Sydney Youth Orchestras has launched the Western Sydney Youth Orchestra based at Parramatta Riverside Theatres.

Sydney Youth Orchestras has announced the launch of its 2017 audition registrations with the news that they will be creating a brand new Western Sydney Youth Orchestra based at Parramatta Riverside Theatres. The new WYSO, led by James Pensini, is supported by Founding Partners Fort Street Capital with Dixon Advisory and Riverside Theatres, and aims to provide educational opportunities for musicians across Greater Western Sydney.

“Young Western Sydney musicians might have been dissuaded from auditioning for SYO because of the distance, so we have decided to bring an orchestra to them,” said SYO CEO Yarmila Alfonzetti. “We have people coming to SYO from as far as Wollongong. We know for a fact that one of the most significant barriers to participation in classical music is distance. Western Sydney is a huge area – it includes the Blue Mountains, the Hills District and Campbelltown.”

With almost a quarter of the State’s young people living in Western Sydney, Alfonzetti hopes the WSYO will encourage participation from musicians who might not be able to make it into Sydney’s CBD for rehearsals once a week. While she is full of praise for the music teachers and music education programmes at schools in Western Sydney, Alfonzetti believes there is nothing like a youth orchestra for providing practical experience in orchestral playing. “It’s hard to get through all the repertoire you need to learn to be an orchestral musician,” she said.

Youth orchestras also create a unique, inspiring environment for young musicians. “We have 15-year-old boys hanging around after rehearsals arguing about Mahler symphonies or discussing their favourite Strauss Tone Poem,” Alfonzetti explained. The WYSO will be conducted by James Pensini, who rose through the ranks of the SYO family on trumpet and is now Head of Brass, Woodwind and Percussion and Head of Bands at St Aloysius’ College, Mosman – he also conducts the SYO’s Symphonic Wind Orchestra.

“James Pensini is a taskmaster – but he’s fun,” said Alfonzetti. “I’ve got a degree in musicology but I’m still learning things when I go along to his rehearsals. He brings a real, hard-core musicianship and very high expectations to the rehearsals.”

The new orchestra will have access to all the orchestral infrastructure and educational experience of the SYO. “We have all this IP, it makes sense to roll it out,” said Alfonzetti, “The WSYO will be part of the SYO family, they will have the same opportunities as the other orchestras in terms of masterclasses and access to our resources. For instance, we had Christian Tetzlaff playing Mozart with one of our fourth tier orchestras the other day – 12 year olds – and he said, ‘I can’t believe these kids spend their Saturdays playing Mozart and Beethoven and Haydn!’”

The SYO began in 1973 with a single orchestra, but in 2017 the organisation will provide weekly orchestral training for musicians between the ages of six and 25 across 12 ensembles. “We are dedicated to identifying and nurturing talented young musicians from across greater metropolitan Sydney and beyond,” said Alfonzetti, “and once identified, we work tirelessly to provide them with quality orchestral training and music education”.


Registrations for the Sydney Youth Orchestras’ 2017 programmes are now open

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