The Young European Strings School of Music is located in Dublin, Ireland and specialises in the early development and training of young professional musicians. The YES School of Music provides tuition for the violin, viola, cello and double bass. The Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra has performed throughout Europe and has released three albums to date.
History
Young European Strings was established in 1988 by Hungarian-born viola player Maria Kelemen. Kelemen’s grandmother, pianist Emilia Schoffan, founded the first private music school in Budapest in the early twentieth century. Kelemen left Hungary in 1956 to study at the Brussels and Liège Royal Music Conservatories and began her professional career at the age of twenty as the leader of the viola section in the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra where she remained until 1984. Kelemen moved to Ireland in 1987 and founded Young European Strings a year later to develop the music potential of young children from the age of two and a half years, integrating her own methods with the Kodály Approach.
Teaching Method
The YES School of Music employs a teaching method called the Kodály Method, a child-centred approach based on developing the inner ear that stimulates the curiosity and imagination of very young children through the singing voice and game playing, fostering in students not only the ability to play an instrument, but learning and life-development skills in general. Maria Kelemen emphasises ‘a personal and even physical experience of music’ in her teaching methods, integrating the parts of Kodály’s philosophy that she believes in, specifically, ‘his priority of making children hear the notes they are singing or playing in their heads.’
Examinations
Students of the YES School of Music are annually presented in graded practical and theory examinations before ABRSM, the world's leading authority on musical assessment.
Orchestras
The orchestras of the YES School of Music comprise the Junior Orchestra, the Intermediate Orchestra, and the Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Professor Ronald Masin. YESCO made their international debut with a concert tour of Finland in January 2001. In 2006, YESCO won the Achievement Award from the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras and, in 2009, won first prize in the 'Orchestras' category in the international festival ‘Jugend & Musik in Wien’. In 2014, YESCO will perform at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. The YES Chamber Orchestra has to date released three albums: the first, a self-titled album, in November 2003 featured music by Tchaikovsky and Grieg, amongst other compositions for strings. The second album, The Marino Suite, was a collaboration between YESCO and John Sheahan of The Dubliners, including arrangements of Sheahan's melodies by renowned Irish composer Raymond Deane. The most recent release, Third Edition, includes music by Mahler, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of the 'Five Piece Suite' by Raymond Deane.
