Almost 2000 young musicians have played in the “J” and the “I” in the years between 1970 and 2005. For most of them it was a highlight in those 'growing up' years and many made friends who remained so for life. Every former member has stories to tell, some taller than others. This brief history is a tribute and a warm acknowledgement of those who, as innovators, artists and administrators, created Ógra Ceoil, the Irish Youth Orchestra and then the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, and who developed its range of training and performance opportunities throughout each decade up to the present.

Dr. Olive Smith  

In the summer of 1970 Olive Smith brought together 63 musicians aged 14-20 from all parts of Ireland for a residential course at Our Lady’s School, Rathnew, Co Wicklow. The course was run by Ógra Ceoil, a division of the Music Association of Ireland which Dr Smith had inaugurated a few years previously. Hugh Maguire accepted the role of Musical Director. From that point the orchestra grew and flourished with members coming from all over Ireland. The first course lasted from July 17 th to July 24 th 1970. The programme included Mozart’s Symphony in Eb, (1st and 3rd movements), Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Benjamin Britten’s Soirées Musicales, March, Canzonetta, Bolero and Tirolese. Tutors included Hugh Maguire, Thérèse Timoney, Charlie Maguire, Bruno Schrecker, Aisling Drury-Byrne, Gilbert Berg and Victor Malirsh.

Dr. Hugh Maguire   

The organizing committee was chaired by Olive Smith with secretaries Mary Timoney and Helen Watson. Anthony Lewis Crosby was orchestra manager, John O’Conor (yes, that John O’ Conor) was librarian. House staff included Gillian Smith, Mirette Dowling, Charlie Maguire, Phyllis O’Donovan, Lady Mahon and Nuala Hughes. The fee for the course was £10. The organisers paid Our Lady’s School £1 per day per person for board and lodging. The early records provide a glimpse of an organisation where the vision and drive of Dr Olive Smith was apparent. She gathered a highly professional team around her. The list of tutors reads like a veritable who’s who of musical life in Ireland at the time.

Yesterday was a proud day for Ógra Ceoil when it launched after only eighteen months, the new Irish Youth Orchestra. Indeed, it was a thrilling occasion for everyone in the hall and it was fitting and pleasant that the Taoiseach led the standing ovation at the end. IRISH TIMES Jan 4 th 1972.

Dr. Tim Mahony   

Only eighteen months later Ógra Ceoil became the Irish Youth Orchestra. The first tour abroad took place in 1974 when the orchestra gave three concerts in Germany. In 1979 began the legendary sponsorship of the orchestra by Toyota Ireland.

This sponsorship has continued to the present day. A special course and a concert in the St Francis Xavier Hall on 20th April 1979 marked the inauguration of the sponsorship. In 1994 Toyota Ireland received an award as Business Sponsor of the Year from the organisation then known as Cothú. In January 2003 Toyota Ireland held their New Year Gala Concert in Dublin at the Helix in Mahony Hall, where the orchestra performed Mahler’s 5th Symphony directed by En Shao. In 2005 to mark Cork’s position as European Cultural Capital, Toyota Ireland and Dr Tim Mahony held the Toyota Ireland New Year Gala Concert in City Hall Cork.

Dr Olive Smith retired in 1982 leaving an enduring legacy. It is a tribute to her professionalism that the orchestra continued to grow and flourish without her presence. The fondness that her “children” in the orchestra felt for her is shown by the name they called her, “Granny Smith”.

Loretta Keating   

Loretta Keating, already the administrator of the JIYO, Junior Irish Youth Orchestra, succeeded Dr Smith in 1983 and held this position until 1996 when she was retired in order to go and join her husband in Cyprus. She was succeeded by Joanna Crooks, as General Manager. The Irish Youth Orchestra continued to flourish in the 80s and 90s. During this era the orchestra made appearances abroad with great distinction. Both orchestras were recorded in concert by RTE for broadcast regularly. The value of touring and the capacity to represent Ireland abroad was realised in Europe and further afield. In 1983 Toyota Ireland and the Mahony family brought the Irish Youth Orchestra of America, a trip of a lifetime for players in the orchestra at that time. They performed in Symphony Hall, Boston, the Avery Fisher Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington. A poster from this tour has been mounted and hangs in the office of the National Youth Orchestra at No 37 Molesworth Street to this day. The “Js” toured Cyprus in 1986, another tour which was exceptional in every way, with the opportunity to give outdoor performances under the stars. Robert Houlihan directed the IYO on tour in 1987 on tour in Europe with performances in Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Brussels, Louvain and Metz, and in a later tour in Hungary in 1994, when the course took place abroad with Hungarian tutors.

