Essex Ensembles Assembled

Thanks to a grant from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, since 2020 we have been digitising recordings of performances by the Essex Youth Orchestra and Colchester Youth Chamber Orchestra from the 1960s to the 2000s.

As an aural record, the recordings provide a unique insight into the changing nature and repertoire of youth orchestras in Essex over the past fifty years, and give a platform to local musicians, conductors and composers.

They also capture music-making that is often lost to posterity, with performances by the Second Essex Youth Orchestra as well as the First, and the occasional wrong note or cough from the audience. Nevertheless, as a whole the recordings reveal a high standard of performance, and demonstrate what young people can contribute to music in Essex and beyond.