Welcome to the Friends of Southampton Youth Orchestras (FSYO) website - and a Happy New Year to everyone
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. As with every new academic year, September saw a good many new faces, especially among the younger ensembles. We hope everyone has now settled in and made new friends (and new music).
At the recent AGM, Musical Directors have reported great strides forward in just a few months. This can only be the result of real team effort - MDs and their rehearsal assistants, instrumental teachers, parents and families, and not least the young players themselves. You can see the individual reports via the ensembles page. There have been very good reports from the string ensembles' end-of-term performances this year, and details of those still to come are on the concerts page.
Unlike many LEA's, Southampton currently offers these opportunities free of charge. Fundraising - in the form of concert tickets, raffles, refreshments and the like - helps to provide the 'extras' that the Music Services budget cannot always run to. This was confirmed by Alita Mills, Director of Southampton Music Services, when she spoke at the AGM; you can read her comments in more detail here.
We have some pictures of Purcell Strings' first concert together. Thank you, Rob Curry for these.
Readers may recall the excellent SYO fundraising concert in Winchester Cathedral last September. We thought that you would also like to see the result, in the form of a cheque for £5000 presented to Naomi House, an organisation that helps children with life-limiting conditions, and their families, across the South of England. Less happily, the charity has been in the local and national news recently, as a 'victim' of the collapse of the Icelandic banking system. Resulting from this, important new home-based initiatives may have to be abandoned. Never one to be beaten however, Naomi House played a central role in the creation of a new charity action group called SOS (Save our Savings), complete with online petition, with the aim of enlisting government support for recovery of a total of £40m in frozen funds.
Pictured here are Derek Phillips (The Rotary Club of Southampton Magna), Roger Summerfield (Rotary), Paula Flower (Naomi House), Ann Smith (FSYO) and Paul Isted (Rotary). Under construction in the background is 'Jack's Place', a dedicated unit for teenagers and young adults.
The Friends' AGM was held on 8 November. You can read the Chairman's report here, and the ensemble directors' reports here. As well as due thanks to all those who have contributed over the past year, indeed in some cases for many years, we can now extend a special welcome to newly-elected members: Marianne Plater, Claire Thompson and Fleurette Waldron. With several members now no longer having children actively in the ensembles - perhaps we really are too nice to say no? - the new blood is particularly important. The full list of Committee members for 2008-09 is given here. Additionally, Alan Hobley will be taking over the music library operations.
If your child is a member of SYCS, and you are based in the Bassett/Portswood area, another family are keen to share transport to rehearsals. For more details, visit the liftshare page. If you are located elsewhere in the City, or if your child plays with another ensemble, please consider whether you could offer, or might need, a similar arrangement. It's a green way to save petrol money, and perhaps also to make new friends - what could be better?
A reminder for SYO players: tickets for the SYO concert on 24 January are now on sale via the Turner Sims box office. This concert is an important one in the calendar, as it will start the fundraising effort towards the tour of Belgium now being arranged for the summer. Even if your children are currently in a younger ensemble, please consider coming along so that you can see, and hear, where they could be in a few years' time. The soloist in the Tchaikovsky piano concerto, Jing Ouyang, is a 'rising star' at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and a friend there of former SYO leader Grace Ko.
Becoming a Friend does not bring any other obligations, but it does bring in much-needed money. For example, the Friends are currently funding 3 double bass stools for SYCS, and frequently help with the purchase of music for the string ensembles. If you have not already received one, you may like to download a 2008-09 membership application form ( .pdf format). Membership is just £10 per year per family, or £40 for four years. As we are a Charity, you also have an opportunity, if you are a taxpayer, to allow us to reclaim gift aid.
Christmas (or from earlier times, the Midwinter festival) has been and gone, but you can still beat the West Quay queues and shop online with established names such as Amazon, Waterstone's, Next, Play.com, Mothercare... or Ethical Superstone, or even Pizza Hut. One of my own long-time favourites is Oxfam, who have always come up with some really interesting things as gifts or treats. Meanwhile, Oxfam Unwrapped gives the opportunity to pay for resources such as a water pump, solar panels or the ubiquitous goat, or to train health workers in remote communities. For all these and more, click first on the link to the right, continue through to the retailers' normal sites, and every purchase will earn a commission for FSYO.
Lastly, we can't leave without a quick mention of the Winter Variety Performance held at St James' Church, Shirley on 29 December. The 'variety' included a subset of the Southampton Youth Wind Band, the Clarinet Chorale, members of the forthcoming percussion ensemble set up by Alex Pope, several chamber groupings, and the truly wonderous Waldron Vocal Ensemble - the last-named stemming from James Waldron's (violin, ex-SYO) experiences with a medics' Barbershop Quartet in Nottingham! Many other familiar faces from both SYWB and SYO past and present took part, and the evening was co-hosted by David King with Elaine Bohun, and Alex Pope. Brilliant!
