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Dec 05 2022 
Opening night of the Music for Youth Proms
The Music for Youth Proms is a spectacular national showcase event held at the Royal Albert Hall in November of every year. It provides a brilliant snapshot of young people’s music-making across the UK. The 2021 event was hailed as the most diverse ever, and this year proved no exception.
A few members of the team were lucky enough to attend on the opening night. Here’s how it went down…On Tuesday 15th November the Take it away team visited the world famous Royal Albert Hall to see the first in this year’s Music For Youth Proms concerts.
Since the inaugural concert in 1975, the Proms have been the grand finale to Music for Youth annual calendar of events. Appearing at the concerts were musicians and ensembles who have performed at the National and Regional Festivals earlier in the year, along with ensembles who were brought together to perform a piece of music commissioned especially for each concert.
Taking our seats, we were struck by the palpable excitement from both the audience and the performers in the vast auditorium. For many involved this represented the highlight of several months hard work and preparation, and many in the audience had travelled across the country to see family members perform.
A showcase of young talent
The evening opened in spectacular fashion with Walthamstow School for Girls performing Sunrise from Also Sprach Zarathustra, known to many as the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey on steel pan drums. We were then treated to a fantastic performance of pop hits from Rubik’s Cube, an ensemble from the Osborne School in Winchester, a maintained special school for pupils with learning disabilities aged 11-19.
Other highlights included the virtuosic Gwent Music Harp Ensemble and Pear, who were a singer instrumentalist duo who had the whole audience in the palm of their hand for their performance.
A spectacular finale
The evening came to a rousing conclusion with the finale written by Adey Grummet and Michael Henry and performed by everyone in the hall and even gave us an opportunity to flex our vocal chords with some audience participation! It was a truly wonderful finish to an evening of performances from talented young musicians. We look forward to coming back next year!
Rubik’s Cube Music for Youth Proms 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bin8h1HhUcc
Music for Youth Interviews Pear
