As is the case every year, the IAYO Festival ofYouth Orchestras took over the NationalConcert Hall to showcase the talent in youthorchestral music in Ireland. The IAYO Festival,now in its 18th year, saw performances by WITBudding Bows Chamber Orchestra, MayoYouth Orchestra, Julianstown Youth Orchestra,and Roscommon County Youth Orchestra inthe afternoon with evening performances by acollaborative ensemble consisting of membersof Carlow Youth Orchestra, Laois School ofMusic Senior Ensemble and Lír Orchestra, theCounty Cork School of Music VEC YouthOrchestra, another collaboration, this timeinternational, by Young Dublin Symphonia,Vestfold Ungdomsstrykeorkester from Norwayand Midtjyllands Unge Strygere from Denmark,and the Royal Irish Academy of MusicSymphony Orchestra closed the evening. Itwas the first time in the Festival's history thatorchestras from outside the island of Irelandtook part, and the success of the internationalcollaboration bodes well for futurepartnerships. It is fair to say that the audiencesof both concerts were treated to a fine displayof young orchestral repertoire, where classical

pieces by composers such as Vivaldi wenthand-in-hand with arrangements of populartracks by artists such as Lady Gaga, Elbowand The Beatles.

It was very encouraging to see that all of ourreturning orchestras had improvedconsiderably, and most encouraging of all wasthe two collaborative successes on the night. Itis not easy to organise collaborations withorchestras, as the number of players are largeand the repertoire can be complex, and so thismakes the fantastic performances of theCarlow-Laois-Lír collaboration and the YoungDublin Symphonia and friends collaboration allthe more impressive.

It is great to see that there is so much going onregarding youth orchestras in Ireland, and thisfestival was a reminder that the standard ofplaying within these orchestras is increasingyear by year. I'm sure we are all lookingforward to seeing what next year brings to theNational Concert Hall.

Jonathan Pearson, Marketing & Comms Officer

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The County Cork School of Music VEC perform to a full house at the National Concert Hall

18th Festival of Youth Orchestras

Agnes O’Kane Award[John O'Brien was this year'srecipient of the Agnes O'KaneAward for his voluntary workwith Dublin Youth Orchestrasand IAYO. Here is part of therecommendation for theaward from Joanna Crooks.]

John O’Brien served both theDYO (for thirty years) and theIAYO with a steady vision ofwhat the organisation’s aimsand capabilities might be. It isan honour to contribute somethoughts to the nomination ofJohn O’Brien as a worthywinner of the Agnes O’Kaneaward.

John became a volunteer withthe DYO Council as soon ashis children became players.He brought immense

experience of logistical planning and without ever to myknowledge issuing an instruction he set the gold standard foroperations – starting with a thoughtful sense of appreciation forthe use of venues (generally schools) for rehearsals and theutmost respect for the wishes of those who facilitated DYO bymaking rehearsal venues available.

His preparations were always meticulous, there were no detailstoo small for attention, and many times the smooth running of abusy day was thanks to the work put in by John in advance ofthe arrival of other volunteer staff and players. Doors open,signposting in place, chairs arranged correctly, percussionequipment placed and assembled where it would be needed.

John was and is a role model for the volunteers who workedwith him and followed in his footsteps. He is a classic exampleof the social capital which is the most valuable asset of ourcountry and gave his time wholeheartedly and generously,nights, weekends, holidays, to the young musicians in the careof DYO, while modestly conducting a brilliant professionalcareer.

John O'Brien accepting the AgnesO'Kane Award from Philip O'Kane

Welcome members and friends to the spring issue of Newsnotes.We come fresh from another very successful Festival of YouthOrchestras at the National Concert Hall and, I think, the first timewe have sold out both performances at the Festival. Wewelcomed back orchestras with lots of new faces and, as always,orchestras performing at the National Concert Hall for the veryfirst time. As always, it was a great day and enhanced further byyoung visitors from abroad, the presence of the board of theEuropean Orchestra Federation. And, as always, we return to ouroffice from the Festival to preparations for the rest of our activitiesthroughout the year. Applications are already open for theConCorda Chamber Music Course, the Irish Youth WindEnsemble and the IAYO Conducting Workshops, the latter beinghosted by the Royal Irish Academy of Music in July again thisyear. We will be announcing the IAYO Chamber MusicWorkshops soon as well as the AGM programme for October.

