The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is often regarded to as the ‘world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers’ and is made up of 164 musicians aged between 13 and 18.

For the past year I have been fortunate enough to be the Principal Trombone of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. This is a position that I feel very privileged to hold. With the orchestra I have performed in venues such as the Bridgewater Hall, the Barbican, and the Royal Festival Hall. In August I will be performing with the orchestra at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall which is something that I am very excited about.

Being a Principal in the National Youth Orchestra means that I have many responsibilities and expectations. My responsibilities include coaching, leadership and pastoral care and I often lead workshops for the trombones especially in the Inspire programme.

The NYO meets for three residential courses a year with the first one happening in late December into early January. This would be my first course at NYO and I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I arrived I met the rest of the trombone section – there are eight of us in total and we come from all over the UK including Northern Ireland, Yorkshire, Wales and Hertfordshire to name a few. We quickly got to know about each other and then we were straight into rehearsals for the concert tour. Tutoring the trombones for the winter course was Katy Jones.

Winter 2018 was NYO’s first venture into opera, with a performance of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Bluebeard’s Castle tells of the legend of Duke Bluebeard, who has a literary history going back many centuries. The first printed version appeared in Charles Perrault's Mother Goose in 1697.

Bartok took the story and composed an opera about an hour in length which only has two singers (Judith and Bluebeard), sang on this occasion by Rinat Shaham and Robert Hayward. The opera is based on the idea that there are seven locked doors in Bluebeard’s vast castle and Judith makes it her mission to open all the doors. As she opens the doors she noticed that each room is drenched in blood and as she opens the final door she finds Bluebeard’s past wives who are trapped in the castle and she realises her tragic fate. Bartok calls for four onstage trombones as well as four offstage trombones who play exclusively as the fifth door is opened to reveal Bluebeard’s kingdom in a triumphant C major outburst.

The performance was conducted by Mark Elder and was staged and directed by opera director Daisy Evans who created the idea that the orchestra was the castle itself. This meant that we were actively involved in actions and responses to the plot. We lifted our instruments above our heads to represent treasure and neon strips of light snaked through the orchestra to show the veins of the castle. The concerts were very well received and we performed at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, and the Barbican, London.

Although Bartok called for eight trombones in his opera, there was little for the brass section to do in the concert overall. The other pieces in the programme were Lyadov’s The Enchanted Lake and Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which meant that we were not needed for all the rehearsals. This led to us spending time playing trombone octets and quartets which really helped us to work as a team and we were even allowed to perform some of the pieces we had worked on before the concerts in the venue’s foyers.

In Spring the orchestra met again for the Easter course at Haileybury College in Hertford. This course was an experiment of sorts as the orchestra was to be split into two separate orchestras which were referred to as the ‘Mass Orchestra’ and ‘NYO Unleashed’. This year marks the centenary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth and the NYO honoured this in their performances. The ‘Mass Orchestra’ performed Bernstein’s Mass conducted by Marin Alsop at the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre where the NYO is a resident orchestra. The trombone section for this project was led by Josh Barber and the trombone tutor for ‘Mass’ was Peter Gane.

The other half of the orchestra were NYO Unleashed and this orchestra also had a strong connection with Bernstein’s centenary. I led the trombone section for this orchestra and the trombone tutor was Christian Jones. The concert was based on Bernstein’s idea of a Young Person’s Concert in which the music was accessible to younger and new audiences and was conducted by Kwamé Ryan who is an NYO alumnus. The programme included Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, John William’s Star Wars and a fusion piece by Mason Bates called Mothership which combined electronic dance music with classical musicians and improvisation.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to perform an improvised solo in this piece along with three other soloists: Patrick Bevan, violin and leader of the NYO 2018; Joe Beadle, accordion; and Luke Walker, steel drum who had travelled from Trinidad and Tobago to be involved in the Easter course. The piece was all about the orchestra being a large spaceship floating in space and one by one each of the soloists ‘docked’ at the ship bringing with them new ideas and sounds. The electronic sounds created a sense that the ship was alive.

NYO Unleashed was directed by Karen Gillingham and it was an interactive concert. We began the concert with various flashmobs in the foyers and we also had the opportunity to talk to members of the audience before the concert officially began. This allowed us to talk about NYO face to face with people of all ages and add a more personal touch to the concert experience. We then entered the auditorium in a carnival like procession with extracts taken from West Side Story. This really created a fun and inviting atmosphere which continued throughout the concert with members of the orchestra introducing each piece.

One of the great things about the National Youth Orchestra is the NYO Inspire programme. NYO Inspire is a fairly new inclusion and access programme which provides free opportunities to grade 6 plus teenage musicians to develop their orchestral playing. Through in-depth workshops, rehearsals, and public performances, NYO Inspire events offer the opportunity to develop ensemble playing skills, meet enthusiastic musicians from across the country, and work closely with NYO Musicians and Tutors in a friendly and creative environment. NYO Inspire events happen throughout the year in locations all over the country and all NYO musicians will take part in them at one point in the year.

I was lucky to be involved in a part of NYO Inspire called Play the School. This project involved a reduced orchestra going to schools in London in the hope that we could inspire and motivate young musicians and non-musicians alike. I found this project incredibly enriching as I truly felt like I was making a difference to these young people’s musical journeys. In times when music education in the UK is struggling projects like these are so important and needed as they show how music can change people’s lives.

NYO provides many opportunities to work with inspiring musicians and conductors and in May I was involved in a project called ‘Tuning into Change’ which was a partnership between many youth organisations such as the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) and Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning.

The aim of ‘Tuning into Change’ was to create something completely led by the voice of the youth. A Youth Manifesto for the Arts was created and was launched at an open rehearsal with Gustavo Dudamel on 4 May 2018 and many members of the NYO were involved in this including me and there were also many inspire musicians. There were eight trombones in total and this project was the biggest Inspire project the NYO has ever done. It was a great experience to be conducted by Dudamel and we performed the European premiere of Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 9.

This August the NYO will be performing at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the summer concert tour. The programme will include Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Debussy’s La Mer, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand which will be performed by Tamara Stefanovich. The concert will be conducted by George Benjamin and we will also be performing his own composition; Dance Figures.

Joining the NYO has been a fantastic opportunity for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as the Principal Trombone. It has introduced me to some amazing people and I have made new friends that I know will be friends for life. I am extremely proud of the trombone section and am really looking forwards to the summer residency.

NYO Trombones 2018 - Hannah Stell, Josh Barber, Meggie Murphy, Lucy Patterson, Lawrence Schofield, Rhydian Tiddy, Josh Cargill and James McLean.

Photography: Jason Alden

For more information about the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain please visit www.nyo.org.uk

The NYO will be performing at the BBC Proms on 4 August 2018 and the performance will be broadcast on BBC Four on 12 August 2018 and will also be available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days following the broadcast.