‘Epic’ new orchestra seeks young talent

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Musicians from the west of Ireland are being invited to audition for a new Western Symphonic Youth Orchestra, being set up by Galway 2020 and the Galway Music Education Partnership.

Sym-Phonic Waves is being developed as part of a four-year plan which will see this new group create links with established youth orchestras in Germany, Finland, Scotland and Spain and result in a major performance here during Galway 2020.

Auditions for Sym-Phonic Waves will take place on Sunday, February 5 in Claregalway College and are open to people aged between 13-23 who have reached a high standard (Grade 6 or equivalent) in stringed instruments; violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Musicians in Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, Clare and Limerick are invited to apply for the auditions, which will result in a string orchestra of some 30 players. Rehearsals for the group will also take place in Claregalway College.

The aim of this new youth orchestra is to create a lasting musical legacy for young people in the region, according to Louise Ryan of the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board (GRETB), which has spearheaded the Music Education Partnership.

That partnership includes all the main youth music groups in Galway – Athenry Music School, Coole Music & Arts, Headford Music Works, GTI School of Music, Galway Youth Orchestra, Maoin Cheoil na Gaillimhe and Music Matters, as well as Galway County Council, Galway City Council and Ealáin na Gaeltachta.

Sym-Phonic Waves will be under the baton of Sinead Hayes, a gifted musician and conductor from Corofin.

Sinead, who is currently based in Berlin, travelled to Dublin every week as a teenager to study at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She has a B Mus from City University, London and a Masters in Orchestral Conducting from Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. Sinead also has a degree in engineering from NUIG and Masters from Imperial College London.

As a conductor, she has worked with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra and the Irish Memory Orchestra here at home as well as numerous orchestras and opera groups abroad.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.