Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

Update on the ensemble competition. They got through to the last 6 out of the original 14 who qualified but haven’t made the final 3. They’re delighted as they were the only British group to make the last 6. The 3 groups that got to the finals are mostly full time pros in their home countries. Their head of department is really happy with them. And they’ve had a great week.

Lsso is typically grade 8 plus . Quite well thought of. Think SLYO is also mentioned on these threads - South London Youth Orchestra- that is also well thought of and high level.

There might be mention of London Schools Symphony Orchestra too. I'm not close enough to be up on the London orchestras but understand there are some things that are at a very high level. Our county youth orchestra is more of a grade 4/5 up.

We're also state school - not sure how much I'd have heard of through there directly, but from a very early stage we got them into ensembles with our local music service. Who are fabulous, and have ensembles from literally your first term of lessons beginner up. "N" things came later when that wasn't quite working socially because of the age gaps for DD. DS has found local ensembles fit both musically and socially and has had no need to look further afield.

Thanks @thirdfiddle it’s all a mystery to me! My son goes to music lessons and there’s never any mention of any other opportunities. The delights of state school education, I suppose.

And the odd BY for British Youth.

The whole extracurricular vs super curricular thing is odd IMHO as surely both show the ability to organise your time very efficiently, potentially show leadership skills, team working etc, resilience and often technical skills well in excess of age expectations. All of which surely surely are useful
indicators for a successful student?

Sorry Stuntnun! Any in particular? In general
NC = national children's, followed by guess the ensemble, orchestra choir wind band brass band
NY = national youth, followed by assorted activity types from orchestra to musical theatre to all sorts of things
There's also some ES and NS - English schools and national schools...
All completely separate organisations.

I think I need an acronyms list for this thread!

DD knows recent NYO members who have gone on to study academic subjects at Oxbridge. Agree that there is an element of multitalented members.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest Id take it all with a pinch of salt probably - they want people who are excellent at their subject and that’s what they’re looking for at the interview, but that doesn’t mean applicants don’t/can’t do other things - they pretty much all do as far as I know (I’ve got a couple of friends who teach there) whether they’re writing it down on their personal statement or not.

Perhaps a more explicit confirmation that you don’t need to do eg DofE to get an offer is intended to reassure those who don’t have those opportunities?

I also find the subject passion quite funny given how easy it is to switch once you’re in!

Another former NYO/oxbridge here, back in the dawn of time somewhere - violin/maths. I would say I did efficient study over putting in the hours in both, maths is maybe easier than some other subjects to do quickly if you're good at it - there isn't a lot of word count required! My violin teacher had a track record of NYO members so good teaching likely also a factor.

@Compsearch i dont know whether it meant that it helped them to get in- more that it was kind of those were the people that naturally did both because they were brilliant at everything and Oxbridge tended to like that they could juggle stuff.

i guess I am endlessly being told that dd must only do things in the subject she wants to study … the word ‘supercurricular’ is beginning to drive me mad- it is all very course focused which is fine if she’s applying for music but less so if she chose her other great love,
English lit.

. But clearly shes nowhere near in the league of these people your dh teaches. No idea how they do it and fit it all.

goodness knows how I got in back in the day- I had none
of these things on my cv and just applied on spec from
a state comp. Must be much harder these days.

Yes it was the collection of mathematicians in the woodwind particularly that I found interesting - I think there were 5 going on to do maths at Cambridge and every one a woodwind player. Obviously a very intellectual section that year.

DH teaches at a JD and has some students who are in NYO (on their second study!) applying to unis for other subjects this year. Though at least one of them is stopping JD as the workload is so much.

Our friends from Menuhin don't do NCO (don't know about NYO yet as ours are younger). I've never asked the reason why though, probably just not interested as they are focusing on international competitions and it's intense. NYO tours take up a lot of time and I can see they wouldn't want any disruption.

But those who are looking for competitive uni for something else would struggle to do the required essay comps /work experience/ other ucas bumf and have time for nyo too.

This is my perception, too.

I think leaders and co-leaders are usually exceptionally hard working people with self-discipline of steel so they can manage that workload. One of the recent leaders was considering medicine too, as far as I remember.

Maths often goes with music and autism so no surprises there. Engineering is interesting.

I’m not sure about this - I don’t think anyone I knew was in NYO because they thought it would help with university applications, and also doubt it would have made any real difference to admissions - I did a different subject and music never came up - got the offer based on interview and written test performance, as I think has been the case for a very long time.

I think just often (not always obviously) smart people have more than one talent and interest. Some of the people I knew from NYO were also eg chess or figure skating champions (real examples!) as well - it’s insane what people can fit in.

NB there were a couple from NYO who went to your DDs school and also Chets and Purcell who were at university with me. I do think it’s a less likely route from specialist school though as by definition the kids have specialised in performance early. Menuhin used to ban their students from doing NYO at all - not sure whether that’s still the case!

It was a real mix. Some music but also everything else - absolutely loads of medics and mathematicians (loads of these in the woodwind section interestingly), English, history, law, engineering.

Actually of my best friends was co-leader of NYO and did medicine at Cambridge (and led the university chamber orchestra while we were there). Another violinist when I was there didn’t get a Cambridge offer but did chemistry at Imperial.

Interesting @Compsearch - I do wonder whether the change of focus for universities from extra curricular to supercurricular might have changed that a bit.

you are probably much younger than me but certainly when I went to Oxbridge there was a lot of value placed on d of e and music etc but now unless it’s relevant to your subject they apparently don’t care

lots of nyo past and present at dd’s school. Can’t think of a single person who has been a full member who isn’t going for conservatoire.

But those who are looking for competitive uni for something else would struggle to do the required essay comps /work experience/ other ucas bumf and have time for nyo too. Maybe if you were an actual genius.

It looks like a huge time commitment- obviously brilliant and prestigious but also A Lot.

on the scholarship/nyo thing- lots going on to conservatoire with huge scholarships who haven’t been in nyo.

it is an unusual school of course ..

That is interesting and I think also in certain sections (I only really know about my son’s instrument) they will look to build a section and I think look for longevity. The yrsr he auditioned was the first year post Covid and they went for a pretty young section who then stayed for a number of years.

@Londonmummy66that’s really interesting.

Was it Oxbridge to read music or other subjects? I guess it might be pretty hard for the violins to maintain both NYO standards and academic commitments necessary for eg medicine at Oxbridge.

Brass is a different story as doesn't require hours of practice at this level.

I agree re. NYO offers, looking at players we know - some super talented soloists didn't get in, and even within "orchestra type" players some NYO decisions are not quite obvious.

In some sections, NYO is not a priority as it clashes with higher level specialised projects and "industry placements". A very talented young musician that now plays with an internationally renowned ensemble whilst still at conservatoire was not interested in applying to NYO for this reason.

Yes - although you'd have to have done some to audition for it. There are HP strings and winds doing undergrad at the moment. DD only had 6 months of HP experience due to Covid when she auditioned but got an almost full scholarship as well as the EE offer....

ETA that can always ask to do modern as a second study and if self starting can find people to set up a modern chamber group. DD did both.

Historic info now, but I remember being really surprised on my first NYO course how many people were going to Oxbridge. I only did a year of NYO, in my last year of school, and the Cambridge offers came through while we were on the course. There were about 10 people in my section (out of maybe 25?) who were waiting to find out, 3 in the same college as me! Overall I’d say there were equal numbers going to conservatoire as university, and probably half of them have gone into the profession ultimately (not correlated with where they went at undergrad), so a real mix.