Happy Father's Day

EYO performed today at Powderham Castle, taking "Dadications" and requests for pieces to play. We started in warm sunshine but soon the rain set in and we dashed for cover under the trees.

Several parents went home and brought back a variety of gazebos which we formed into a kind of super-complex with timpani under one, the drums under another, random percussion under a third and the rest of the orchestra under a big event shelter. The flutes got their own shelter - they're funny that way.

Despite the rain we had a great time and a thank you to all the mums and dads who turned out instead of having a lay-in. Since there's no rehearsal next week I've promised the dads that their children ill do them breakfast in bed NEXT weekend.

New Music and Promotional Video

Following last week's concert this week's rehearsal was a fairly relaxed affair.

We used the new drum tuner I purchased for the Orchestra to overhaul the timpani and bring them back into a nice sounding set. Thanks to Steve Douglas our percussion tutor for providing a master-class in timpani servicing.

I handed out several new pieces including The Great Escape - 2019 is the 75th Anniversary of the actual great escape. Guardians of the Galaxy proved challenging though credit must go to Ned our 1st Trumpeter who played the solos really well. Game of Thrones went well and it is clear that even though (and so it should be) the children had not seen a single episode they clearly knew the music. Back To The Future went down well and it's scary to think the first film came out in 1985 - quite possibly before some of THEIR parents had been born! Makes me feel old..

During our rehearsals we played host to Will and Harvey who as, BTEC media students took a lot of footage and a concert-standard rendition of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat along with interviews with may of the orchestra. Despite so may missing (camera shy?) They did superbly. Special mention to Ben on Saxophone for his solo in the song of the 7 fat cows. Would love to see him play it dressed as Elvis!

Youth Orchestra was a little depleted with... no trumpets. This meant I could not look at The Eve of The War from War of The Worlds but I still had to go through Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of The Dance. Fortunately - or perhaps not for anyone who had to listen - I had a trumpet in the car that I've been trying to sell for an ex member so I did my best to play, however having a nickel allergy, I left the rehearsal with puffy lips worthy of someone who's had filler injected! I looked like I was pouting at everyone.

Finally There was great excitement in the Orchestra as Sarah announced our 2019 Tour to Bad Homburg, Germany with the REMOTE possibility of swinging by EuroDisney on the way home. It's still early days but we're already asking players to think about it and further details will be published after Easter.

Oh what a night!

Last night we held our Spring Concert in St. Thomas Methodist Church, Exeter to a packed audience.

The young people worked very hard and we produces some spectacular music.

Thank you to our amazing committee and volunteer parents for organising the concert, tickets, programmes and refreshments.