Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

Do they play really well as an orchestra?

Whoah, that's crazy Dithering. And quite the compliment to the UK music scene that it's worth flying halfway round the globe for!

The majority of pupils in our secondary school orchestra would be grade 2-4. The regional schools orchestra would mostly be grade 4-6. Hence the part things like NYO inspire and other experience days has played in allowing them to play with better players, especially before they started at a junior department. There's not a big focus on classical music or youth orchestra in our area.

@DitheringMusicParent crikey to both, poor you! Two diplomas….our orchestras would be empty! County is post grade 5 (by audition and probably fairly carefully pre selected by the tutors who also have full teaching timetables in the county. And the very well respected youth orchestra is in theory grade 6 for strings and 8 for most
other things although it has two feeder orchestras and I suspect it is far more likely to be grade 8 across the board really but for that one main instrument although many have more than one of course. Lots of NYO and NCO children too.

Those of you feeling miffed about distance, spare a thought for those of us with a 28+ hour plane flight to get to Heathrow to come to anything.

Our local secondary schools' orchestra now has as its minimum level for entry diplomas on 2 instruments. While DS may actually have done that by the time he's old enough to audition, I'm not sure the 6-day course is worth it given how nakedly competitive the atmosphere is. More worth coming over to the UK for a better course with less pressured people who actually like music rather than CV adornments...

We are about 35 miles south of London and have had Lewes and Brighton for Inspire. I would also recommend the LPO overture days in London - just one day though.

Absolutely. DD has learned a lot with Inspire and the audition process already. They manage to make it feel personal despite being such a huge programme.

Yep! I’m so impressed with NYO tbh. The support, help and admin is simply mindblowing.

And all respect to Inspire, they're trying to schedule a terrifyingly large number of teenagers!

DD did do London projects twice. Either that's a very wide definition of London, or things have changed since she did it, we're in the south east but I don't think anyone would call us London.

Not really the same but when I asked about NCO locations I was told that only Londoners get into london (which is annoying for us as it is so so much easier than any other location for us to get to and we can get free accommodation too!)

That wasn't meant to sound dismissive of the distance.

Well we have a day 215 miles away! There are never any venues in Scotland so we just get on with it, mine have had some great experiences. We sometimes make a weekend of it, or visit friends. Or just send child off on an early train. Appreciate not everyone can do that but they just won't have space for everyone on London days and they need to balance instruments. You can ask to change but might get something less convenient! I guess you need to weigh up the value versus the hassle factor for you as a family and decide if it's worth it. Mine really appreciated meeting others who played their instrument as they are rare, so that was part of the attraction. It genuinely is inspiring too, younger one watching the prom on TV was able to point out people she'd done inspire sessions with, quite nice.

Yes, in London on the one day we told them she couldn't do in the survey that came out with audition results.

Ha! No, we’re in Cardiff so it makes sense. In Ldn the day before tho weirdly so plotting it through.

I lie. Yes. South West.

The Unite day? Not yet.

Thank you @TRL that is really appreciated! She is very excited to be joining and we are making sure that the diary is marked out.

Make up day at RCMJD is the day when teachers who’ve had to miss a lesson that term will make it up - my kids frequently have make up lessons but you can request a time to suit as the teachers make a special timetable just for that day eg you’re busy in the afternoon so ask for a morning slot. Probably best to keep the date free.

There are concerts on make up day too but won’t necessarily involve your child - that will depend on which orchestras/ensembles they’re allocated to which is fairly dependent on age. The older they are, the more likely they are to be needed that day to rehearse then perform.

You’ll get their individual timetable on the upcoming introductory Saturday afternoon and then Mitch will send out all the Performance Dates for all the main groups over the following fortnight - the email will contain concerts for the whole year, which groups are involved etc. The list will also get posted on the main notice board as well.

It sounds like everyone has had an exciting summer with concerts and summer programs! We are now looking at the start of the school year and I have a quick question for any other RCMJD parents. I’m looking at the calendar for this upcoming year and I see there is a 'make-up day/ end of term concert' scheduled at the end of each term - for example July 10th. Are these contingency dates just in case a day of teaching is missed? And is there normally a concert on those dates, irrespective of whether a teaching day was missed?

Also see here: https://www.ucas.com/applying/after-you-apply/making-changes-to-your-application-after-you-apply#adding-more-choices Section entitled 'Adding more choices'. Schools are sometimes reluctant because they want it 'one and done' - and there is some benefit to getting it out of the way, but not if you really aren't sure. Some schools simply don't know!