FSYO is a charitable organisation whose aim is to support the seven separate ensembles that are part of the Southampton Youth Orchestras 'pyramid'. The pyramid offers opportunities equally for very new string players, some of whom may be just 8 or 9 years old, through to sixth formers of Grade 8 standard on one or several orchestral instruments. Many of those who started out in the junior ensembles have, with support from teachers and families, built on those early experiences to get right to the top of the pyramid and, literally, beyond.
Summer is now well underway. We hope that everyone has had a good year musically and otherwise! Some of the end-of-year concerts have already taken place. Our best wishes and thanks go to young musicians who are leaving the Pyramid, at whatever level. We also congratulate those who will be joining for the first time, or who will be moving up into a new ensemble in September.
Three Southampton schools - Bitterne Park Secondary School, Cantell Maths & Computing College and Portswood Primary School - have recently been host to the Southampton University Symphony Orchestra (SUSO), as part of a project to give school students the opportunity to experience live, big-scale music close at hand. "Many youth orchestra players would be at school themselves", explained the University's Head of Music, Dr Andrew Pinnock, "and professionals would be too costly, so it seemed an ideal opportunity to involve university students. We havn't particularly emphasised classical symphonic music - which did not exist in the way we know it now until the 19th century - but aimed to demonstrate a whole range of music that can be performed by a symphony orchestra." You can find out more about this project here.
Funds raised at our concerts, through sales of tickets, programmes, refreshments and from the raffle, typically amount to several thousand pounds. If you are involved with a local business, you'll know how important advertising can be. Our concert audiences are overwhelmingly local families, ready and willing to support local enterprises. Rates for concert programmes are as low as £25 for a half-page. We would also really value a volunteer who could keep in touch with existing advertisers and be a point of contact with new ones. In either case, please contact Sally Boxall.
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for special offers from our fundraising partner buy.at, 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.