We have some sad news to convey with the passing of TriciaMaguire, co-founder of the ConCorda course and wife of ourHonorary President, Hugh Maguire. Tricia was like a secondmother to many generations of young string players on theConCorda course and also on the Xenia course in Italy, whereshe taught for many years. She will be missed by many.

I would like to welcome Jonathan Pearson to IAYO as Marketingand Communications Officer. Jon started in January and will bewith us until the beginning of October, preparing Newsnotes,updating websites, sending press releases and plenty of othertasks. I would also like to welcome our new members:Churchtown School of Music, Kilbride & Lakeside MusicCommittee and Enniscorthy Vocational College Orchestra. Welook forward to hearing from them over the coming months.

Finally my congratulations go to The Donegal Youth Orchestraand the Julianstown Youth Orchestra on receiving their YouthOrchestra Achievement Awards and to John O'Brien mostdeserved recipient of this year's Agnes O'Kane Award for hismany years of service to youth orchestras. Allin Gray

Saturday, 28th April 2013

Wexford Opera House

The 2013 County Wexford Youth Orchestra Festival willtake place in Wexford Opera House on Saturday, 28th April.The inaugural festival took place in 2011, with over 150young musicians from a broad geographic spread, takingpart in the event. This year's participating orchestras are:

County Wexford Youth Orchestra

Kennedy Park National School Orchestra

FCJ Bunclody School Orchestra

Scoil Mhuire Rosslare School Orchestra and membersof CWSM Junior Orchestra

Colaiste Bhride School Orchestra, Carnew

The project is a partnership between the Arts Department ofWexford County Council and County Wexford School ofMusic and is supported by the Arts Council.

The European Union Youth Wind Orchestra's2013 Session will take place from July 11-20in Luxembourg and The Netherlands this year.Experienced musicians of wind instruments,percussion instruments, double bass, pianoand harp are invited to apply for the 9 daysession. You must be living in an EU memberstate or other European country and be

between 15-30 years of age to apply. For more information visitwww.ugda.lu/euywo

The Ireland Fund Grantround for 2013 is nowopen for applications.The objective of theSmall Grants Round is

to enable as many organisations as possible to fund new andinnovative responses to social need. The amount of fundingavailable will vary from year to year but is typically around $1million. Applicants can apply online during the period in whichthe Grant Round is open, which is typically February - March.There is no minimum level of funding, with an average awardamount of !6,000, and a maximum amount of !20,000.

The Ireland Funds support projects in the areas of Arts andCulture, Community Development, Education, and Peace andReconciliation in a shared future with Northern Ireland.

Likecharity, in partnership with Ireland’s five mobile operators,Vodafone, O2, Meteor, Three and Tesco Mobile, have launched anew text donation service that ensures that 100% of the moneyraised goes directly to the intended charity.

Donors can now send a simple text message to a new five digitshort code (50300). The donation amount is added directly tothe mobile customer’s phone bill and the donated funds arecollected by likecharity who in turn send the donation to thenominated charity.

Approximately 22.7% of donations are currently received viaonline services, reflecting the growing use of online platformsto donate to charity. A number of leading charities in Irelandsuch as UNICEF, Focus Ireland and Concern have alreadysigned up to likecharity and numerous other charities are alsojoining with likecharity for their upcoming fundraisingcampaigns.

You can find out more by visiting www.likecharity.com

Sky have announced a furthercommitment in its support for thearts in Ireland with the next SkyArts Ignition application round

open exclusively to Irish arts organisations. The winningapplicant will receive !230,000 from Sky Arts to fund a newproject, to be co-developed between the two organisations andany contributing artists. Sky Arts will also work with the winningorganisation to bring the chosen project to a wider audience onair, on demand, online and on the ground, as well as providingmarketing and new media support.

Applications will be accepted via the Sky Arts Ignition serieswebsite, www.sky.com/skyartsignition, where full guidelines forentries can also be found. The deadline for applications is 2 April2013.

It was tough to arrive at a conclusion as to who would win thisyear's two orchestra achievement awards. After deliberating,the judging panel eventually agreed on them, with DonegalYouth Orchestra and Julianstown winning the OrchestraAchievement Award and the Orchestra Development Awardrespectively. Before we elaborate on why these two orchestraswon, it is important to give an honourable mention to CooleMusic for their Sonic Strings programme, which reallyimpressed us and narrowly missed out on first prize.

