Cornwall Youth Jazz Orchestra

Over the years CYJO has performed at many prestigious events including TV’s ‘Children In Need’, Paddington Station to help celebrate 100 years of the Great Western Railway, Bude Jazz Festival and Lanhydrock Jazz in the Park.

Cornwall has long been associated with quality youth jazz. In the 1980s under the tutelage of John Austin and Bob Peters, the Cornwall Youth Jazz Orchestra was first formed to provide a top-level big band experience for young jazz players from Cornwall.

30 years on and Music Cornwall still supports CYJO, which now boasts 2 Orchestras, CYJO2 which provides an entry-level opportunity for young players with no previous experience of big-band style music, and CYJO1 which plays more advanced charts at a higher level of expertise. CYJO also has an 8-piece ensemble, ‘The Groove Merchants’, which give the more advanced instrumentalists a chance to stretch out and undertake more improvisation. The Groove Merchants are available to book for weddings, functions and smaller venues.

CYJO membership covers the whole county, from Bude in the north-east to Penzance in the south-west. The orchestras rehearse once a month in Pool near Redruth, and have a long-standing relationship with Carnglaze Caverns outside Bodmin where we traditionally perform our end-of-season concert in March of each year. CYJO and CYJO2 are both available for events throughout the summer.

Hand-in-hand with CYJO, Jazz Improvisation Classes are held weekly during term time to provide young jazz players with a progressive means of learning more about the theory and practice of improvising on their instrument. The classes assume no prior knowledge of this skill, and gradually teach the basics of jazz theory whilst giving the class members ample chance to try out their ideas both during the classes and at home, using online resources such as play files which they can download and use to accompany themselves. These classes are open to all students county-wide, and minimum requirements are some facility on their instrument and a desire to learn more about improvising. Regrettably drummers and pianists cannot be accommodated at the present time due to available instruments.

Music Cornwall is recognised nationally as one of the leading partners with the National Youth Jazz Collective. Music Cornwall students have been more successful gaining places on the NYJC Summer School than any other local authority, and Music Cornwall is second only to the Royal Academy of Music in the number of young jazz hopefuls attending these courses.

For more information on CYJO, the Jazz Impro Classes or any other aspect of Jazz in Cornwall, please contact Andy Bilham [email protected]