MacD on Music: Orchestral manoeuvrers in Derry's Guildhall

For almost as long as there has been professional musicians, there have been orchestras for them to play in. From the Royal Danish Orchestra, with roots tracing back to 1448, to the much more recent Electric Light and Manchester variations, who’s roots trace back to 1970 and 2004 respectively, orchestras have been entertaining crowds around the world for centuries.

Recently, I was invited to the Ulster Youth Orchestra’s Summer concert in the Guildhall where they gave incredible performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 (The Year 1917), Antonín Dvořák’s Overture: Othello, Op. 93 and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Afterwards, I got to speak to administrator Lauren Ward and chairman David Smyth and they told me a bit more about the organisation.

David: “We’re now into our thirty-second year. There are three in England, Scotland and Wales, then there’s the Irish National Orchestra then us. I’ve been chairman since 2016 and this is one of the highlights. To do that [performance] to that standard is incredible.”

Lauren: “What we do during the summer, the reason why we have the concerts, is we have a ten day residential. The players in this orchestra met on 7th August for the first time, and over five days they have sectionals with industry professionals specific to their instruments and rehearsals with the rehearsal conductor and then our conductor Michael Seal came in and it’s full rehearsals from then on, then we have the concerts in the Guildhall and the Ulster Hall. Throughout the year, we do lots of different things. We audition every December, so it’s a fresh group coming through. Apart from school orchestras and things, this is the only classical training we have here for young musicians. It’s very important that we have access to different parts of the country to bring these children together to get the training they require.”

Recently, they have been invited to take part in the Young Euro Classic in Berlin. David told me more about that: “We’re going to a meeting of all the youth orchestras over three weeks. They provide the audiences and we provide the music for at least one of their concerts.”

Lauren: “Youth orchestras from all over Europe are invited and get to do a concert at this festival, so we’re going over and actually holding our residential in Berlin and then doing a performance in the concert hall there before coming back over and doing one in the Ulster Hall. We’re getting a commissioned piece to play by a former UYO player who’s now entering the world of composing. It’s lovely that everyone comes back to it.”

Speaking about other major venues they’ve played, David tells me: “We played Dublin two years ago in the National Concert Hall, with the help of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. In classical music, getting a concert hall the size of that one full is good going and we managed it.”

And that’s it from the Ulster Youth Orchestra. Now, onto other business (and there’s a lot of it this week). First up, Dylan Bradley, former frontman of Parker, has just released his first single, ‘Makes Me Feel Good’, with his new group Dylan Bradley and the Heat. The song is out now on all good streaming platforms and can be bought directly from Three Mile Records on Bandcamp.

Next, rapper KOBACK’s has just brought out his new song ‘ECHO’, which deals with his own personal struggles going through therapy following an extremely violent relationship. It’s also out now.

We now come to the Suite, who have recently announced the release of their debut EP ‘Square One’ in September. The EP was preceded by single ‘The Best’ this past Friday.

Now, one for this week. This week will see Hard to Explain release the title track from their upcoming debut album. ‘Hell To Pay’ will be available on all good streaming platforms this Friday (August 29th) and the album is out on November 7th.

Moving on to gigs now, September 6th will see some of Derry’s best young bands playing St. Columb’s Hall when Sanctum, Sunset Theory, the Backroom Bandits and Growing Pains take to the stage for an all ages gig. It’s from 7pm to 10.30pm and tickets are £5 on the door.

READ MORE: MacD on Music

And to close, we have Cora Harkin. Cora will be playing a headline gig in the Nerve Centre on September 19th with support from Belfast group Reflect. Doors are at 7pm and tickets are £5 plus booking fee. There’ll be more from Cora in these fine pages in the coming weeks.

Finally, after all that, time for the socials. Working backwards, Cora Harkin can be found on Instagram (and TikTok) @coraharkinmusic, Growing Pains @growingpainsband_derry, the Backroom Bandits @thebackroombandits, Sunset Theory @sunset_theory_doire, Sanctum @sanctum_derry25, Hard To Explain @hardtoexplainofficial, The Suite @thesuite.band, KOBACK @itskoback, Dylan Bradley and the Heat @dylanbradleyheat and the Ulster Youth Orchestra @ulsteryouthorchestra.