Special Commendation: Coole Music - Sonic Strings

Although Coole narrowly missed out on the Youth OrchestraAchievement Award, their efforts over the past year are worthyof a special commendation. Coole Music were incrediblyproactive in their collaboration with two Swedish orchestras,inviting them to Ireland to partake in their festival. Theinvitation was returned and Coole Music travelled to Sweden inearly February for a tour. We hope it went well for them andare looking forward to hearing what they will do next!

Youth Orchestra Achievement Award Winner: Donegal YouthOrchestra

Donegal County Council Cultural Services set a commission in2011 for a new adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story The HappyPrince in a way that made best use of the creative strengths inDonegal, which include music, storytelling and performance.The resulting work is an exquisite and beautiful piece of musictheatre that was specially written to be performed by theDonegal Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir with narration byLittle John Nee. The music was composed by Vincent Kennedy.While rehearsals started in late 2011, the bulk of the rehearsalperiod was during the spring of 2012 up to and including theEaster break.

The orchestra had to endure a few stumbling blocks along theway - due to the intensity of the rehearsal schedule, some oftheir more experienced and older players couldn't participate asit was interfering with their leaving cert studies. This provedchallenging to the remaining musicians as the score waswritten with those musicians in mind for some of the solosections. However they rose to the challenge and a wonderfulopportunity was created for individual members to shine duringthese solos that included the clarinet, piccolo and piano.

It was an immense achievement and they are worthy winnersof this year's Special Achievement Awards.

Development of the Orchestra Award Winner: Julianstown YouthOrchestra

Julianstown Youth Orchestra set four targets for developing theorchestra in 2012. They wished to expand their membership,increase the range of instruments available, offer new avenuesinto the orchestra for beginners, and to develop the range ofinstrumental tuition and sectional coaching offered.

All four aims have been achieved through a period of intensework on behalf of music director Fergus Sheil, the voluntarycommittee and the professional tutors involved in different

aspects of theorchestra’swork.

The orchestrawas founded in2011 with 12players, ahumblebeginning.Growth wasswift however,and by the endof that yearthey had 45players. By theend of 2012,the orchestrahad nearlydoubled in sizeagain, and nowboasts a widecompliment ofabout 85players.

They werelucky to receivea grant fromMusic Network,and they usedthis fundingwisely. Theyexpanded therange of

instruments on offer and these, along with loans from the IAYOinstrument bank, allowed them to widen their musicalspectrum. As JYO became a more competent ensemble, it nolonger became feasible to include complete beginners into theorchestra, and so a sub-section of the orchestra was developed- JYO Juniors, where 22 younger players rehearsed easierrepertoire, gaining valuable experience of ensemle playing.They also play with the main orchestra, albeit with a morelimited repertoire. The JYO Juniors has grown and developedwith the help and enthusiasm of Robin Panter.

More than 50% of the orchestra now take lessons withteachers on Saturday mornings during and after their weeklyorchestra rehearsal.

The result of all this work has placed the orchestra in a verystrong position for development in 2013 – it’s 3rd year. It has awell balanced orchestra (albeit still with some gaps), it has anexcellent roster of teachers working directly with the orchestraand strong links to other teachers and sectional tutors. Afunding application to Meath Partnership and a strategicalliance with Dublin Youth Orchestra is under discussion tofacilitate the introduction of new instruments: oboes, ,trombones, keyboards, percussion, as well as the expansion ofviolas, double basses and French horns. The orchestra hasbenefitted greatly from Fergus Sheil’s professional contacts andhas punched well above its weight in having taken part inevents alongside both the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the RTÉNational Symphony Orchestra with links to players in bothgroups.

Angela McLaughlin, Music Development Manager at the Donegal MusicEducation Partnership, and Vincent Kennedy, composer, receive theSpecial Achievement Award from Frances Fitzgerald, TD and Minister forChildren and Youth Affairs

IAYO Youth Orchestra Achievement Awards

Ciaran Hayes, double bass player with theJulianstown Youth Orchestra.

