eyo is an independent youth orchestra, self-financed, run by and for a membership that's drawn from a wide area of West London. Its 70 players are drawn from over 20 different secondary schools. The target age range is 13–19 years, although exceptions are made at the discretion of the musical director. The orchestra exists to give young players the experience of rehearsing and performing music to a high standard. Its concert programme of full symphonic pieces, concerti and repertoire for chamber orchestra brings eyo players into contact with a broad range of works.
In 2005 eyo won an Allianz Cornhill Musical Insurance Youth Orchestra Award. This funded the project of auditioning young professional soloists from London music colleges to take part in a series of four remarkable performances of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto, Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.
In 2006, the orchestra collaborated with the composer Hywel Davies in a series of workshop sessions and subsequently performed Three Orchestral Sketches on 29 April 2006. As the result of a successful application to the Performing Rights Society Foundation, eyo commissioned a second work from Hywel. Study No. 4. Conducted by eyo musical director Leon Gee it was first performed on 30 June 2007.
eyo rehearses on Fridays in school term time from 6.00 – 8.30 pm at Twyford Church of England High School, Twyford Crescent, Acton, London W3 9PP.
Who We Are