Massed Youth Performers Commission
Back in October last year I was asked to write a piece to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Maidstone Youth Music Society along with fellow musician Graham Mann. I jumped at the chance because I grew up myself benefitting from going to “MYMS” and cutting my teeth on percussion in its wind bands and orchestras.
In the planning sessions that followed, Graham and I decided to split the piece into 4 movements, he took the outer ones, leaving me with the filling in the sandwich. It was quite a challenge working out how to connect the musicians who comprised beginners to grade 8 players but we managed to find a path that worked which necessitated the creation of a rather large score.
In the end we had over 170 performers at the premier at Mote Hall in Maidstone including 4 wind bands, a symphony orchestra, a string orchestra, percussion ensemble and choir. I also had the honour of rehearsing and conducting the performance at the gig which was rather fun.