Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Matthew Krel  
© SBS Youth Orchestra

The SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra will disband after 25 years. The orchestra's board has decided to wind up activities and put the cash towards a scholarship carrying Matthew Krel's name as part of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Fellowship Program. The orchestra's 12-24-year-old musicians were informed this week.

The orchestra has been operating as a non-profit company, Youth Musical Endeavours, funded through membership fees, performance receipts and sponsorship revenue. SBS's role has been to provide rehearsal space, a small office and access to administration support services. According to the Sydney Morning Herald (21 November), the orchestra is still financially in a relatively stable position, however its future prospects are not as promising, and the death in 2009 of conductor Matthew Krel has left the orchestra without a creative driving force.

'In his 20 years as conductor, Matthew Krel built the orchestra into a formidable youth ensemble', said Ian Hamilton, secretary of SBS Youth Orchestra since its inception. 'I am so pleased we can honour Matthew and continue his commitment to young musicians of the highest calibre by endowing a chair in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Fellowship program'.

The program provides training to nine young musicians annually, to help them make the transition from student to professional musician. The Matthew Krel Fellowship Chair will start with the 2014 intake of Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows.

The SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra was formed in 1988 by Krel, with the help of the SBS. Its musicians have gone on to become members of many professional orchestras.

Further links

'Elite musicians devastated as SBS Youth Orchestra disbands' - The Sydney Morning Herald (21 November 2013)
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship (www.sydneysymphony.com)
SBS Youth Orchestra (www.sbsyo.org.au)