Carlow YouthOrchestra showedgreat innovation intheir funding by theMusic CapitalScheme to purchasea selection of brassinstruments,enabling them tostart tuition of brassinstruments throughthe Carlow Collegeof Music. This

expansion brings the Carlow Youth Orchestra, under the tutelageof Majella Swan, closer to their overall goal of achieving a fullsymphonic orchestra.

The brass programme was launched back in September 2011with a concert by the Garda Band in Askea Church, Carlow wherethe band played to a captivated audience of over 800 primaryschool children.

The next step was to visit many schools both primary andsecondary throughout Carlow giving free workshops andopportunities for every child to try all the brass instruments. Thisproved to be very exciting for all and introducing the orchestraand brass instruments to many children who never got thechance to see or even hold an instrument.

From these visits, the lessons were set up at a very affordablecost with instruments provided. Tuition started in January 2012with brass teacher Gavin Barr travelling once a week fromWaterford to teach the new instruments.

A junior ensemble formed and the advanced players wereincorporated into the Carlow Youth Orchestra. The freeworkshops for schools are ongoing and more instruments will beneeded very soon. The Carlow Youth Orchestra are delightedwith this new development and the addition of even one brassplayer allows the orchestra to try more challenging pieces andbigger sounds!

The instruments are available to hire at a nominal cost and veryaffordable tuition is available both for groups and individuals.

Carlow Youth Orchestra Innovates with

Music Capital Funding

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More news, more detail, more often. . . . www.iayo.ie/newsnotes

1st International Youth OrchestraFestival in Israel

The 1st international Youth Orchestra Festival in Israel(YOFI) will take place between the 2nd of June to the 13th ofJuly 2013. The festival will be held in towns and venuesacross the northern and central regions of the country inprestigious regional concert halls of historical, artistic andcultural importance, with the collaboration of municipalitiesand music institutions.

Applications are open to orchestras and ensembles topartake in the festival, with more information available athttp://www.yofi-israel.com/

Youth Orchestra Festival inAhrensburg – Call For SubmissionsThe Ahrensburg Youth Orchestra Festival management teamare inviting IAYO member orchestras to submit applicationsto take part in their next Festival in 2014.

During a period of 5 days, the Ahrensburg Youth SymphonyOrchestra welcomes three orchestras from Germany andother countries and hosts a number of concerts with them. Inaddition, the guest orchestras have the opportunity to go onsight-seeing tours to Hamburg and are invited to a greatcommon party.

During their stay, the guest musicians are accomodated andcatered for privately, so the only noteworthy expense for theparticipating orchestras is the journey to Ahrensburg andback.

In particular, the organisers are looking for ensembles withgood musical level, interesting repertoire (ideally at leastpartially by composers of their own country), manageablesize, and ages of approximately between 12 and 30 years.

An announcement was made last month that a $1m grant fromBank of America Merrill Lynch had been given to MusicGeneration, in partnership with The Ireland Funds. This grant isadditional to the !7m philanthropic donation from U2 and TheIreland Funds, and allows Music Generation to provide access tosubsidised high-quality music education for children and youngpeople.

Music Generation has announced recently that it is expandinginto four new areas of the country: Offaly, Westmeath, Carlowand Limerick City. These additions will join Cork City, Laois,Louth, Mayo, Sligo and Wicklow. To date over 5,000 childrenhave received tuition through the programme that providesemployment opportunities for some 120 music tutors across thesix counties.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Rúirí Quinn TD announcedto Music Generation on January 21st that the Government iscommitted to continuing to develop and sustain Music EducationPartnerships with Exchequer funding in future years, when theMusic Generation donations cease

Fingal Youth Orchestra has just returned from a fabulous tripto London. The players travelled from Dublin to London onWednesday 2nd January at the early hour of 5.30am and,from the moment the group landed on British soil to themoment of departure on Saturday 5th January, great fun washad by all.

The group consistedof 23 players from thesenior end of FingalYouth Orchestra –accompanied by itsconductor Alan Duff,tutor Conor Owensand three supervisors.The trip included visitsto the Globe Theatre,the London Duck Tour,London Dungeon, Ice-

Skating, the National History Museum and was topped off byshopping at Covent Garden and Harrods. In between allthese activities the orchestra performed two concerts; thefirst at the Bridgewater Centre in Islington and the second atNightingale House – home for retired members of the Jewishcommunity. The performances were ably led by Fingal YouthOrchestra’s Leader Aisling Lawson. The concerts werewarmly received by the respective audiences and the playerswere made feel most welcome by the most hospitable ofhosts.