Gearóid Grant  

Dr Hugh Maguire conducted NYOI until his retirement in 1990, while Gearóid Grant celebrated his 25th season in 2004 as the conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, formerly the “J”s and the “Under 18s”, an astonishing unbroken record of commitment. With a change in age bands which took place in 1997, the younger orchestra was able to take on ever more demanding repertoire and contribute to the growing archive of recordings. They give annual New Year’s Day concerts in Mahony Hall at the Helix in Dublin; they have toured in Denmark and Scotland, and undertake tours at venues in Ireland reaching from Letterkenny in the North West to Waterford in the South East. Joachim Roewer joined them for a concert tour in 2003 with Berlioz’ “Harold in Italy”. They gave a stunning performance of Shostakovitch’s 10th Symphony on 9th July 2004 at the special concert to celebrate Gearóid Grant’s 25 th season with the National Youth Orchestra - the best tribute that he could have received among the accolades from all sides.

Albert Rosen   

The name of the orchestra was changed to the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland in 1987. The 1990s began a period in which the musicians of the NYOI worked with guest conductors, all taking time from busy careers with professional orchestras to work with a youth orchestra. Two great figures Bryden Thompson and Albert Rosen dominate this period. Every programme they conducted is remembered by the musicians in the orchestra as a highlight. Albert Rosen’s “Rosenisms” were collected and exchanged by the musicians in the orchestra. He chose the most challenging works in the repertoire, and they loved it. He is particularly associated with the tone poems of Richard Strauss. He conducted NYOI for the last time in 1996 in a programme which included Richard Strauss’s “ Alpine Symphony”, a great finale for a great man.

Roland Kieft   

The first CD recording was produced in 1997 under the baton of Roland Kieft, including Debussy’s “La Mer”. Technology was making an impact in every aspect of life. An archive of CD recordings became as natural as headed notepaper for the upcoming young generation of musicians. Roberto Benzi from Paris conducted Mahler’s 1st Symphony in New Year 1998. En Shao is a regular guest conductor and ever popular with the orchestra, often coming to Ireland with his family. He conducted the concerts of the millennium year in 2000, including debut performances in Symphony Hall, UK, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Konzerthaus in Berlin with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. In 2001 President Mary McAleese honoured the orchestra by agreeing to become the Patron.

Alexander Anissimov   

Alexander Anissimov conducted the orchestra for the first time on tour in the United States in 1998, while Principal Conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently conducted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, “The Resurrection” in 1999. No one involved in the 2002 Wagner Ring Festival will ever forget it – two complete performances in concert of the four operas, first in University Concert Hall Limerick and then in Symphony Hall, Birmingham UK. In May 2003 Toyota Ireland and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland received a Special Award for the Outstanding Arts Event of 2002 at the Allianz Business2Arts Awards in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, presented by the President.

Antti Siirala   

In 2003 the Board of NYOI offered two prizes of concerto appearances with the orchestras to the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition and was honoured that this offer was accepted. A prize is offered to the overall winner to perform with NYSOI. This resulted in the wonderful performance at the start of Cork 2005 in City Hall Cork by Antti Siirala of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No2. A prize is also offered of a performance with NYOI to the highest placed Irish candidate. In 2003 this prize was won by Cathal Breslin from Derry who toured with NYOI in Ireland performing Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini in concert venues around the country, including Cloister Éinne, Inis Mór, Aran Islands.

