Andante

YOUNG PEOPLES’ WORKSHOP 2026

Free Young People’s Orchestral Workshop

Sunday 10th May 2026 at St John Payne School, Chelmsford

Essex Symphony Orchestra is delighted, once again, to invite young musicians to join them for a morning to enjoy orchestral playing alongside experienced players and under the guidance of professional conductor, Mr Robert Hodge (https://www.robert-hodge.com/)

The workshop is for pupils who learn an orchestral instrument in or out of school and who have passed Grade 1 to Grade 5. As last year, there will be just one session for everyone so that all players can enjoy the full orchestral sound created by the mix of beginner, intermediate and Grade 4/5 parts.

The workshop will be from 10.00 am – 1.00pm on Sunday 10th May 2026.

To comply with safeguarding guidelines, a parent or responsible adult will need to accompany their child to the workshop; in previous workshops, parents sat all around the edges of the hall and really enjoyed watching how the music came together.

If you would like your child to take part, please email:

Catherine Gunnett (member of Essex Symphony Orchestra) at bassoonplus@gmail.com with the following information:

• Child’s Name
• School’s Name
• Orchestral instrument (i.e. NOT piano, keyboard, guitar, recorder or saxophone). We do, however, have a few spaces for drummers who would like to play orchestral percussion.
• Grade attained
• Parent/carer phone number

You will then be given further details about the day, including the music that we will be playing so that you can choose the best ability level for your child and then they can practise it at home and with their instrumental tutor before the day of the workshop.

If you would like further information about the Essex Symphony Orchestra and to see pictures and a review of previous workshops, please visit our website, https://www.essexsymphony.org.uk/outreach/

Our annual workshops are very popular and there are limited places for each instrument, so please reply as soon as possible to secure your child’s participation.

We look forward to hearing from you!

YOUNG PEOPLES’ WORKSHOP 2025

This year’s workshop took place at St John Payne School on Sunday 11 th May. Lots
of young people from different primary and secondary schools in the local area came
to join ESO members for a wonderful morning of music making, watched by their
parents.
As usual, our professional conductor, Rob Hodge, led proceedings, starting with
some fun activities to break the ice and help us all to get to know each other and
then it was down to work.
We began with the Russian Dance (‘Trepak’) from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ Ballet.
This was a fast paced piece but we started it at a reasonable speed so that everyone
could find their notes and settle into playing with confidence. Then came the more
difficult ‘Hoedown’ from Copland’s ‘Rodeo’ with lots of complex, off-beat rhythms and
fast notes; it was really exciting to play!
After a short break for refreshments in the sunshine, we resumed playing with our
final piece of the day, ‘Waltz of the Flowers’, also from the ‘Nutcracker’. This huge
melody flowed beautifully, passing between low and high instruments and was a
great contrast to our other pieces, allowing us to develop different musical skills.
The morning concluded with a performance of all three pieces. It was so rewarding
to see how far our playing had come in three short hours; we observed dynamic
markings, watched Rob for pauses and slowing down/speeding up, played with
detailed articulation and managed to play confidently at good speeds. We received
great applause from our parent audience around the edges of the hall.
As ever, because ESO is passionate about encouraging young players to follow in
our footsteps, we provided parents with details of local youth ensembles and
orchestras that their children might like to join. Happily, we know that many of our
past participants have done just that and are now fully fledged orchestral players
around the county.
We’ve had some great feedback from our workshop this year:
‘… thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to do more!’
‘…the ladies on the ‘cello section were fabulous and so friendly!’
‘… he looks forward to this event each year’
‘…she loved it all’
‘…amazed at how wonderful the final pieces sounded’
‘…ability for kids to play a selection of parts, targeted at their individual capability’
So, thank you children, parents, ESO members, visiting players and Rob for coming
together and making another memorable musical morning!
See you next time!!

ESO SCHOOLS’ PROGRAMME

Our first Childrens’ Concert was in 2002. It took the form of performing music such as Peter and the Wolf and the Toy Symphony to children from local primary schools.  

Other concerts followed, and took on a new format in 2012 when we worked with a group of schools including Little Waltham and Newlands Spring. Concerts became more interactive, with a facilitator or our conductor explaining the story behind the music and what the orchestra was doing. Some children got to volunteer to use our props and act out various roles. In 2012 we also had children from the Gifted & Talented registers to play in the orchestra.

In 2019, the format changed again and in this year we held our first Young People’s Orchestral Workshop. We invited young instrumentalists from all the primary and secondary schools in Chelmsford and the surrounding area to come and join us at St John Payne School, playing alongside our members to rehearse and perform some fantastic music.

We have found that to help schools participate we need to obtain sponsorship specifically for the concert. In 2007, Making Music generously provided funding and we were especially fortunate that the finance group M&G contributed substantial funding to the orchestra’s childrens’ concerts from the very beginning until 2019 as part of their community sponsorship programme.