Information about CSYO
CSYO, formed 21 years ago, and rapidly establishing
itself as one of the countries leading youth orchestras, has
about a hundred young players whose ages range from 13 to
21 years.
Membership is subject to audition and open to any young players
who live in the Sheffield locality. Most are still at school
but others are at college/university, some training as professional
musicians. The orchestra assembles three times a year during
holiday periods for concentrated training courses with tutors
and conductors of professional standing.
The courses are usually residential and followed by a concert
or concert tour. In the year 2000 David Atherton accepted
the honorary position of President of the City of Sheffield
Youth Orchestra, and we are delighted that he wishes to be
associated with the CSYO. We are grateful that more recently
Matthew Barley has agreed to become our Vice-President.
Conductors of renown have undertaken to rehearse the orchestra
to near professional levels, and have included Christopher
Fry, Michael Brewer, Jonathan Del Mar, Julian Clayton, Adrian
Leaper, Edward Warren, Martyn Brabbins, Sachio Fujioka, Timothy
Reynish and latterly Christopher Gayford. Under the leadership
of Chris Gayford, the orchestra has had unprecedented success.
We are the only Youth Orchestra in the UK to have competed
and reached the finals of the Sainsbury's Youth Orchestra
Concert Series on four successive years, and we have been
a "winner" on two of those occasions.
Soloists of international fame have performed
with the CSYO, including, John Lill, Martin Milner, Anna Markland,
Nigel Kennedy, Peter Donohoe, Hugh Yinney, Peter Cropper,
Bernard Gregor-Smith, Ronan O'Hora, Teresa Cahill, Marat Bisengaliev,
Alexander Baillie, Lesley Garrett, Eleanor Bron, Rhona Fraser,
Robin Leighton-Boyce, Martin Cropper, Matthew Barley and most
recently Mark Gasser.
Concert Venues The orchestra, playing away from
home, has given concerts in Lincoln Cathedral, Buxton, Doncaster,
Huddersfield, Lichfield, North Wales, Ripon Cathedral, York
Minster, Stowe School Chapel, The Barbican and St James' Church
Piccadilly London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In addition to the
many concert engagements in this country, we have toured extensively,
visiting and performing in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia,
Germany, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Spain, France, Italy and
last summer in Croatia
In January 1999 the orchestra played to a capacity
audience at the Barbican, raising funds for Leuka2000, and
moving the Lord Mayor of London, present at the concert, to
acknowledge the CSYO, at a dinner in Sheffield, as "the
finest ambassadors for the City of Sheffield".
August 1999 Hearing them perform Mahler's Symphony
no.5 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer of 1999,
one member of the executive of the National Association of
Youth Orchestra's was moved to comment that, they "did
not think it possible for any Youth Orchestra to play with
such sustained emotional musicianship and skill." During
this 20th Edinburgh Festival of Youth Orchestras, the orchestra
performed in both Edinburgh and at the Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama in Glasgow, and the Glasgow Herald 27/08/99
said:
"… this is no fainthearted bunch….The
intensity of a Mahler symphony (Mahler's Fifth) can also be
a difficult spirit to enter into… the orchestra wasn't
overstretched technically…The concert was one of the
youth festival's triumphs, and something to be proud of."
For further information about CSYO please
visit www.csyo.org.uk
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