Youth Orchestra and finding other opportunities to play

I think it really depends what's on offer locally as it's a massive commitment. For now as we're not that close to London I'm sticking with running ds here there and everywhere during the week but that leaves his weekends free for homework practice and being 11( which I think is important) if you don't have a wide variety of opprtunities locally and at school then a jd might be a better option. At the minute now that he's at high school the county and school , plus an excellent teacher, are providing all that he would get at a jd ( I hope!!)

or if you're near cambridge there's "quartet club" where children and adults and grouped by age and ability. In the holidays there is also Cambridge Holiday Orchestra which caters for all levels.

are you near saffron walden - they have a Saturday morning school with tutors from london. If you can't find it I'll look if up and be more precise!

I wouldn't worry about the age gap.
Before we moved, my 9 yr old violinist (7/8yr old at the time) played in the youth concert orchestra, amongst all secondary aged kids, mostly 14+.
There was a 10yr old violinist there too who she would chat to.
Entry was by audition, think they needed to be gr4 +.
She loved it!
She was also in the youth string chamber orchestra, which was mostly kids aged 16+, again she didn't really mind and neither did they. Although socially, that was a little harder, as they didn't really have much in common apart from music, but they play for most of the time anyway.
Cost wise, not too bad, couple of hundred a year I think, with discounts for low income families. Yours does seem a little expensive, have you asked about any discounts available.

FWIW the CYM I know of has bursaries based on income and also scholarship (very generous ones at that) based on instrument depending on the need.

We haven't auditioned yet for jds as they are quite a trek for us and with high school homework it's a big commitment. ds would choose music everyday but I'm trying to maintain some balance as he's only in year 7 you can get advice lessons at the jds so that might be worth considering then you would know if your dd was ready yet or not ( though it sounds like she's well on the way)as a rough guide it's grade 5 distinction at age 10/11 but a lot depends on when you started etc. I also am totally new to this (ds had trumpet lessons at school age 8 and it just turned out that he was really good/ loved it) so I am also making it up as I go along

I've been the mother of the youngest player in the ensemble several times (same child, different groups). It can be difficult socially, when DS was ten we asked that he not progress to the more senior group. He met the playing requirement by two grades but he would have been the youngest player there by at least four years and I had no idea what he would have found to talk about at break times with eighteen year olds. As he has got older it has become less of an issue, at 13 he was the youngest player in the county ensemble by several years but didn't have a problem fitting in (at least with the boys, older girls were a mystery butI had no problems with that). I think there's a big change for them socially when they move school at 11, there's a huge change in status between being a primary school pupil and a secondary school pupil. I would have thought that the private orchestra with the 14 year olds in it will be easier to navigate in another year.

I'm also boggling at the cost of 8 rehearsals plus concert. Our county groups are free to play and their residentials are subsidised.

Ours are nearly free!

OP, I can only suggest to keep looking. By chance we found a private arts company 20 miles away, offering jazz workshops one summer, and DS has had some lovely opportunities through it.

I am shocked at the prices!
Our ensembles are all free. It's about the only bit of the music service left...

Stringchild,thanks for the correction. That's really interesting. I wasn't aware of that. Do you mind naming the JD your dd is at? I appreciate that's putting you on the spot and you may not want to name which is fine.

CYM may well be our back up plan if ds doesn't get into Guildhall. I did the application online yesterday so we have to just sit and wait. Ds practised for 45 minutes and then played for around another 20 or so mins doing a "recital" to ds2 and I! Bless him. To be fair,one of his audition pieces sounded bloody awful (Ladies in Lavender). He finds playing slowly very difficult. We have time though.

Disorganised - just a slight amendment to your post as may help others; not all JD scholarships are means tested. DD has a non-means tested one.

That's supposed to say definitely

I couldn't find a list in google either but there's definite a cym in saffron Waldon ( lovely people) and one in Norwich don't know if either of these are close enough to you ?

I was wondering about the cost of the county stuff too the county youth orchestra here is expensive ( but they go away on tour and play some quite high profile concerts so it's a great experience) all of the other music activities cost £50 a term for however many you choose to take part in. There are bursaries out there for example future talent which can be used to pay for any type of musical activity maybe you should look into these spaghetti

OMG I've just re read your message and seen the cost . How do they justify that.
All the Junior depts have bursaries and scholarships. They are means tested.

that is expensive!

Spaghetti, It is the same idea as RCM. Ds sounds like he is at the same level as your ds. He is around grade 5/6 violin. If you go on the website and then along the top click on Youth/young adult learning and then it has the page for Junior Guildhall. They ask for min grade 5 by age of 10 but it's not set in stone. We went and looked round in December and then ds had an assessment with the Head of Strings who is himself a cellist. I don't want to bore everyone again as I posted at the time but feel free to PM me if you want any further info. Ds understands that when he auditions there may a good chance that he won't get in this time but he's so desperate to go that it will all be good experience for him.

Yes absolutely,it really is all about the teachers/access to ensembles. One ds's best friends also plays violin and goes in for all the music festivals and wins them all however isn't so keen on orchestra. Consequently her sight reading isn't as good as it should be considering her grade and age (according to her Mum)Ds otoh doesn't like doing festivals but adores orchestra and his sight reading is starting to get quite good. However he has bowing issues which I won't bore you with here!! From what I've been told by Guildhall,county orchestras are so critical for providing kids with all the tools required.
I'll get off my soapbox now!

So they do: if you just google 'Centre for young musicians' a list comes up. The website itself could be a lot more helpful.

I agree about ages and orchestras.

The First Violin in DC's (very good) school orchestra is a mere 12 years old, Yr 8, having had access to great teaching and orchestral / ensemble playing from a young age.

Blu I believe that CYM does have some regional centres. We dismissed it for ds as both the London one and the one in our county are still a long way away (over 90 mins drive each way) do not doable which is why we looked at Guildhall. Obv totally depends on your area. I do think it's silly that so many orchestras have age limits. I'm continually bowled over by the standard reached by the children in the orchestras that ds is in. Some of which are still in primary school. It's like so many things,they need the orchestral experience to progress so if you put the age up,you won't get enough kids going through. This is especially noticeable when they leave school at 16 or 18 and go off to university.