Australian Youth Orchestra
AYO National Music Camp 2025 Week Two by Milly McAuliffe
Media and Communications Blog
Rigged cricket matches, live radio, and warm nights thick with music characterise the last week of AYO camp. Sleep deprivation is widespread but comradery persists, especially at the annual cricket game.
The tutors have won every year. Previous participants try to explain just how corrupt the umpires and scorers are, but first time AYO participants are optimistic and make plans on how they will beat the staff.
We are playing ten overs. When Bailey Ireland asks who wants to bowl and thirty hands go up, I do not envy his position as team captain. Rather than choosing strong batters and filtering out those of us who have no idea what we are doing, Bailey makes a plan to ensure everyone gets a go.
Meanwhile, the staff have a very different vibe going on. When it is their turn to bat, they seem to have nine lives and there’s a lot of heckling directed at the students team, with one tutor bellowing, “My dog bowls better.”
It’s all in good fun, and scorekeeper Ed Le Brocq insists he thinks the staff would have won anyway – though the students insist otherwise!
The teamwork continues in the four chamber ensemble concerts. For the private concerts, the ensembles give themselves a name and wear costumes, dressing as pretty princesses and pirates, or wearing matching glitter in their hair.
The students’ high regard of their tutors is shown in their ensemble names, like “Jonno’s favourite kids”, or “Chawneron,” a mash up of the names of tutors Thomas Chawner and Andrew Haveron. The tutors themselves are enthusiastic and proud. Monica Curro beams at her ensemble, “Moxie’s Munchkins”.
The public concerts are more formal but still joyful. The gelato truck returns, and there is an addition of arts and crafts and a tent on the Elder Hall lawn. The tent is a tribute to the very first Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camps when participants slept in tents; we now have the luxury of staying at a nearby college campus. The pop-up tent is inviting and comfortable. It becomes a favourite spot for musicians to relax in between rehearsals and attracts curious passersby, some of whom stick around for the concerts.
One concert features four new compositions by the AYO composition students: Maddie Hammond, Jessie Leov, William Pipe, and Elizabeth Roche. The prompt is ‘colour’ and the resulting pieces are inspired by the natural world: the Indian Ocean, a tornado in a Queensland town, the aurora australis, and light itself. It is moving to see composers my age produce such exciting and unique pieces, and I expect and hope to hear them performed again soon.
The final public concert is advertised and broadcast live by ABC Classic. Witnessing radio legends Ed Le Brocq and Russel Torrance at work is fascinating, and when AYO musicians and communication students are broadcast live we all experience an adrenaline rush. Apparently, there are four MCGs worth of people listening at home!
After the final concert there is a sense of accomplishment marred by how soon we would be leaving each other. There are many forms of celebration: card games, karaoke, trips to the bakery, a glass of bubbles for the over eighteens. We all don’t want to go to bed and leave camp in the morning. Although we have the post camp blues, we are all so lucky to have been a part of this absurdly incredible camp.
About National Music Camp
Founded in 1948, National Music Camp has become the cornerstone of our training. Over two intensive weeks, around 220 of the country’s most talented young musicians come together to be mentored by world-class tutors, artists, and conductors. They experience music-making at the highest national level as part of exceptional symphony or chamber orchestras.
Behind the scenes, aspiring arts leaders from the Media and Communication, Orchestral Management, and Sound Production programs collaborate to bring today’s concert to life. Whether crafting compelling narratives about music’s cultural impact, mastering stage management logistics, or capturing the magic of live performance in pristine audio, these participants are guided by industry experts, challenged, and inspired at every step.
Together with the Composition program, which fosters the creation of bold new works, this comprehensive approach to orchestral and arts administration training cultivates a dynamic environment where creativity and passion unite, lifelong friendships and collaborations are sparked, and Australia’s arts scene is reinvigorated. As the lifeblood of culture, the arts enrich our lives, connect us, challenge us, and transform us.