Youth Orchestra tuning up for national performance
REHEARSALS are already under way as County Wexford Youth Orchestra prepare for a trip to the 22nd Festival of Youth Orchestras in the National Concert Hall, Dublin in February.
The Wexford musicians are one of eight orchestras invited to perform at a concert on Saturday night, February 11.
The orchestra are preparing a fantastic programme including a piece for Uileann Pipes and orchestra by the Irish composer Neil Martin with the well-known Gorey Uileann piper Mark Redmond as soloist and performances of the Romeo and Juliet Overture and the Forrest Gump Suite.
The festival will see over 400 young players from around Ireland perform classical works and arrangements for youth orchestra in a variety of styles. Programmes from the other orchestras will include A Celtic Suite, Lord of the Dance, Farandole by Bizet, Slavonic Dance by Dvorak, Suite for Strings for Joan Trimble and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bare Mountain.
The Festival of Youth Orchestras is an annual showcase of the very best in youth orchestras around the country and this year it will feature County Wexford Youth Orchestra; St. Ultan’s Senior Strings; Newpark Junior Strings; DIT Sinfonietta; Limerick School of Music Orchestra, Kerry School of Music Orchestra; Irish Midlands Youth Orchestra, and Athenry Youth Orchestra.
Tickets are on sale from the National Concert Hall box office or online from www.nch.ie.
The Irish Association of Youth Orchestras is the national support and resource organisation for youth orchestras in Ireland. Membership of the Association is open to all youth orchestras in Ireland, whether linked to a school, a school of music, a college or university, or to an independent or community-based organisation.
The association represents over 5,000 young musicians in 108 youth orchestras in Ireland and assists in the development of youth orchestras in all parts of the country.