History of the Ensemble

The Ensemble logo:

A stained glass window in St Michael & All Angels, Waterford, Nr Hertford, featuring St Cecelia.

The Aberdeen Youth String Ensemble was formed in 1998 by its conductor and director Malcolm Bolton. In its first year it gave four concerts at different venues in and around the city. The repertoire for that year included the Sibelius Romance for Strings, Bach Concerto in D minor for two Violins and the Elgar Serenade for Strings. The two soloists for the Bach Concerto being taken from members of the Ensemble at that time. A Master Class was scheduled with the Ygradissl Quartet in February of that year. The Quartet was very impressed with the Ensemble and the members of AYSE greatly appreciated their input, quickly establishing a "valuable" Master Class with the Quartet. The Orchestra was then asked to perform for the " V.I.P's" of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival at their meeting in Queens Cross Church in May of that year.

The following year saw the Ensemble again being involved in four concerts. The repertoire included Boyce Symphony No 2, Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe (again the Soloists were taken from members of the Orchestra) and Bach Brandenburg Concerto No3. Once again the Ygradissl Quartet were approached to see if they would have time to work with the Ensemble at some point during their heavy schedule of their final year of residency at Aberdeen University. Their reply was very positive, they not only said that they would love to work with the Ensemble but they would also perform with the Ensemble in the first concert of its season. The Ensemble really enjoyed and benefited from the rehearsals and master classes with the Quartet and especially enjoyed their performance with them.

In year 2000 the Ensemble gave six performances. The repertoire was, Rondeau from Henry Purcell's Suite for Strings, Albinoni Oboe Concerto Op 9 No 5, Vivaldi Sonata No 5 for Cello and Strings and Handel Concerto Grosso "Alexander's Feast". Again Soloists were taken from the Ensemble at that time. The Ensemble took this programme and went on to perform it in Edinburgh at the National Festival of Youth Orchestras in August 2000.

The Ensemble performed several concerts in 2001, including a charity concert in Queens Cross Church in aid of Unicef. Click the link to read more about our tie with UNICEF. The programme was Boyce Symphony No1, Handel Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 5, and Gerald Finzi's Dies Natalis.

Last year the Ensemble's programme included Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Arvo Part's Summa, Marcello Oboe Concerto, a Vivaldi Cello Concerto and Handel Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 10. As always the soloists for the Concertos are taken from the Ensemble members. The Ensemble not only played in concerts in the venues of their concerts from previous years and repeated their charity concert for UNICEF, but also went on to join the Aberdeen City Youth Symphony Orchestra on their music trip to Clermont Ferrand in France. AYSE later joined ACYO in Edinburgh to play at the National Festival of Youth Orchestras once more.

This year the Ensemble has been taking its playing to "new levels". We are already into our Concert Season having played a concert on the 5th March for the children at the Camphill Schools at Murtle. In addition to this the Ensemble recently embarked on a trip to Whickham near Newcastle, to perform and also compete in the National Competition: Music for Youth. Our repertoire at the moment is Symphony 2 by Boyce, Monn Cello Concerto, Vivaldi "Alla Rustica", String Symphony #10 - Mendelssohn and "Prelude for Strings" by Gerald Finzi.

The last piece has a special meaning for the Ensemble, as 2 years ago when we played the Intrada from Finzi's Dies Natalis, the Ensemble actually wrote to the composer's son Christopher Finzi. He replied wishing us luck in our concerts and also suggested that we might play the Prelude in future years. The members of the Ensemble fell in love with the piece when they first heard it and hence we added it to this years repertoire!