NYJO was founded in 1965. From a single jazz orchestra of young professional musicians, NYJO has grown to be a multidimensional organisation, working in jazz education at all levels all around the country, and offering alternative routes to young musicians who want to play jazz. Having grown rapidly over the last decade to become the UK’s leading jazz educator, NYJO has an ambitious but realistic plan to double its activity level in the next 5 years, and to become the National Youth Jazz Organisation.
Our 24-piece flagship Jazz Orchestra has helped launch the careers of many of the UK’s most- admired jazz singers and instrumentalists and remains the gateway to the profession for many stars of the UK jazz scene and countless musical theatre and session musicians. The band performs around 35 gigs each year, including recently the BBC Proms, the EFG London Jazz Festival, European tours with our German and Dutch counterparts BuJazzO and NJJO, and an annual residency at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club.
In 2019, NYJO launched the Jazz Exchange. The ensemble operates alongside the existing Jazz Orchestra and provides an alternative route into the profession for emerging talent who don’t see themselves in the traditional setting of a jazz big band. Coached by vibes player and award-winning instrumentalist Orphy Robinson MBE in a musician-led environment, the Jazz Exchange rewards creativity and individuality above technical sight-reading – allowing any western tuning instrument to take part.
Our professional ensembles are, however, just part of NYJO’s offering.
In London, the NYJO Academy offers improvisation and ensemble training from grade 5-standard upwards, through a combination of notated and aural groups. All our young musicians perform publicly at least six times a year, and the NYJO Academy hosts free monthly jazz jams for under 18s at Foyles Bookstore in Charing Cross Road.
NYJO’s major strategic priority over the coming years is to “level the playing field in jazz education” across the country, leveraging its undisputed experience base to generate a series of partnerships across the country in a way which is common in sport and classical music but relatively new to jazz.
Our Learning & Participation programme continues to grow, taking jazz around the country to places where it is often overlooked and inspiring young aspiring musicians through concerts and bespoke workshops that fit the area and its needs. Last year, NYJO engaged over 7,500 children and young people, through over 341 workshops.
Other ways in which NYJO seeks to level the playing field include :
The NYJO Regional Academies: regular, local, jazz education activities in areas where there is a lack of existing cultural engagement. Each RA is custom designed to meet local needs, providing skills development workshops and performance opportunities for students and Continuing Professional Development for local teachers. There are currently successful RA’s in Darlington, Penrith, Preston and Bradford-on-Avon, with Humberside going live later this year and Deal, Leicester and Coventry mong other actively planning to join them soon.
The NYJO Jazz Messengers: a diverse sextet which performs interactive school concerts for seven to 14-year olds, followed up with free/subsidised instrument lessons from the local Music Education Hub.
We still have much work to do as each area of the country faces its own unique challenges to diverse jazz participation. NYJO has a bold ambition to catalyse a national jazz education infrastructure, making a difference to the lives of thousands of young people across the UK and transforming the future of jazz This step-change in ambition will require a comparable step-change in resourcing and funding
