Inspire and Play - Bringing Together Musicians of All Ages for an Inspiring Day of Music!

Last Saturday, we welcomed over 30 young musicians to Showroom Workstation for Inspire and Play, a workshop with Yorkshire’s Leading Wind Orchestra, Yorkshire Wind Orchestra!

We had a fantastic day with young musicians playing alongside and learning from higher-level and more experienced players. Seeing a 70+ member wind orchestra, featuring musicians of all ages was truly inspiring. We had some musicians who had been playing for a year, and others who had been playing for 50 years! Our young musicians especially enjoyed playing “Moment for Morricone”.

Lindsay, president of Yorkshire Wind Orchestra shared “YWO recognise that we have a responsibility to encourage the next generation of wind players. With our workshops we can show young players that opportunities for high level community music making can continue into adulthood, and that the joy and achievement they find in music needn't stop when they leave education. If we don't find ways to inspire young players to develop, improve and continue playing we may end up with an empty rehearsal room in the future! This is especially true as declining funding for the arts continues to restrict opportunities. Maybe one of the Inspire and Play workshop participants will join us as a YWO player in a few years’ time”. We have had wonderful feedback from parents that their children “had a wonderful day and were really inspired”.

It was also brilliant for our young musicians to get to sit in with the wind orchestra whilst they played more complex music such as Yorkshire Overture. One of your trombone players shared that they “wanted to have a go at the super hard piece”.

We know that young musicians really thrive when they get to make music together. This opportunity to come together in an inter-generational community and make brilliant music is at the heart of our work. What a brilliant celebration of community, quality and inclusion!

A huge thank you from us to the Yorkshire Wind Orchestra for curating the repertoire and having expert players lead the sectionals throughout day. Special shout out to Kieron Anderson for conducting the full wind orchestra and leading a brilliant rehearsal and performance. Thank you also to The Sarah Nulty Power of Music Foundation, without whose funding this event wouldn’t have been possible.