Past Events

Summer Residential Course and Concerts 2022

Workshop and Concert with 

Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble 

Sunday, 10th April 2022

A workshop held earlier in the day (not open to the public), will see HRSE team up with some of the talented players of the Ulster Youth Orchestra to explore repertoire for an unspecified group of instruments. This year the combined forces of HRSE and UYO will perform Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s iconic piece ‘Workers Union’ from 1975. The concert will also include works by Michael Nyman and Amoret Abis.

This serves as a taster session, in terms of the performance of contemporary music, for the UYO musicians and we hope that the experience in many cases could be truly transformative. As the young musicians are asked to volunteer to participate in the workshop, the material performed will be flexible enough to accommodate any number of players, for any instrument of any transposition. It is a challenge, and one that both HRSE and UYO will certainly rise to as in previous years.

Join us in performance at 7.30pm for an unmissable experience, and one that will leave you confident in the knowledge that our next generation of new music performers is on its way.

PROGRAMME

WORKERS UNION (1975) – Louis Andriessen (1939 – 2021) Any loud-sounding group of instruments

IN C INTERLUDE (2005) – Michael Nyman (1944) Open Score

WHEN (2013) – Amoret Abis Open Score

Tickets available  https://www.hardrainensemble.com/season21-22

Play-in Day – March 2022

Conductor Matthew Quinn took the orchestra through

The Noonday Witch by Dvorak

and tutor George Sandford rehearsed

Fanfare from La Peri with the brass section.

Viola Day – 28th October 2021

Viola Day is designed to bring viola and violin players together with hosts UYO Course Tutor David Aspin and freelance violist and UYO alumna Chrissie Slater who will inspire, motivate & educate in a day of relaxed and informative sessions.
The sessions are over Zoom, open to violists, violinists interested in trying the viola and violin/viola teachers (all ages and non-UYO members welcome) and are free of charge.

The sessions will feature the history, repertoire and role of the viola plus interactive workshops and a masterclass. We’ll talk with those violin players thinking about taking up the viola and introduce our Pellegrinas, purchased with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. These small violas are available on free loan, with lessons, as part of a scheme for UYO violinists supported by Ulster Garden Villages.
There will be live music from our Principal Viola Jamie Howe, from Lisburn, who has recently moved from the violin to concentrate on his viola, studying at the Royal College of Music.

Places can be booked for Viola Day by emailing manager@uyo.org.uk

Blended Course

16th-21st August 2021

Conductor David Brophy will be at the helm this year, exploring Sibelius Symphony No. 1 and the second movement of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto with UYO pianist Niamh Brown.

A former Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, David now enjoys a close relationship with both RTÉ orchestras in addition to regular appearances as guest conductor with the Ulster Orchestra. David has conducted orchestras across the world and worked with internationally acclaimed artists from Lang Lang and Tasmin Little to U2 and Imelda May!

The orchestra will meet online for five days and benefit from sectional rehearsals with a highly experienced team of tutors as well as lessons, talks, mini-masterclasses and even yoga!

On Saturday 21st August we are thrilled to all be back playing together at the Hill of the O’Neill in Dungannon! 

We have a day of rehearsals and recording scheduled and can’t wait!

Play-in Day 14th Feb 2021

Online Course 16th-25th August 2020

Daniele Rustioni (Chief Conductor of Ulster Orchestra) led our first ever online summer course delivering tutorials on Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture and a host of other topics as he shared his experience with our young players.

Members had the opportunity to play along to a recording with Daniele conducting and an extract from Romeo & Juliet was selected for players to record at home to form a virtual orchestra showpiece!

There was a range of other online content eg Tutor Talks, Vlogs and Performances; The Daniele Lecture, a Masterclass with Ciaran McCabe and much more!

Make Music Day UK 21st June 2020

Make Music Day is the UK’s largest single-day music event and the largest international celebration of music in the world, taking place in 125 countries on 21 June annually. Originating in France in 1982 as Fête de la Musique, it’s a DIY, grassroots festival encouraging people to organise live music events in their communities. With social distancing measures in place in the UK, Make Music Day is moving online for 2020. 

The Ulster Youth Orchestra has made our own version of the official song, Bring Me Sunshine which we hope you’ll enjoy and sing along to!