Congratulations to Grosvenor pupils Lucy Hamilton, James Magrath, Ben Russell and Fiona Kelly, each of whom were recently selected to participate as members of the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra at the renowned ‘Youth Proms’, held in in the salubrious surroundings of London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Last year, the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra entered the prestigious ‘Music For Youth’ (MFY) competition in order to audition for a place in one of the three nights of the ‘Youth Proms’, a UK-wide youth orchestra competition. A Northern Irish act was sought to perform on each night and, with this in mind, the orchestra recorded and sent in a video audition, whereby each member was attired in their school uniform; this was to demonstrate the diversity within the orchestra and, therefore, each member was representing their own school.

The audition was processed and the orchestra won the final slot on the third night, which would close the entire Youth Proms. Unfortunately, the act for the Tuesday night was unable to attend its slot and therefore CBYO swapped slots with them so that it would instead close the Tuesday night, when they played the pieces “Out of Africa”, “Intermezzo” and “Let’s Get Together” for the finale.

Well done to the CBYO as a whole, and Grosvenor’s participants in particular, on their involvement in such an esteemed event; we look forward to hearing about their further musical endeavors over the remainder of the year.