Our Ensembles

String Orchestras

What's it all about?

We have three string orchestras: Junior Strings, Intermediate Strings, and Bury Youth Strings

String orchestras are made up of Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double Basses. The string family (Squad) makes a beautiful rich sound when they play together, with lots of different colours and tones. Don’t think we only play classical music either. Our repertoire is a wide ranging and exciting, so there’s always something for everyone to love playing.

About our lessons

Junior Strings

Our most beginner group, having lots of fun making music together, learning about how to play together in an ensemble, making lots of noise and creating amazing sounds together. 

For most of our members they haven’t been playing very long and our teachers support them helping them to feel really confident. Our older students mentor our younger ones, helping them settle in too. Lots of our Junior String members also sing with Junior Youth Choir before their rehearsal where they make loads of friends whilst developing vital musicianship skills which improves their string playing.  

When? Saturday mornings, 11:15-12:30    

Led by: Dave Price and Samantha Elkinson   

We tend to perform in at least two concerts a year and love to create online concerts for our You Tube channel! 

Intermediate Strings

This group is for our more advanced members, working at around grade 2 to grade 4. Here we play slightly more challenging music, exploring more techniques to make our performances sparkle.

Here we prepare students to move up into our Youth String Orchestra and Youth Orchestra. We still have lots of fun and our teachers still support the members in their learning. Lots of our Intermediate String members also sing with Intermediate Youth Choir which rehearses after their string rehearsal where they make loads of friends whilst developing vital musicianship skills which improves their string playing. 

When? Saturday mornings, 9:30-10:45 

Led by: Samantha Elkinson  

We perform in at least two concerts a year. 

Bury Youth Strings

This is our most advanced String orchestra and the one we are working towards being ready for, throughout our musical journey. 

Bury Youth Strings play much more varied and challenging repertoire which really pushes our members to be the best musicians they can be. We get to perform at least three times a year and have had the opportunity to travel all over the country and overseas.  

Members are usually around grade 5 plus but the standard varies from year to year. We only move members up into this group when we feel they are ready for the challenges and have had enough experience of ensemble playing to feel confident and happy in the group. Once ready, our members are usually offered a place in our prestigious Youth Orchestra too and so they get to play with us on a Friday night and Saturday morning. 

When? Saturday mornings, 9.30-10.45

Conducted by: Dave Price

How do I join?

It works just like a membership to any other group.

Our ensemble fee is £35 per term, which allows you to join as many ensembles as you like. Our experienced teaching staff are ready to help guide you along whichever path you choose.

Enquire now