-the-rye says, the local authority normally co-ordinates youth music groups.

Have many fond memories of youth orchestras etc. when I was at school - in my area (up north) there were all kinds of groups for kids, from beginners through to grade 8 and beyond, they mainly rehearsed on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, sometimes in holidays. We did concerts and trips in the UK and abroad. Have still got good friends from that time.

Maybe if Southwark don't run anything, it'd be worth checking out the neighbouring boroughs.

[filmmaker]

Hi A

He has violin lessons on monday and then he goes to cubs,and yes I think 10pm would be too late for him.

[Yak]

There's Morley college up at Waterloo which runs a whole host of music courses throughout the week and at weekends too - I think Southwark might also use it as their base for their music tuition too. From a quick flick through the guide, there's an elementary string group which rehearses on Saturday mornings which seems to be aimed at getting musicians used to ensemble / orchestral playing - see link here.

Good luck to you and your son!

[sian]

Also try Dulwich Youth Orchestra http://www.dyodulwich.com/

[westof]

JAGS has a Saturday school for music which might have something suitable. [http://www.jags.org.uk/jacmc/music/]

Lambeth has Lambeth Music Service which runs various ensembles for children [http://www.lambethmusic.co.uk/about_us/our_aims.asp] but I think you may have to live in Lambeth to access this - maybe Southwark has something similar though?

I think the borough music services feed in to Morley which is London Centre for Young Musicians, so they may know about provision in Southwark.

[east-of-the-Rye]

Had another thought: Camberwell Choir School isn't a choir and isn't a school, (though it is in Camberwell) more a music project. There are a number of groups for children of different ages, the website shows lots of small children playing percussion, but the groups for older children play some great music. My son went there as a toddler, then as a junior school child, and now helps as a volunteer.

http://www.camberwellchoirschool.org.uk/

[snowqueen]

My daughter has joined the Southwark Youth Orchestra (not to be confused with the South London Youth Orchestra). It's free, which is great and meets in summer hols/half terms. It's quite new, only got going this year, has a grade 4/5 entry level and is relatively low key, compared to say the Dulwich Youth Orchestra, which she has also tried and enjoyed but found more demanding. For info on the Southwark Youth Orchestra email: [email protected] or I think the Dulwich Youth Orchestra is also good - don't have the email to hand, but they have a website if you google them. They also meet in the summer hols but they are not free though. Good Luck!

[nickyp]

The Centre for Young Musicians has several different places which may be a good starting point:

http://www.cym.org.uk/contact/locals.php