History

The National Youth Recorder Orchestra gave its inaugural concert in June 2002 with 60 auditioned young players from the British Isles under the batons of Colin Touchin, Dennis Bamforth and Colin Martin. The Society of Recorder Players, at the suggestion of Colin Touchin, launched the Orchestra with the help of a legacy from the late Arthur Ingram, a former Treasurer of the Society. This organisation celebrated its 65th birthday in 2002, and continues to exist to promote the instrument and its repertoire.  The National Youth Recorder Orchestras are promoted by the society to demonstrate the highest quality of youth orchestral performance and its equivalence to other national instrumental youth orchestras.

Since 2002 NYRO courses have taken place every year with concerts given in London, Kendal, Street (Somerset), at The Sage, Gateshead and Birmingham Conservatoire with the standard of auditioned players rising, and the repertoire performed including both original compositions and arrangements.  During the weeklong intensive course, players have the opportunity to benefit from expert tuition covering all aspects of technique and interpretation during sectional and orchestral rehearsal, from the conductors and music tutors.

With the ensemble standard rising, in 2005 the orchestra expanded into two ensembles: a training orchestra (NYTRO) was established to feed directly into NYRO.  In 2006, the orchestra was branded with a new logo as the National Youth Recorder Orchestras, incorporating both the National Youth Recorder Orchestra and the National Youth Training Recorder Orchestra. In 2007, Blockwork was formed: a new one-to-a-part ensemble by invitation only.

NYRO gave performances abroad in two significant events during the year 2004-05: The First International Convention of Recorder Orchestras (ICRO) in Holland, and the Steps in Time Recorder Festival in Armidale, Australia.