Young Composer: Sam van Betuw

Semester 2 Concert: “Stone Mage, Sax & Symphony”
Young Composer: Sam van Betuw
Dunedin's premier amateur orchestra
Dunedin Youth Orchestra is getting back into the swing of things, and getting prepared for the 2016 year!
What are we missing? Our orchestra of course!
All players aged 25 and under (both new and existing members) who are interested in a place in the orchestra must register by completing the form at dyo.org.nz/register. We audition a new orchestra every year, including all returning members, and all prospective new members. We aim to make the process as smooth and enjoyable as possible as we know auditions can cause some stress, but remember that lots of practice and a confident attitude will do you wonders!
Thanks to all of you who have registered already, you’ll hear from us soon about audition music!
Only one week to go before the Dunedin Youth Orchestra delivers their first concert of 2015, ‘Night Ringing with Unseen Larks’.
The group is hard at work finishing up their pieces and polishing all they can.
With only two more rehearsals, we can be sure our musicians will be doing some extra practice, making sure we’ve got all our music under control!
We have a fantastic concert programme, playing some wonderful ‘Wartime-inspired music’.
Our feature piece will be a performance of Ralph Vaughan-William’s ‘The Lark Ascending‘ by our lovely soloist and Young Musicians Award winner Olive Butler.
Anthony Ritchie (our esteemed conductor) will also be conducting his father’s piece ‘Gallipoli Voices‘ in it’s first ever orchestral performance! The piece features a narrator and choir, and looks at a number of different entries from soldiers personal diaries.
The 2015 Audrey Reid Composition prize will be awarded after the interval as well; the orchestra always enjoys playing this young musicians’ piece each year. The award will be given by a former DYO member, now film composer, Trevor Coleman.
If you would like to win a double pass to the concert, tune in to 105.4FM, on Saturday 5pm, or Sunday 11am, to hear from two of our musicians Merlin Callister and Hanna Ott, as they talk about the orchestra, show some of the music we will be playing, and offer you the chance to win some tickets!
We hope to see you there, and be sure to check out the Concerts page, or our Facebook event, for more information!
The Dunedin Youth Orchestra has resumed rehearsing for our upcoming concert ‘Night Ringing with Unseen Larks’ after a couple of weeks off for Easter and school holidays. We are working hard towards our next concert, which will take place on Wednesday 27th May, at Knox Church. Information for the concert will make its way to the website within the next week so keep a look out!
Our preparations for this concert began back in February, when we started assembling our orchestra for the year. We are proud to boast the largest orchestra in recent years. Even sections that have been hard to fill–such as violas, cellos, bassoons, and horns–are bursting at the seams.
The orchestra are also excited for their upcoming sectional weekend on the 2nd and 3rd of May, a fantastic experience for our members to get section advice from fantastic and skilled musicians from the Southern Sinfonia. (Photos will follow!)
Entries for the Audrey Reid Composition Prize have now closed, with the winner to be announced at our May concert. The orchestra always enjoys premiering these young composers’ works and we wish all applicants the best of luck with their submissions.
We had some photos taken of us during our last rehearsal, we hope you enjoy them! We are looking forward to getting back into rehearsals again, and can’t wait to see you at our concert later in the month!
Hello everybody and welcome to the new web presence of the Dunedin Youth Orchestra.
The old web page was looking a bit stuffy so we decided to upgrade. This new layout (running WordPress) is much easier to update meaning that we’ll be able to bring you updates more frequently. To that end, we’ve launched this blog which will be used to let you know a bit more about what goes on in the lead up to our annual concerts. We’re also happy to use it to promote like-minded musical groups here in Dunedin so if you know an upcoming event that needs a bit more ‘word of mouth’ get in touch with us on our contact page.
Since this is practically a new site, there may be some bugs. Please let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary and we will get right on that.
Thanks for reading — don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with the DYO.