Overall, it was a very positive experience for the group, andhopefully this positivity will be repeated when the juniorplayers travel to Carrick on Shannon at Easter for their tour.

Mary Anderson

The National Concert Hall Young Musician Award is madebiennially in support of the development of talented youngmusicians in Ireland. The award was instigated following abenefit concert in 2007 by Ann-Sofie Mutter and theTrondheim Soloists Chamber Orchestra, who generouslydonated their fees in support of the Education & Outreachprogramme of the National Concert Hall.

The 2013 competition will be open to entries from violin,viola, cello and double bass players. Find out more onwww.nch.ie/

A 175,000 Ulster Bank Community Impact Fund was recentlyannounced which is open for application by all voluntary andcommunity organisations in Ireland. It has been developedthrough a partnership between Ulster Bank, The CommunityFoundation for Ireland and The Community Foundation forNorthern Ireland.

The Ulster Bank Community Impact Fund (also launched inNorthern Ireland) is open to all non-profit, voluntary andcommunity based organisations to support the development oflocal enterprise activity, financial education and financial inclusioninitiatives. Successful applicants will be awarded individual grantsfrom !1,000 to !40,000.

Applications to the fund will be shortlisted by The CommunityFoundation for Ireland and assessed by the Community ImpactFund judging panel. More information can be found athttp://www.communityfoundation.ie/our-grants/

Starbucks Youth Action want to supportyoung people aged 16-24 who have ideasto make their community a better place.This programme inspires, empowers andsupports young people in Dublin to make adifference in their communities by applyingto Starbucks Youth Action for seed fundingof up to !1000 to get their projects off theground. There are no limitations on what

the idea could be. The most important thing is that the ideacontributes to your community to make it a better place. To datethey have had pigeon lofts, sports programmes, multi-culturalevents and bake offs to name a few, so there is no boundary.

This is the 4th year of this project which has seen nearly 200young people run projects which made their community a betterplace to live.

As part of the programme the applicants will be invited to attenda workshop on a Saturday in early April in Dublin which will helpthem develop their ideas. This will be in a fun and exciting venue.

A few weeks later the young people will then pitch their ideas to apanel of stakeholders who will decide if they will get the grant.

Visit http://iyfstarbucksyouthaction.wordpress.com/ for moreinformation.

The Young EnsemblesScheme is one of a number offunding opportunities offeredby the Arts Council to supportand develop the arts in Ireland.The primary purpose of thisaward is to support groups ofyoung people between the

ages of 12 and 23 to create ambitious and original work togetherin any art form (e.g., circus, dance, digital media, film, music,theatre, literature, visual arts, or any combination of the above).Groups/ensembles must be made up of 3 or more members.

Priority will be given to applications that demonstrate thefollowing:

• The capacity to deliver a high quality artistic process, which isambitious and original.

• A process that ensures young people will have a strongsense of ‘artistic ownership’ of the project they undertake.

• Evidence of the ensemble’s artistic activities or workproduced to date and how funding will enable the participantsto further develop their experience.

• A clear plan regarding how members of the ensemble willdocument, reflect on and evaluate their project.The EMI Music

Sound Foundationprovides two typesof awards: the

Instrument and Equipment awards and secondly, the Bursaryawards.

The grant range is from !1,000 to !5,000

Instrument & Equipment Award

The Foundation has helped over two thousand schools,individual students and teachers improve their access tomusic through the purchase or upgrade of musicalinstruments and equipment. The Foundation provides grantsup to a total of £2,000 towards the purchase of musicalinstruments and/or equipment for individuals who are in fulltime education and Schools who require the equipment tofund music education. We also fund courses and trainingopportunities for music teachers who work within schools.

Bursary Award

The Foundation has created vital bursaries at eight musiccolleges and conservatoires to assist music students in needof financial support. The organisations represent a highstandard of traditional, classical and modern music studyacross the UK/Ireland. The bursaries are distributed at eachcollege’s discretion based on criteria provided by TheFoundation. Please contact the colleges direct if you wish toenquire about the bursary. Visithttp://www.emimusicsoundfoundation.com/