From building their confidence to boosting their skills, two of our Coventry-based members share their NOFA story…
This week, the inspiring group of young people known as National Orchestra for All (NOFA) will be reuniting in the striking surrounds of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for their exciting summer residential.
Taking place from 1-4 August, the four-day event will be a non-stop celebration of inclusive music-making and togetherness, with each member of the diverse ensemble being fully supported throughout – both musically and emotionally, based on their individual needs and preferences – by a friendly team of professional tutors.
While NOFA’s lively gatherings have always been joyous and memorable in equal measure, with nearly 100 young people from across the UK now making their way to the Conservatoire, we’re pleased to share that the youth orchestra has finally reached its pre-pandemic numbers – making this residential especially significant.
Ahead of the musical festivities, we caught up with 12-year-old flautist, Lola, and 17-year-old euphonium player, Christian, who were both introduced to NOFA via Coventry Music Hub, to find out what it means to be part of our vibrant musical family.
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Sharing her thoughts on what makes NOFA so special (watch full interview above), Lola said: “Meeting new friends and building my confidence. I love the music we’re playing and I like seeing people who play the same instrument as me! When I first joined, when I first played, I felt like I wasn’t getting judged.
“I feel like people think in their own opinion that they're getting judged – but when you play, it lets it all out and you have confidence. If you mess up or feel like people are going to laugh or like you’re getting judged all the time, you’re not.”
Describing why other young people should join an orchestra like NOFA, she added: “Music, in my opinion, is about expressing yourself in your own way. I feel like you should definitely join an orchestra because it’s really helped me with talking to people and with playing my instrument. It’s helped me learn new notes and different dynamics. You get better at your instrument and you can hear all the other instruments. If you want to play another instrument, then you can hear that too!”
Lola isn’t the only young musician looking forward to the summer residential. Speaking about his experience with NOFA (watch full interview below), Christian told us: “In a lot of orchestras, the only person with the power is probably the conductor, maybe the concertmaster. I’m literally just a person on the euphonium, which a lot of people wouldn’t pay attention to, but at NOFA, I’ve had talks with people to try and see if I can learn new repertoire and even conducted the orchestra myself, so I think that’s pretty cool!”
Explaining why he feels diversity and inclusion is so important, he commented: “Back when we had Baroque, Classical, Romantic music… a lot of it was written by white composers, with white musicians playing it. A lot of the time you’d never see anybody else from different backgrounds in orchestras, or composing or playing the music.
Read more: 13 ways you can be kind to others in an inclusive youth orchestra >
“I think that if we have orchestras with more diversity, it can bring new ideas as music from around the world comes in all different forms. With African drumming, rhythm is given a lot more emphasis. Then if we go to Indian music, they have different scales, which Western music wouldn’t use.”
Highlighting some of the music in NOFA’s current season of repertoire, Christian said: “The first one I want to talk about is from a video game called Hollow Knight, which I think is quite interesting as compared to the other seasons I’ve played in, this is the first time we’ve done a song from a game, which I think is pretty good! There are a lot of game composers that get inspiration from orchestral music but you never really hear them played, unlike some of the bigger composers.”
Pictured: 17-year-old NOFA member, Christian, tries his hand at conducting during the spring residential
“The other piece is called ‘Ghost Town’, which is by a band who actually originated in Coventry! The song talks about what Coventry was like when it went through an era of everything going wrong. Everything was really bad then – and the song just talks about that time. The piece we’re playing is basically just an orchestral version of it, which is quite interesting because I don’t think I would be able to make an orchestral composition of a song like that!
“[NOFA] does help a lot of young musicians to build their musical ability; when I first started, I’d say I was terrible at euphonium. The repertoire they’ve given me, especially in the last season when we did ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’, was very challenging – but I’m able to play it now and I think that challenge is really good as it helps you to improve.”
On behalf of everyone at Orchestras for All, we would like to thank our funders, Arts Council England, the Department for Education and D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, as well as our individual donors and charity volunteers, for making this life-changing musical programme possible.
To support the young people in National Orchestra for All and contribute towards our vital work, please donate what you can today:
