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Young Sounds UK bring Discover training to Aberdeen
We’ve been running our Discover training in England since 2008 and we’re now looking to start the programme in Scotland! Starting with free sessions in Aberdeen.
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Exchange – Insight Day at MediaCity
On Sunday 11 May 2025 we were delighted to welcome some of the advanced orchestral instrumentalists from our Thrive programme to the third Insight Day of our Exchange mentoring programme with the BBC Orchestras. This time, we were at Manchester’s iconic MediaCity!
Through Exchange, 24 young orchestral musicians were matched with a player from one of the five BBC Orchestras, who has been their mentor for an academic year. As well as 1:1 mentoring time, the young musicians have met for a series of Insight Days, including playing alongside BBC musicians and learning about careers on and off the stage.
The musicians were treated to an enriching day at dock10, the UK’s leading television facility and home to the BBC Philharmonic Studio.
Working alongside musicians from across the BBC Orchestras, the day included musical activities, insightful Q&As, and a behind-the-scenes experience with Radio 3!
Breaking the ice
The day began in the BBC Philharmonic Studio with warm-up activities led by BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) cellist Michael Atkinson. The musical games included ‘talking’ to each other via their instruments through changes to dynamics, note duration and timbre.
Audition preparation
Many of the young musicians on our Exchange programme are preparing for major auditions, for Conservatoire, University or ensembles such as The National Youth Orchestra. The idea of your future hinging on how you perform just a few short pieces can certainly be intimidating, even to seasoned professionals.
Violinist and leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Zoë Beyers, chaired an all-things-auditions Q&A between our young people and the BBC mentors. They shared their experiences and insights both as panellists and auditionees. Three young musicians then bravely participated in a mock audition and were given feedback and coaching aimed to increase their confidence and resilience.
Radio workshop
The day continued with a short walk over to Dock House, where many BBC radio programmes are recorded and broadcast. Here, BBC Radio 3 editor Marie-Claire Doris and producer Helen Wiliams guided the young musicians through the process of creating their own radio show in the style of BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. Each young person took on a specific role – producer, presenter, technician, interviewee or news reader – and recorded a short show.
When not taking part in the radio workshop, young musicians had informal group mentoring time with the musicians, talking about everything from progression routes, to how to stay motivated when lacking energy to practice, to tips and tricks for networking.
Creative compositions
For the final activity of the day, the young musicians and mentors from the Exchange mentoring programme reconvened in the BBC Philharmonic Studio for a creative composition activity led by composer and arranger for the BBC Concert Orchestra, Sarah Freestone and Matthew Crisp, an alumnus of Young Sounds and mentor for Connect.
Breaking out into groups, the mentors and mentees reflected on their experiences of the mentoring process and where it may take them in the future. Then, the groups were challenged to use their reflections as a basis to create a graphic score – a non-traditional way of writing music that favours images, colour, symbols or words over standard notation. To close up the day the scores were then interpreted and shared as short, improvised pieces with the rest of the musicians.
We’d like to thank the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Proms and the BBC Philharmonic Learning teams, Marie-Claire Doris, Helen Williams, the BBC Chaperones and all the young musicians and BBC Orchestra musicians who took part.