Andrey Boreyko   

Andrew Boreyko conducted “Petrushka” in New Year 2001 and the remarkable Estonian Eri Klas conducted a memorable 7 th Symphony of Shostakovitch in summer 2001, with Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs sung by Franzita Whelan in the first half. Eri returned in 2004 to tour with the orchestra in Europe conducting Holst’s The Planets. In 2003 the summer brought Atso Almila, a former pupil of Panula and Professor of Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki to Ireland from Kuopio, Finland. Atso, in addition to making friends with the orchestra and all things Irish, directed a programme of Prokofiev and Sibelius, and gave conducting master classes for student conductors and established conductors, all working with member orchestras of the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras. His work in this field is inspirational. 2004 opened with the Principal Guest Conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, William Eddins on the podium conducting ( and sometimes not conducting) Ravel’s Bolero, Gershwin’s Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess and Nielsen’s 4th Symphony “The Inextinguishable”.

The RING  

At the conclusion of last year’s season NYOI heard that CLASSICAL MUSIC magazine’s music critic in Birmingham in its December 18 th 2004 edition selected NYSOI’s performance of Philip Hammond’s Carnavalesque conducted in Symphony Hall on August 1st by Marion Wood as the UK premiere of the year in Birmingham. Birmingham Post also selected The RING Highlights CD, recorded under the baton of Alexander Anissimov in August 2002 in Limerick and Symphony Hall, Birmingham and launched in summer 2004 as CD of the year in 2004.

Candace Whitehead   

In 2005 the names of the various ensembles were adjusted to take account of recent developments. The very successful National Youth String Training Orchestra , conducted by Candace Whitehead, NYSTO, made a place for itself as the bottom rung of the NYOI ladder for strings. Gearóid’s band took on the responsibility of being the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland , while the older orchestra, aged 18 to 23, are to be known from 2005 onwards as the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, while NYOI Camerata Strings are formed from members of NYSOI working under the direction of Michael d’Arcy.

Takuo Yuasa   

Atso Almila   

In the summer of 2006 NYSOI, conducted by Atso Almila, gave two performances in Ireland before a tour taking in Finland. The programme included Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto with soloist Finghin Collins and Prokofiev's 5th Symphony.

The NYOI under the baton of Gearóid Grant with soloist Simon Aspell gave a concert tour in the summer of 2006 with Walton's rarely heard and wonderfully orchestrated viola concerto and Mahler's 1st Symphony. This tour included a long overdue performance at the Ulster Hall in Belfast on 8 th July and a final concert at the National Concert Hall on 9th July.

Joanna Crooks, General Manager, bowed out in August 2006 after the tour to Finland for a well-deserved retirement.

Eri Klas   

In the winter of 2007 the NYSOI were again joined by Eri Klas for Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 (Winter Dreams) and the tone poem, Ein Heldenleben, from the pen of Richard Strauss played at the Toyota Irealnd New Year Gala Concerts in Limerick and Dublin.

From Autumn 2006 to June 2007 the organisation was under the management of the Acting General Manager (and Administrative Officer), Gillian Sheils.

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In the summer of 2007 members of the NYOI and NYSOI came together under the baton of Gearóid Grant to perform in Waterford, Limerick and Dublin. The soloist for these concerts was Michael McHale who was awarded the the Brennan and Field Prizes in the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition 2006.

The programme included Smetana's Overture to The Bartered Bride, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5 "The Emperor" and Shostakovich's Symphony No.5.

In June we welcomed Zoe Keers as the new General Manager.

Due to the falling numbers auditioning for the orchestras in the past few years, a new process was put in place for the 2007-2008 season. Auditions were held in Dublin, Cork, Galway and London. Every player was required to apply.

Auditions were not split into different levels as before. Two sets of extracts were sent out to each applicant and it was hoped that two balanced symphony orchestras would result.

Although there was an increase in the number of applicants the results of the auditions showed that there were marked gaps in some sections and this resulted in only one main symphony orchestra – called the NYOI Symphony Orchestra – being formed with the best players both under and over 18 years of age.

With the large number of string players applying a string orchestra was also formed – called the NYOI Strings. A group of under 18 year old wind, brass and percussion players were successful at audition. However several sections were very short of the required numbers and consequently a balanced symphony orchestra could not be formed. More auditions in oboe, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone & tuba will be held in the Spring to try and plug these gaps. If these are successful then a junior symphony orchestra course and performances will take place in Summer 2008. Otherwise the NYOI Strings course will take place again .

