The TYO Project – Transition Year Orchestra Project – is an initiative of the CIT Cork School of Music as a work experience opportunity for orchestral musicians in their fourth year of secondary school. They have been applying online since last September and we have been able to assemble a well-balanced group of 62 woodwind, brass and string players to form a symphony orchestra. The musicians come from all over Ireland and beyond: Kerry, Limerick, Roscommon, Kilkenny, Galway, Tipperary, Waterford, Louth, Laois, Meath, Westmeath, all over Cork County and City, and one French Horn player from Germany – on a school exchange for a year in Ballincollig!
The orchestra is working with conductor Conor Palliser, now a lecturer at CITCSM. A former member of the European Youth Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra and Cork Youth Orchestra, Conor has worked professionally as a conductor and player with both the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and RTE Concert Orchestra.
A real work experience for these young musicians as they rehearse for five days, culminating in a lunchtime concert this Friday, 7 April at 1:10 pm. They will perform music by Sibelius (Finlandia), Bizet, Dvorak and Holst. The concert, in the CSM Curtis Auditorium is free – but there will be a collection in aid of the Cork University Hospital Charity.
(All photos by Clare Keogh)