NCO 2019

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Traditionally for many years MN has had an audition thread; so here it is as the auditions start in a few days 😀

Owlm it might not be till the second week . Last year they handed out all of the places after the winter concerts which are on 9th December this year . We didn’t hear till the end of that week either . I feel nervous just thinking about it because I will have to tell ds. Ds is very matter of fact about the whole thing and says he will be finishing this year on a high anyway because his final note in the concerts a super high note a super d I think ? I think he has the right attitude

Trumpetboysmum I like his attitude DD was not so bothered until she auditioned. It really doesn't help that it's such a long time to wait hear. Her hopes are even higher haha. I laugh but really I'm as nervous as you. Theoretically, I know it is all experience but I'm not convinced she will see it that way. 9th Dec seems like such a long time...I have patience....I have patience

trumpet 😁 He sounds like he has a great attitude and sense of humour! Good luck to everyone waiting. I’ve told DD it won’t be until Christmas in the hope of her not thinking about it too much. She’s mainly concerned with her quest for a flautist to teach her at the moment so it’s thankfully on the back burner

DS2 is similar. He isn’t expecting to get in, but will be very pleased if he does! He hasn’t asked about when we will hear. We heard well into December last year. And then they made a clerical error, and we heard the real result in January!

Love trumpetboy’s sense of humour!

Some days I forget. And other days I remember and think it’s such a long wait until second week in December! Long shot getting in for ds here .. his expectations are quite high. I’m quite interested in the feedback from the audition. I’ve always found that really helpful

Rupertswife January sounds unbearable!!

January!!

It was an unusual situation. We heard in December that DS2 got regionals. Then I got a call in January that we had received the wrong email and that he had in fact got into U10s. They only discovered the error when they were about to chase me for a response. It was a bit of a rollercoaster!

The plus side was that by then we had signed up DS2 for Pro Corda, and so he ended up doing Pro Corda x 2 and NCO last year! We wouldn’t have done Pro Corda if we knew he had an U10s place!

Wow, what a roller coaster for you last year! So, I'm right in thinking that if an applicant doesn't make the NCO, they stand a chance of possibly making it into a regional orchestra instead? And are these the NCO 'Associates' I've heard about?

Yes I think so Bostik !!

I’ve not linked into this yet this year but just caught up. Lots of auditions again. My girl hoping for U11 viola but her current viola isn’t great (new one for Xmas) so hard to get that classic depth of sound. Hoping this doesn’t count against her too much. She loved the U10 residential. We weren’t so keen on the long journey to the regionals esp when they moved to north London. Such a long way from us! Trying not to think about it till mid December....! Good luck all!

Not sure if we do regional next year. Mine may not be offered though! I found this year's concert less excited. I may be wrong but didn't feel positive vibes from the conductor. He looked a tad frustrated by the standard. But again, I may be wrong.

Where was your regional hikakin? I’m not sure it added much. She improve so much at the residential but realistically does so much orchestra nearer home it’s questionable whether it’s worth the long journey!

Ds really enjoyed the regionals and the concert! I still catch him humming the music. Tbh my dd found the regional not challenging at all. She’s much older and really should have been in the London seniors and was quite gutted when she wasn’t offered a place there. She’d been there the last 5 years and missed her friends terribly! Last concert in a couple of weeks..

Ds would love to play in London seniors we are equal distance between there and easterlies . He didn’t enjoy being the only trumpet this year . Think it might clash with AYM next year anyway

We really struggled with regionals this year. They kept changing the venue, and half the time (including the concert), it was just too far. Also, there were clashes with choir. If he is successful this year, we may go for London juniors. The full days and fewer rehearsals will suit us better

I think the standard of London Junior is slightly lower than other regional as there aren't older ones. Also there were some questionable seating decisions. But again, it may be only me who felt this way. Kids had a great time.

I wish I knew results already! So much easier to plan

Hopefully they will have learned from last year’s drawn out process of getting the e-mails out and we will know in two weeks. It was agony knowing that some results were out and having to wait! Not sure if constantly checking last year’s thread helped or not!

I agree Decaf. If she's not going, there's another workshop I can sign her upto. It will be the same dates as NCO residential, But I'll miss the discount if we find out 2nd week in December.

Did you all find out via email last year? Or post?

Just saw you said we'll hear by email Doubleup.

Owlm that’s annoying!
We heard by email but it was no fun refreshing every few hours (minutes)
I really hope they are more organised this year. Would be great if they let the under 10s and under 11s know first since they’re not in the winter concert anyway. Then they’ll probably have less emails to send at a time..

Maybe you could suggest that to them Decaff

That’s interesting Hikakin. One of the things I liked about southeasterly regionals was the seating. DS2 got to try sitting both at the front and at the back of his section, and was consistently placed next to much better players. He learnt loads! They were clearly not ordering the seating from front to back by best to worst (or DS2 would have been at the back!). A disadvantage of London juniors would be that he wouldn’t get to play with the brilliant U12, U13 and main orchestra violinists. If indeed he even gets regionals this year

owlm that’s annoying! Hopefully we will hear nice and early this year.