After a week of practice and rehearsal at the Wiltshire Music Centre (WMC) in Bradford on Avon, the Wiltshire and Swindon Youth Orchestra (WSYO) played its last two concerts (August 28 & 29) under the auspices of Wiltshire Council.
When the Council abandoned its Music Service for schools (as part of its enforced spending cuts), the Council’s vital £10,000 funding for the WSYO and the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra (WYJO) was cut too.
That cut nearly finished off the county’s two youth orchestras. That would have been disastrous for the reputation of the county – and also for young musicians and their audiences.
When your correspondent looked in on those rehearsals at the WMC, the orchestra was sounding confident and giving its all to Charles Ives’ Second Symphony – enjoying its echoes of American popular tunes and references to great European composers.
The orchestras’ survival was only assured when the WMC came forward to take over the management of both orchestras – and accept the financial risks involved. The new regime started on September 1. Wiltshire Council still supports the WMC with annual funding, but that £10,000 gap must be filled.
Some small economies and a small rise in parents’ subscriptions will not be enough. WMC’s Executive Director, Clare Jack, has already started fundraising: “It’s something people want to support. I am very confident we shall make up the income gap in a sustainable way.”
“I have some sympathy with the Council’s plight as regards the youth orchestras, but they were lucky to find an organisation to take them on.”
One great positive is that the WSYO’s professional and widely respected conductor, Timothy Redmond, has agreed to stay on. Redmond is a regular guest conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, has conducted orchestras around the world, is principal conductor of the Cambridge Philharmonic and also conducts the LSO.
The WSYO’s eight tutor groups – for each of its sections – will also continue. Costs for the conductor and tutors are in part covered by the £17,500 the orchestra will still receive from the county’s Arts Council funded music hub – Wiltshire Music Connect.
Those funds from the hub includes the money to fund WSYO students whose parents cannot afford to pay the subscriptions (£275 a year.)
WMC’s Artistic Director, James Slater, sees real potential in the new arrangement: “We can offer them new opportunities like exploring ways to work with the Centre’s loyal and top flight visiting soloists. It’s an opportunity for the Centre to get more involved in the county’s music education – and to work more actively with the music hub.”
There is a good fit with the Centre’s creative learning programme which has to date concentrated on primary school children – now they can work with teenagers too. The Centre’s creative learning manager, Becky Stothart, now takes on the new role of orchestra manager.
The WSYO has three sessions a year – New Year, Easter and summer each ending with a concert. This summer’s week-long session involved 72 players. The orchestra accepts Grade 7 students – after an audition.
The WYJO (which gets £2,000 from Music Hub funds) has three weekend courses a year, has a Spring concert and has played at the Marlborough Jazz Festival and other venues. This year they have had about twenty players. In 2016 James Slater plans to involve them with the Centre’s first artist in residence – the jazz trombonist Dennis Rollins of BadBone and Co.
Clare Jack has also started to expand the geographical reach of the WSYO beyond the Wiltshire and Swindon of its name – aiming to get the membership up to 80. She has brought in Bath and North East Somerset which has not had a Grade 7 youth orchestra. Connecting with Bath’s schools and Bath’s busy musical life will provide both new talent and new audiences.
But becoming more of a regional orchestra will inevitably mean a change of name. Members rehearsing at WMC last week were asked for their ideas. There were some amusing and some very long-winded suggestions.
The list of initials gets a bit long – especially if any other adjacent counties join. Perhaps a generic ‘Wessex-type’ title would fit.
The WSYO’s next concerts at the Wiltshire Music Centre are on Friday (7.30pm), 1 January and Saturday (3.00pm), 2 January 2016. Timothy Redmond will be conducting a ‘New Year’s Day Viennese Spectacular’ with a selection of Strauss waltzes and polkas, followed by Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with David Adams as leader and soloist. Tickets via the WMC website or 01225 860100
August was wet and cool for holidaymakers – and wet for farmers still trying to finish the grain harvest
