INAUGURAL ASONE HUB LIVE CONCERTS INSPIRE CORNISH MUSICAL FUTURES
Following a three year COVID hiatus, the young players of the Cornwall Youth Orchestra and Cornwall Youth Wind Orchestra recently returned to live performances.
Under the direction of Tim Boulton, formerly professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, the 38 strong Cornwall Youth Orchestra performed a one hour programme at Truro Cathedral, featuring music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Beethoven and the premiere of a new piece entitled ‘The Secret of Rain’, written by Cornish composer, Simon Speare. Simon, originally from Saltash, is now Head of Composition and Contemporary Music in the Royal College of Music Junior Department.
As well as the concert on Saturday evening, Cornwall Youth Orchestra also held a less formal event for members of the public on Friday afternoon. This was an inclusive event providing a rare opportunity for people with autism, dementia and special needs to hear and experience the energy of live music, in a friendly and sympathetic environment.
ASONE Hub’s wind orchestra, the Cornwall Youth Wind Orchestra, directed by Sara Munns, performed on 12th April at Carnglaze Caverns. This concert also included performances by the Cornwall Youth Brass Ensemble and Sax is our Business, two of the other ASONE Hub county level ensembles.
These concerts are the first public events since ASONE Perform CIC took over the management of the former Cornwall Music Education Hub from Cornwall Council on 1st April 2022. The ASONE Hub will work with classical and contemporary music partners, both local and national, to offer projects and opportunities, and concert and performance options like these concerts. This vital work supports and promotes access to high quality music education and progression opportunities for all children and young people in Cornwall.
Simon Speare was a Cornwall Youth Orchestra cellist from 1978 until 1982 when he moved from Cornwall to London to study composition at City University. Saturday’s performance was the first time the Youth Orchestra has played one of Simon’s pieces and he said, “Working with Tim Boulton and the Cornwall Youth Orchestra on my piece was a thrilling experience. The orchestra played with a passion and skill that had obviously been absorbed from their inspiring conductor and instrumental coaches.”
Simon continued, “I remember every note of my concerts as a youth orchestra cellist in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Several of my contemporaries have gone on to top careers in the music profession and we all look back on our Cornwall Youth Orchestra days with enormous pleasure and gratitude for the start it gave us.”
Cornwall Youth Orchestra Director, Tim Boulton, said “Playing in this orchestra offers an experience that will be valued by its members for years to come. The shared experiences of teamwork, working to common goals, communal risk-taking, leadership, resilience while working under pressure and mutual respect will underpin many of the activities for which these young people will be valued in their future workplaces and lives.”
Tim continued, “The orchestral experience has been very much missed by us all in the last few years, and we are all very much invigorated to be back together with an audience. We are actively recruiting members for all of the Hub ensembles so if you are a young musician interested in joining, please do contact us through the ASONE Hub on [email protected]”
