Julianstown Youth Orchestra ready to hit the high notes

A YOUTH orchestra in Julianstown that was created to give children the opportunity to play music no matter what their background is preparing to perform in a prestigious competition in the National Concert Hall early next year.

The Julianstown Youth Orchestra was founded by renowned conductor Fergus Sheil who is now artistic director of Irish National Opera. Fergus who lives in the area set up the orchestra to foster a love of music in young people.

With two distinct orchestras catering to the budding talents of primary school children and the seasoned skills of secondary school students, the Julianstown Youth Orchestra who are based in Colaiste Na hInse brings together musicians from counties of Meath, Louth, and Dublin.

In February 2025 the group will take part in the Festival of Youth Orchestras in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

"We currently have over 50 members and they are all young people who play music," said chairperson Lorraine O'Dwyer.

"We have two orchestras and two conductors and we are kind of unique in the area as we offer the opportunity to play classical music, film music and pop music," she added.

"Our conductor for the senior orchestra is Lorcan Daly, a professional musician by trade and the conductor for the Kildare County Orchestra.

"In terms of joining the academy the students need to be at around grade one in their own particular instrument. And for the senior orchestra, they need to be at grade three plus."

Members of the orchestra have had the opportunity to perform in major productions and venues around Leinster as Lorraine explains:

"We try to do one big performance a year, we have been in the Helix with an American Orchestra from Minnesota and last year we collaborated with the Limerick school of Music and we performed in the Redemptorist Church and we also worked with Irish National Opera and performed in an opera that was touring around the country called L’Olimpiade by Vivaldi.

"We also had a film crew down to our base in Bettystown which is Colaiste Na hInse and they filmed us playing and this was shown at the foyer of the opening of the opera in the Solstice Theatre in Navan so that was hugely exciting.

"We are hugely excited that we are going to the National Concert Orchestra this year. The children will be performing three pieces of music including something from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and a piece from Beethoven’s fifth Symphony."

The group that receives funding from Music Generation, Ireland's National Music Education Programme which helps children and young people access vocal and instrumental tuition locally prides itself on the ethos that music is for everyone.

"We have a bank of musical instruments now so if a young person is looking for an instrument they can rent one for €20 per year," said Lorraine.

"This is going back to the principle that Fergus really wanted to instil that anybody could come along and play an instrument and it didn’t matter what your background was," she added.

For further information visit www.jyo.ie or find the group on social media.