Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

It is interesting that cellists should have some familiarity with tenor clef for weekends. In my limited experience this starts either just before or just after grade 5…!

@northerngoldilocks thank you!!

Someone on here recommended Pull and Bear for concert blacks and they might be worth a look for a non weddingy white dress. Also Uniqlo seem to sell everything most of the time so another possibility?

Thank you for all the NCO thoughts. Are the weekends usually termtime? I presume so?

@Compsearch yes, its a bit different! It’s for a singing course and she needs this and recital clothes - which is just what we use for school so that’s fine.

@NimbleFox good idea about confirmation clothes, I will have a look for those.

@yodaforpresident if you search for long white dress at John lewis there seems to be a selection. Or look at first holy communion/confirmation dresses? Certainly First Holy Communion tend to be ankle length but might not got up a big enough size.

That’s a strange concert outfit @yodaforpresident - what’s it for? Still quite wedding-y but ghost dresses are very plain - they might have a simple style?

I am hoping someone here might be able to help! Does anyone have any recommendations on where to find ankle length, white, concert dresses? I am finding a lot of wedding dresses unsurprisingly - any ideas would be gratefully received!

That sounds hopeful, @Theoneiwantedwastaken . Was there an interesting programme of events, too?

My daughter was accepted to the Junior programme last year. There were no auditions. After I sent in the financial information there was nothing else to do. I received an acceptance email mid June

I'm impressed with all your kids auditioning for NCO and JDs. Mine is not at that sort of level!

I'm wondering if anyone has experience of Future Talent? DD has got through round one of a junior award application. There don't seem to be auditions for the junior programme, they've just asked questions about finances, so I'm not clear whether she's got it as long as we're under the income threshold, or there are some more hoops to jump through. DD is asking me daily if there's news!

I agree on the point of quality and probably musicality too.

DD auditioned with under rehearsed grade 5 pieces the first year she did NCO projects (violin, london). Quite sad that this year she is too old to audition, it's been a happy place for her. Really encourage anyone to have a go if they're in the age range.

Don't worry too much about grade levels. Cliche but it really is quality not difficulty. Kids playing grade 5 pieces range from sounds a bit beginnerish to close your eyes and it could be the teacher playing.

Thank you @678socks! he really loves it and has made great progress (got it for his 6th birthday, almost exactly 2 years ago), though there seem to be plenty of kids who started earlier and/or further ahead.

I think doing something like NCO would be really inspiring for him to meet some of those kids as he’s not in any ensembles at the moment so just sort of practices in a vacuum! But I’m sure it’s really competitive.

I think it depends on the region, London is a bit more competitive. Friends in London got in with grade 6 on cello, I think grade 5 is worth trying.

@Compsearch wow he is doing amazingly well!

DS is auditioning for NCO this year with grade 5 pieces on violin; he is year 3 just turned 8.

It says grade 4+ and that they take a mix across the age and grade levels, so if that’s true he must be in with a shot, but I think the prep will be good experience for him whatever. Will probs wait until a bit closer to the deadline to submit anything!

Thanks both. Year 4 currently, suspect possibly grade 6 done by the time the weekends actually happen (assuming after spring exam session).

not sure about Cello but DS is violin and he auditioned last year as a grade 6 and just about got in from the waiting list! Violin is the hardest though so I’d say give it a go and see what happens!

The weekends are designed to be mixed ability and fairly mixed age (quite a lot of younger ones because the older ones also have the option of the residentials). Gde 5+ for cello sounds totally within the norm for the weekends.

Apologies if I have asked before but for ‘NCO weekends’auditions, is just post grade 5 (cello) unlikely to be good enough?

Our earliest ensemble started at 8:20 and that could not be moved around unlike individual lessons or music theory so it's better to double check which ensembles have more or less fixed time and which ones are mandatory. Early ensembles are usually not the main ones, but you wouldn't really want to miss any ensembles as they're the main point in going to JD (good teachers can be found locally).

If this is RCMJD, you can ask to start at 10am if you’re coming a long way and they’ll try very hard to make that happen. When we started there, someone was flying in from Germany each week so their timetable was set to start with the earliest flight arrival time!

Bear in mind that your child might enjoy it so much that they’re begging for an 8am - 6pm timetable …. Lots of people drive/train a long distance with a very early start to fit in everything the kids want to do. But I don’t know anyone who stays overnight weekly.