On Saturday 29th August, 2009, SYO went to Edinburgh to play in the NAYO Festival of British Youth Orchestras. Since I enjoyed it so much, I thought I’d write a blog post on it.
I had been camping with my scout group in Bude for two weeks before, which meant that I couldn’t go to Edinburgh with the rest of the orchestra on a coach, although from what I heard this was probably a good thing, as there was no air conditioning on a sunny morning… Instead, I caught a plane from Exeter, and was up in Edinburgh by about nine in the morning: since I was there several hours before everyone else, I took the opportunity to do what tourists do and buy some computer games. From the Game store there, I bought Deus Ex Complete and the Fallout Collection: both games I’ve wanted for a long time. We met up with the rest of the orchestra for lunch in the canteen of the Edinburgh College of Art, which involved some suitably greasy lasagne.
Following that, we wondered down to the concert hall, for a rehearsal which lasted all afternoon. This was especially important for me, as this concert was my first as Principal Clarinettist, and I was playing solos in Peter and the Wolf and Night on the bare Mountain. The rehearsal went well, and after this we walked back to the canteen for profiteroles and lentil soup. Yes, you read that right. It became more interesting when various profiteroles were inserted into the lentil soup: you can see more of that on Anita’s video.
The concert itself went brilliantly. It was the best that we’ve every played as an orchestra (while I’ve been there, obviously), and recordings were made which will appear on YouTube soon (in theory). The Cat (listen from 3:10 onwards, although this isn’t me playing it…) went really well, and so did the solo in Night on the Bare Mountain, which was amazing. As you can see, the room that we kept our instruments/clothes in had an amazing sign on the door:
After the concert, we returned to the hall of residence in which we were staying, to eat some food and then sleep. Unfortunately, since we were late back from the concert we missed the opportunity to use the room that we originally intended to, so we ended up in one of the lounges, eating sandwhiches and discussing xkcd. We were thrown out of that room at about one in the morning, so wandered the corridors for a couple of hours, annoying people and creating some awful in-jokes which will haunt SYO for years…
The next morning, after eating breakfast we were driven into the centre of Edinburgh, with the original plan being to visit the castle. A select group of players, however, decided not to do that, so headed along Princes Street generally making a nuiscance of their selves (me included). We found an exhibition of silly signs (part of the Fringe), so photos were taken…
We stood in a park-y thing for a few hours, watching the ‘Awesome Singing Dude’ (Group Hug!), and then I was harrassed brutally by various people (ANITALOUISEANNA), and had things done to my face with eye liner which were not suitable for young children.
The journey back (with the rest of SYO this time) was amusing… The highlight of the journey was the rewriting of various songs from Les Miserables to be based around shortbread. One is included for your amusement:
There is a shortbread on a cloud,
I like to eat it in my sleep,
Aren’t any crumbs for me to sweep,
Not from my shortbread on a cloud.
There is a room that’s full of shortbread,
There are a hundred pieces of shortbread,
Nobody eats or chews too loud,
Not from my shortbread on a cloud.
There is a shortbread iced in white,
Hold it and take a gentle bite,
It’s nice to taste and it’s soft to touch,
I say, “Shortbread, I love you very much”.
I know a place where shortbread’s eaten,
I know a place where shortbread’s loved,
Gavin at all is not allowed,
Not in my shortbread on a cloud.
