REVIEW: Westmorland Youth Orchestra concert, Kendal Parish Church
WHAT appetites these young players have! 
No safe ground here; instead, for its end-of-year concert the Westmorland Youth Orchestra chose works peppered with virtuosic solos, wicked rhythmic challenges and rapid changes of tempo. 
Scheherazade is a seriously long play and yet, even though its youngest players are still in primary school, the energy and accuracy of the orchestra seemed to build over time, as if the music was a food source in itself. 
The solo violin part – the voice of the Sultana – was delivered by retiring orchestra leader Freya Rock with astonishingly mature technique, ending with repeated top-string harmonics in the dying phrases. She received the annual Probus Award for services to the orchestra.
Clarinettist Jack Horrocks took the limelight with complete conviction in Gershwin’s Walking the Dog – pure Benny Goodman. Conductor Roland Fudge confidently walked away after a few bars and simply left the orchestra to get on with it, without him. Impressive.
Bassoonist Amy Thompson’s arrangement of Prokofiev’s Hebrew Themes cleverly shared the original haunting clarinet theme around the septet who performed in the round - 'conductorlessly'.
The impressively large audience were welcomed into their seats in Kendal Parish Church with real panache by the WYO brass group, showcasing the young blood feeding into this dynamic orchestra.
ANDREW FORSYTH