Hi everyone

If you are in the Birmingham area tomorrow night you may like to attend the CBSO Youth Orchestra 2009/10 concert at Symphony Hall. The programme features a premier of a new work by rising British Star Luke Bedford entitled Piu Mosso, Dohnanyi's Variations on a nursery tune (piano soloist Martin Roscoe) and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 and is conducted by Thomas Sondergard.

The age of the orchestra ranges from 14-21 (although this year there is one 12 year old - my daughter!) and members are selected following a rigorous audition procedure which takes place in July time at the CBSO centre. The orchestra meets twice a year in the October half term and the February half term for a week and performs two high profile concerts at the end of each course.

Having spent much of this half term in the CBSO building and being able to hear snipets of the orchestra's performance during rehearsal I would thoroughly recommend popping along to the concert tomorrow night.

Unfortunately we are not within striking distance of Birmingham - however I grew up in the midlands and the CBSO was our 'local' orchestra. We attended many excellent concerts by them when I was in my teens and it's great to read of this. Have a great time tonight - hope the concert goes really well, and all kudos to your daughter - what an experience!.

I also grew up in the Midlands and as a student at the old Birmingham School of Music, attended all the Thursday night concerts. It's great to hear that there is a youth orchestra now. And well done to your daughter for getting in at such a young age!

Yes I agree that it looks good. My daughter was offered a place last year when she was 11 but unfortunately she couldn't take it up as we felt that she was already trying to fit in too much.
Hope it goes well.

Could I ask why she auditioned if you felt she was already trying to fit too much in? I'm not being difficult or anything, it's just I would expect parents to do some research into what their kids are auditioning for and how much committment it involves before committing to an audition (well, at least that's what I find it necessary to do).

Congratulations to your daughter a mum as she must be extremely talented to have made the standard (Grade 8+) and be offered a place at just 11 - that's some achievement!

I don't know if I need to justify our decision as I'm sure all of us here have faced similar dilemmas in the past when we decide something just isn't fitting into our child's busy schedule. But I'm happy to explain our reasons for doing so. Yes, in hindsight, she shouldn't have auditioned but she went for it for experience, and then other things/orchestras materialised in the meantime which we didn't know of at the time. Also, we moved further away from Birmingham in the interim which would've made travel longer for her too. So despite the fantastic opportunity, we thought of the welfare of our child as our priority.

She wasn't grade 8+ level actually then but perhaps appx. grade 7+ level. Maybe the standards weren't as high last year. What can I say...!

I wasn't having a dig or asking you to justify your decison a mum, as I said I was simply curious as in my area there seem to be a number of "serial auditionees" who audition for everything then don't do them so I was just wondering why your daughter didn't do it in the end. A number of organisations now state on the application forms that you must be check you are available for all dates before you submit an entry to audition which seems to combat the problem somewhat. Your reasons for not doing it seem very understandable to me - especially the travelling thing at a young age. It has been a really intense week for my daughter with rehearsals from 10 - 5 most days (and the brass sectional from 2 - 9!) and a 150 mile round trip so I totally understand where you are coming from. There is nothing of this level orchestrally in my county so it was definitely worth the drive but if we had a top notch orchestral experience for her in the county as your daughter has then I'm sure that we would have done the same as you.