Cork Youth Orchestra

You probably know that the CYO (Cork Youth Orchestra, the primordial soup that has been a springboard for most of the best musicians ever to come out of cork) is 50 years old this year and is having a few anniversary events. The first will be on April19th in City Hall. All past members are invited back. There are over 100 of the past members who will play for a 20 minute slot in City Hall along with the current members of the orchestra lead by Daniel Lehane under the baton of Tomás and then Terry is going to take the reigns of the Junior CYO, the evening will be hosted by the hardest working woman in showbusiness since James Brown bit the big one in '06, and one of my heros, Evelyn Grant. The programme has all the favourites, Mars and Jupiter from The Planets, Pirates of the Caribbean, a bit of Tchaik (who remembers all the words that Brian Murphy thought us all those years ago...) and of course my personal favorite, The Dambusters March. I have great memories of my first time playing that ditty in a concert somewhere in kerry, picture the scene, back desk of violas with Eoin Schmidt-Martin, sitting right in front of the trombones who were particularly generous with their supply of "condensation spray" from their instruments, by the time we were on the last few lines, the sheet music was drenched and all the ink had ran down the page rendering it illegible so we made up the ending. ALSO not to forget all the sing-songs on the busses and staying up late sneaking out the the pub AND there was that time when Eoin and me got in serious trouble for taking banjo style solo's during a 4 bar rest of jesus christ superstar, happy days. There is a website here and here if you want to contact the orchestra to wish them happy birthday OR to sign up for a tune or two. Keep an eye out for the mother and daughter desk of violins too, my mom and sis are signing up for a play. Happy Birthday CYO!