This new Philharmonic will be made up of players of a standard of grade 6 to diploma level. We will be playing exciting mainstream symphonic repertoire and all orchestral instruments will be featured in this orchestra.
From 2023 onwards we will be reverting to two separate orchestras again.
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Each year NSSO brings together approximately 100 committed young players, mostly between the ages of 13 and 17, though some very able younger players have taken part too.
NSSO Philharmonic offers a week of high-quality orchestral music under the baton of a leading professional conductor, assisted by an inspirational team of instrumental tutors, each of them a respected and experienced performer and teacher.
Through a combination of challenging programmes, uplifting rehearsals and inspirational musicianship, NSSO endeavours to provide our young players with a real taste of the professional orchestral world. Many of our alumni have gone on to perform not only with NYO, but also with some of the world’s leading orchestras.
We provide the foundations necessary for building a future as an orchestral musician, whether professional or enthusiastic amateur. At the start of the course players work with specialist instrumental coaches, to help meet the technical challenges of the repertoire, before joining together in sectional rehearsals led by our Heads of Section. The students are now fully prepared for the full orchestral rehearsals are and able to enjoy exploring new and challenging repertoire.
Concert programmes are ambitious. Amongst the repertoire in previous years were symphonies by Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saens, Rachmaninov and Mahler; tone poems by Richard Strauss and Dvorak; concertos by Elgar, Brahms, Britten and Tchaikovsky. There is a commitment to performing music of the last hundred years as well as great orchestral classics such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Holst The Planets, Stravinsky The Firebird and Respighi The Pines of Rome.
Music is at the heart of the NSSO experience, but there is also a vibrant social programme organised by a hugely experienced and committed pastoral team, many of whom are NSSO alumni. Students may find themselves playing rounders against their tutors one evening, enjoying the facilities of the sports centre or swimming pool the next, competing in a quiz or even just taking in the local town and its amenities.
The friendships and contacts made on NSSO courses can last a lifetime and once you’ve joined NSSO you’re part of our family forever!
If you have an enquiry about any aspect of NSSO please feel free to get in touch:
NSSO, Malvern College, College Road, Malvern, WR14 3DF
T: 01684 581695
When Malvern College approached me to take over from the wonderful John Madden as artistic director for NSSO, I was thrilled to bits! Music courses were the highlight of my childhood. I lived from course to course with an actual count down on my wall to see how many sleeps until the next time I […]
Dear NSSO Sinfonia 2021. I’m absolutely delighted that we will finally be able to meet in person this summer at Malvern College. It will be an amazing course! We have all missed playing together in orchestras (one thing that Zoom can never offer us!) so it will be a pleasure to see you all again […]
Hello NSSO Philharmonic members 2021. I’m thrilled that this year we can, after all, meet in person to make music at Malvern College. It will be a pleasure to see again those of you who have been on the course in previous years, and it will also be a great pleasure meeting the many new […]