National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) has provided music education and performance experience for young musicians throughout Scotland since its formation in 1979.

NYOS runs eight national youth ensembles: The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, The National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland (NCOS), The National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland (NYJOS), Camerata Scotland, NYOS Strings, contemporary music ensemble NYOS Futures, NYJOS Collective, and NYJOS Access.

As well as organising training, intensive rehearsals and national and international concert tours for these orchestras, NYOS is committed to introducing musical experiences to all of Scotland’s young people through workshops in nursery, primary and secondary schools.

NYOS has also a policy of operating a world-wide international student exchange scheme for orchestra members, of commissioning new work particularly from Scottish composers and of producing CDs of selected repertoire.

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, founded in 1979, is the flagship symphony orchestra of NYOS and meets biannually for residential courses in Summer and Winter, with a usually biennial Summer Tour around the UK and Europe. Recent trips have included the young.euro.classic festival in Berlin, as well as performances of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto in Poland and The Netherlands.

NYOS also runs a Repertoire course in the Easter for unsuccessful applicants to develop orchestral technique. Many of these players are invited to join the full orchestra the following year. NYOS has performed with many distinguished conductors over the years, these have included Takuo Yuasa, Garry Walker, Howard Williams and Christopher Adey, as well as a wide range of soloist, including Alexander Baillie, David Pyatt, Jennifer Pike, Janine Jansen, Tedi Papavrami and NYOS alumnus Colin Currie.

Auditions take place in January throughout Scotland, and also in Manchester and London. NYOS' most recent tour featured a programme consisting of MacMillan's Symphony No. 3, Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, and Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. This was conducted by Christoph-Matthias Mueller, with soprano Jane Irwin as soloist in the Mahler. NYOS took this programme first to Perth Concert Hall, before performing at the Sage Gateshead, Worcester Cathedral, and returning to Glasgow for a homecoming concert at the GRCH.

The National Children's Orchestra of Scotland

The National Children's Orchestra of Scotland was founded in 1996 to provide a platform for young musicians aged 8-14 with many proceeding to join the full symphony orchestra. NCOS provides an important means of early musical education and performing experience for the young musicians of Scotland, fortunately assured through support from Standard Life, and numerous members end up playing with the flagship NYOS orchestra once they've reached 14. Performances are given at the annual NYOS Spring Concerts, usually accompanied by performances by Camerata Scotland or NYOS Strings. The most recent project for NCOS featured performances at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, and the GRCH of works by Smetana, Jacobi, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Application forms for NCOS come out in the autumn, and auditions take place in November throughout Scotland.

Camerata Scotland

Camerata Scotland is NYOS's pre-professional chamber orchestra. It was formed in 1992 as a stepping stone for young musicians between performing in The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the music profession, and has given concerts around the UK, Europe, and as far afield as Australia, Japan and Mauritius. Most recently, the orchestra gave performances in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow of a programme featuring a new commission by Scottish composer Rory Boyle for Bassoon and orchestra, entitled "That Blessed Wood". The programme also featured Bach's 3rd Orchestral Suite, and Stravinsky's Suite from Pulcinella, and was conducted by Tecwyn Evans.

NYOS Strings

NYOS Strings evolved from a group of string players of the 2004 National Children's Orchestra of Scotland that was invited to the Tianjin International Children's Culture and Arts Festival in China. Due to its great success, NYOS decided to continue the work of the string ensemble. Today it offers opportunities for the most experienced and talented String players from the youth Orchestra and Camerata Scotland to perform less performed String Orchestra works

NYOS Futures

NYOS Futures, made up of members of Camerata Scotland, studies and performs contemporary chamber music. NYOS Futures concerts are informal performances with the conductor introducing and explaining the music to the audiences.

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland

The first public performance by NYJOS was given at the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling in 1996, although courses had been running for young jazz musicians since 1992. The orchestra has done extremely well recently, selling out at all performances in 2005. The current directors are Andrew Bain (drummer) and pianist Malcolm Edmonstone. Auditions take place in October and November in the isles and in January throughout the rest of Scotland.

NYJOS Access

A new branch of NYJOS was introduced at the 2008 summer Training Orchestra concert. Malcolm and Andrew decided that "Training Orchestra" is not good enough for those young jazz musicians because they were not training for anything, thus has been renamed "NYJOS Access". Their first Tour took place in early March '09 in the Paisley Grammar School to an audience of 400 pupils from across Renfrewshire's secondary schools.

NYJOS Collective

NYOS’ most recent project, NYJOS Collective comprises selected members of The National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland. Essentially a jazz chamber ensemble, NYJOS Collective is a smaller and more flexible arm of the jazz orchestra. Throughout the year the ensemble gives concerts during residencies at a variety of venues around Scotland.

The ensemble offers the more experienced members of The National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland the opportunity to publicly perform their own arrangements, play a wide variety of compositions and lead jazz workshops with members of the community and other jazz ensembles.

NYOS Variations

NYOS Variations is a chamber music project for amateur musicians of all ages and abilities who meet for a week-long residential music break in Scotland. Professional musicians are in residence to guide and advise.

See also

• National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
• National Youth Orchestra of Wales

• Music Schools in Scotland

External links

• NYOS website
• NYOS Variations website

References