“When I arrived at the National School Symphony Orchestra (NSSO) I was nervous but I was also excited. I didn’t know anybody else there, and I wasn’t sure how the week was going to go. The school building was very cool; it was large and old, with a statue in the courtyard.
“I went to my first rehearsal on the day I arrived, and made new friends. We got cookies at break. We got straight into learning the pieces we would be performing at the end of the week.
“My room was small but it was only me in there, so I had plenty of space. I was on the second floor. The third floor is where the head of house (Maria) lives. Maria is at the college all the time – she works there. We had our breakfast in our house each morning before going to “chapel” to find out what we were doing for the day.
“Every day we would go to rehearsals and have a couple of breaks in between. I had sectional rehearsals with the trombone players – as I was the only tuba player in my orchestra – led by Stephanie the trombone tutor. On most days we had four rehearsals, sometimes just with my section and other times with the full orchestra.
“Lunch was delicious and so was tea. One day we had a chocolate brownie which was the best thing ever. After lunch we were allowed in the sports hall to burn off some steam and generally socialise. People mainly played basketball, but I preferred to just hang out and make friends.
“After rehearsals finished there were some afternoon activities we could do. My favourites were dodgeball, and arts and crafts where I made many friends. One day I went into town and bought some sweets with my pocket money.
“We did our final concert in the “big school”. We had to wear all black. We looked very professional. We played pieces as an orchestra, and we also played some pieces within our sections. The brass played Canon in D. This was my favourite to play as my part was very nice to listen to.
“I enjoyed NSSO and recommend it to anyone who wants to try out an orchestra environment while also making friends. I am looking forward to going again next year, and seeing my friends again.”
The Parents’ Perspective
We found about the National School Symphony Orchestra through a music-teacher friend of ours. With Peggy playing a relatively unusual instrument in the tuba, she felt that Peggy had a good chance of getting a spot on the residential.
The application process was straightforward. We had to submit a video of Peggy playing two pieces of a reasonable standard, with no breaks etc in-between. The youngest group at NSSO is said to be around a Grade 3-5 (ABRSM) standard. There are two further orchestras beyond the beginner group, so there’s plenty of opportunity to progress through the groups up to the top ensemble.
With Malvern College being a boarding school we were confident that all the right systems would be in place to deal with a hundred-odd young people for a week, and we were proven correct; the organisation was pretty spot-on and everyone we spoke to seemed very happy and helpful. We certainly got no complaints from Peggy at the end of the week – in fact she told us she was going again in 2024 as soon as she got in the car to come home.
It was amazing to see how much she flourished with a week away from her parents – both socially and musically. She’s come back a much more confident girl and much more accomplished on her instrument – not surprising when you consider she could be in rehearsals for over five hours per day. The performance at the end was lovely to watch and it was plain to see the amount of hard work both the children and their teachers had put in over the week.
Peggy did not stop talking on the 3.5 hour journey home. She absolutely loved it and wanted to tell us everything she’d done. We wondered if we’d get our money’s worth as it’s not a cheap week (we paid £850 (bursaries are available)) but we don’t begrudge a single penny of it. She’s had nearly 30 hours of instrumental and orchestral tuition, done lots of afternoon activities, been fed a lot of food and snacks and given her own bedroom for the week with plenty of pastoral support. She’s grown massively in independence and self-confidence and is now eager to try other activities not involving us parents. We’re already saving up for April 2024!
