2014 was firmly kicked into touch by the BYSO residential, four full on days which included many hours of sectionals but ended on a high note with a full orchestral performance at The LVS (Licensed Victuallers School).
BYSO hit the dizzy heights of the Schools Prom at the end of last year and it won’t be long before they are back at The Royal Albert Hall. Here’s Maddy taking us through what they got up to on their 4 day trip:
And the Music Making Commences………………
After the inevitable lie-ins of Christmas, the staff were so tired from their 8am arrival that I (Maddy) was sent off to locate coffee for them all; however, by the time all the students had arrived, they were ready to herd each of their pastoral groups off to their rooms for a familiarisation tour prior to our initial read-through of the music.
Spending several days playing music with each other builds camaraderie – something which our staff members wanted to make sure was present throughout. Therefore, night number one was team building night! From singing
the 12 days of Christmas to acting out being a pig, laughs were had all round with people you had only spoken to for the first time 10 minutes before…. All of this rose anticipation for the quiz the next night (and ultimately brought out the competitive side in some….!). There were heated discussions about whether or not Indian rhinos had one or two horns (The answer being one) or what flavour sauce goes on top of a Peach Melba (Apparently: raspberry). Everyone was able to whip out some of their useless trivia to aid their team, resulting in very close
scores – the staff team, on the other hand, were disqualified for throwing too many paper aeroplanes!
Definitely something well-worth mentioning, was the food - I know everyone would send a huge thank you out to the Licensed Victuallers’ School for the wonderful hot meals they provided at breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Playing music for four days straight is amazing, but also exhausting, the food really helped!
Playing Crown Imperial (William Walton), Spartacus (Khachaturian) and a piece by Charlie Barber called Shut Up and Dance really challenged the orchestra in a way every student loved, because each piece required different skills. Crown Imperial required great ensemble work among each of the instrument families to keep the piece tight and together. Shut Up and Dance had our nerves high when we realised that Charlie Barber would actually be attending the concert and so each section got to work on perfecting the wonderful rhythms and grasping the
way they intertwined. Finally, in Spartacus all the sections could let their musicality shine through, particularly in the heart-rending ‘Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia’ that we opened the piece with.
Common consensus at the end of the residential was definitely that the day and a half of sectionals we had was well worth it! Each instrument had different aspects to work on and spending devoted time with specialist music
teachers transformed the orchestra when we all joined back together to showcase our hard work to proud families in the very successful concert on Sunday evening. BYSO are just now eagerly awaiting our next venture at the Royal Albert Hall!