A strategic review was carried out in October 2007 to pave the way for a clear vision and plan for the future and to indicate the necessary resources - both human and financial - needed to enforce that plan. A copy of this review can be downloaded here.

In the Winter of 2007/8 the NYOI Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the Swiss born, world renowned conductor Matthias Bamert in a challenging programme of Rossini’s Overture to The Thieving Magpie, the Violin Concerto by Sibelius where the orchestra were joined by the exciting young soloist, Nicola Benedetti, and the extravagant tone poem by Richard Strauss – The Alpine Symphony. Concerts took place in University Concert Hall, Limerick and The National Concert Hall, Dublin.

The NYOI Strings entertained a New Year’s Day audience at The Helix, Dublin with a programme of Elgar, Samuel Barber, Arthur Duff and the Serenade for Strings in C by Tchaikovsky.

Learn & Explore  

In June 2008 members of the NYOI were invited to take part in the National Concert Hall's 'Learn & Explore' programme as mentors to the Dublin Children’s Orchestra made up of primary school children from St Agnes’ Crumlin, Holy Spirit Primary School Ballymun and St Michaels’ Ballyfermot.

The fantastic NYOI String Group, directed by Elizabeth Cooney, performed in the National Concert Hall where they performed Dvorak’s Nocturne for String Orchestra. They were also honoured to play the “Dublin Suite” by Joanna Martin, commissioned by the National Concert Hall, alongside the Dublin Children’s Orchestra.

The event was attended by the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe.

Interlaken Hall   

In Summer 2008 the NYOI Junior Orchestra (NYOI JO) toured Ireland - Waterford, Belmullet and Dublin - for their Summer Proms 2008 under the baton of Gearóid Grant.

Their programme included Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 2, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, with soloist Gwendolyn Masin - a former member of the NYOI and Dvorák's Symphony No. 8.

We were saddened to learn of the death of our long-term benefactor, Dr. Tim Mahony and we dedicated our concert in the Mahony Hall, the Helix, to him.

In Summer 2008 the NYOI Symphony Orchestra (NYOI SO) met up for a short course here at home for sectionals and then travelled to Bern and Interlaken in Switzerland for full rehearsals both for their own performance and to take part in a project to mark the 150th anniversary of the Bern Conservatory of Music. Their conductor was Atso Almila.

Their programme included Mussorgsky-Rimsky's A Night on a Bald Mountain, Schumann's Cello Concerto with x-NYOI player, Clíodhna Ní Aodáin as soloist, who now teaches in the the Musikschule Konservatorium Bern, and Alexander Skrjabin's Le Poème d'Extase.

The January 2009 series of concerts opened with a magical collaboration between the NYOI Junior Orchestra and the Irish Film Institute. This was a screening of the award winning Peter and the Wolf - The Movie with live orchestral accompaniment. This concert took place in the Helix on New Year’s Day was was enjoyed immensely by a large audience which included many children. The NYOI JO also played music from The Snowman, Strauss and some Christmas favourities.

The NYOI Symphony Orchestra ended their Winter course with their usual series of New Year Gala concerts in UCH, Limerick and NCH, Dublin. A difficult programme of Le Corsaire by Berlioz, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra under the baton of Christophe Mangou with soloist, Romain Descharmes.

During the Summer of 2009 The NYOI Symphony Orchestra was joined by the wonderful Dame Evelyn Glennie as soloist for Schwantner's Percussion Concerto and who also played alongside the NYOI SO percussionists in Minoru Miki's Marimba Spiritual.

Concerts in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow were conducted by Diego Masson and the orchestra also performed Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. Michael Tumelty writing in The Herald, after the Glasgow concert said of the NYOI SO that they "played out of their skins in one of the most thrilling accounts of Bruckner's great warhorse that I have ever heard".

The NYOI Junior Orchestra's Summers 2009 performances were in Waterford, Galway and Cork. The concert programme included The Hebrides Overture by Mendelssohn, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with soloist, Julian Bliss and Symphony in D Minor by Franck. The concercerts were conducted by Gearóid Grant.