The National Schools Symphony Orchestra, better known as NSSO, was born in Suffolk in 1994 and gave its first concert at The Maltings Concert Hall in Snape, home of The Aldeburgh Festival founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten. NSSO is a registered Charity with company status, governed by a Board of Trustees.

NSSO aims to help, challenge and encourage those young musicians who already excel in their home environment, whether that be the nation’s outstanding County Youth Orchestras or some of our leading school orchestras.  The step up to the ranks of the National Youth Orchestra or into the world of professional music is significant, and NSSO strives to recreate that atmosphere and experience in a highly supportive and encouraging environment.

NSSO appoints experienced and internationally acclaimed professional conductors, skilled at relating to young people and able to make appropriate demands on them. They have included former ENO musical director Mark Shanahan, Bath Philharmonia principal conductor Jason Thornton and Peter Bridle MBE.  Over the years the orchestra has also worked with leading soloists including Peter Donohoe, Ronan O’Hara and Tim Hugh.

The first National Schools Symphony Orchestra course brought together 78 young musicians and made a small surplus.  Whilst numbers have remained relatively consistent (the 2011 orchestra had 72 members) but standards have risen consistently and the performances given in 2011 were remarkable in their poise, emotion and class.  Now NSSO is looking to expand and solidify its growing reputation for fulfilling a critical place in the panoply of the United Kingdom’s leading youth orchestras.

2011 marked a first for NSSO when it performed two concerts instead of the usual one.  The Saturday performance at the Frome Festival was a resounding success, packing the venue and proving to be the fastest-selling event of the festival.  Receiving critical acclaim, it is hoped that this can become a more regular occurrence, raising the public profile of the orchestra and ensuring its place in the national conscious.