Welcome
FSYO is a charitable organisation whose aim is to support Southampton's orchestral and string ensembles. The pyramid offers opportunities equally for very new players in the 'First Steps' ensembles, who may be just 8 or 9 years old, through to sixth formers of Grade 8 standard. Many of those who started out in the junior ensembles have, with encouragement from teachers and families, built on those early experiences to get right to the top of the pyramid and beyond.
Southampton has a long pedigree of music provision, including wind ensembles, brass bands, jazz orchestras and percussion groups which complement the classical music played by 'our' ensembles. Quite a few young musicians eventually learn more than one instrument, and/or enjoy performing more than one type of music.
The Spring newsletter is now available here with details of forthcoming events, a report about SYS's weekend at Fairthorne Manor and more information about the National Music Plan (see below).
Ensemble places for September
During the early part of the summer term, the Directors are recruiting to their ensembles and orchestras for September, when players move up to other ensembles or go off to university and other new ventures. Most players in Southampton schools will have discussed their options with their music teacher or the Director of their current ensemble but for those who have not, this is the time to do so.
Applications are also invited from players of the appropriate standard from outside the City – this can be done through your music teacher or by contacting Southampton Music Services or emailing info@fsyo.org.uk. You can download an application form here. Auditions for SYO are expected to take place towards the end of May. More details about the ensembles can be found here or from SMS.
Performances
March and April saw all ensembles involved in concerts, starting with Southampton’s Musical A-Z as part of the Music Nation weekend (one of the highlights being SYO’s performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto with Chloë Hanslip in the Turner Sims Concert Hall). Everyone took part in the highly enjoyable Pyramid concert; SYCS held a joint concert in Totton with Riverside Wind Band; SYCS and First Steps were involved with other local groups in the The Wreck of the Titanic concert at Central Hall. SYO’s spring concert was held on 28 April at Thornden Hall in aid of Leukaemia Busters – the orchestra rose magnificently to the challenge of a last minute change of programme as the soloist had damaged his hand. Details of this term’s concerts are on the Concerts and events page
SYO’s concert at Turner Sims on Sunday 8 July at 3 pm will be in memory of Joan Male, who died on 23 March. Joan was involved in youth music in Southampton for many years and will be particularly remembered for over 30 years with Southampton Youth Sinfonietta (originally Junior String Orchestra), first as cello coach and from 1978 to 2007 as its Director. Joan accompanied SYO on many overseas tours and she enjoyed keeping in touch with players who had graduated from SYS to the Youth Orchestra. Joan is remembered affectionately by the many young instrumentalists she has influenced over the years.
The future of music in Southampton
The 2011 AGM took place on Saturday 5 November, at Taunton's College. You can read about some of the past year's activities from the musical directors, and the Chair's report from Sue Wilkins. These are all on the ensembles page.
The long awaited National Music Plan was published in November. This sets out the way in which music education will be organised through local music Hubs from September 2012. These Hubs, consisting of partnerships of music education and arts providers in a locality, will bid for funding. FSYO have been invited to take part in the discussions with other local partners.
While the NMP has been broadly welcomed in the music world, reaction in the press and elsewhere has been mixed with concerns about long-term funding. The Core roles of a local Hub are to:
a) Ensure that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice) through whole-class ensemble teaching programmes for ideally a year (but for a minimum of a term) of weekly tuition on the same instrument.
b) Provide opportunities to play in ensembles and to perform from an early stage.
c) Ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people.
d) Develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area.
Most Hubs are also expected to offer CPD to school staff, particularly in supporting schools to deliver music in the curriculum; provide an instrument loan service, with discounts or free provision for those on low incomes; provide access to large scale and/or high quality music experiences for pupils, working with professional musicians and/or venues. This may include undertaking work to publicise the opportunities available to schools, parents/carers and students. As one of the underpinning principles of the NMP is the requirement for partnership working to meet local needs, parental involvement and support remains as vital as ever. You can access the DfE document The Importance of Music here.
Getting involved
You can download the 2011-12 FSYO membership form, including a Gift Aid section. Joining today is one way of helping us to support your child's orchestra, and others, into the future.
We have had kind offers of help with several roles. If anyone else would like to offer their services or skills, however great or samll, for the coming year, please contact Sue Wilkins (Chair) or Claire Thompson (Secretary). In particular, we need:
- Advertising co-ordinator, generally to make (and sustain) contact with local businesses to agree advertising in programme concerts, or possibly other forms of sponsorship.
- A news editor to help with the words on the website and/or the newsletter. You don't have to be techie, but you do need to be involved with both the Friends and at least one of the orchestras, so you know what's going on.
- More Committee members.
For any FSYO-related payments received or expenses claimed, you can download a voucher to complete and pass to the Treasurer. You can find the voucher, along with the Educational Visits Consent Form and several other documents on the Downloads page.
Fundraising
Our fundraising partners buy.at have recently been rebranded as Spend and Raise. The principle remains the same however: you go through their site to the websites of partner retailers, and anything you buy through this method generates a commission for FSYO. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for special offers, just let us know at the usual email address, info@fsyo.org.uk.
Your suggestions and contributions to the website are always welcome, again via this email address. For additional management facilities, click here.
Most of the downloadable documents on this site are in .pdf format. If you do not already have a .pdf reader on your PC, you may wish to download the free Foxit reader (1.5mb).
The Music Library pages are back again while new ones are redeveloped. Follow through the link on the right.