Written by Jenny Forbes - NOFA Programme Manager
In July 2026, we celebrated the end of another successful National Orchestra for All (NOFA) season with a four-day residential filled with music, friendships and two incredible concerts for local families and primary schools. As we enter a quieter period while we recruit the next cohort (visit National Orchestra for All — Orchestras for All to apply!), it’s the perfect time to reflect on all that our NOFA members and team achieved during the 2025 – 2026 season.
Our first residential of 2025 saw us welcoming 42 new young people to NOFA, as well as 58 returning members. They travelled from all over the country to join us – from Aberdeenshire to London, Belfast to Gateshead, and everywhere in between! Of course there were some nerves about spending four days away from home, meeting new people and learning new music, but my highlight from spring was seeing how quickly everyone settled into the course and how many new friendships were formed in those first few days together.
We started the season’s repertoire strong with A Keelie Makolay, a traditional Ghanian playground song and favourite of past NOFA members; Ritmos Ciganos, a Latin-American piece by Carlos Garcia that we learned by ear; and Spring Morning, an amazing new composition for NOFA written by one of our alums, Christian. We also launched a whopping twelve creative workshops for NOFA members that continued throughout the season, including music technology, visual art, conducting, choir, improvisation and folk music.
In Summer 2025, we added to more pieces to our repertoire, both chosen by the cohort. The first was the epic ‘This is Berk’ from the DreamWorks film How to Train Your Dragon, and the second was the dramatic fourth movement from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony.
A personal highlight for me during Summer 2025 was the orchestral and wellbeing team reflection meetings. It was so special to hear each tutor’s ‘magic moment’ from the course, and it was a chance to celebrate the many ways in which they’d supported the NOFA members to develop. I’d like to thank our incredible tutor team for always creating an environment where so many magic moments can happen!
In Autumn 2025, we hosted three regional events in London, Sheffield and Glasgow. We collaborated with Kyle McInnis from Kinetika Bloco – a London-based youth music organisation that specialise in carnival performance. We combined Ritmos Ciganos with Eu Vou La Para Luanda (a favourite piece of Kinetika Bloco’s), practiced learning by ear, created our own music, and explored movement in our performance. My highlight from the regionals was the creative workshops – it was so special to see the NOFA members’ musical ideas showcased in the final performances.
In Spring 2026, we added our final piece to the repertoire: ‘Crystal Kingdom’, a commission by Emily Lim to celebrate OFA’s 15th (Crystal) anniversary. This was a particularly exciting piece because Emily used ideas from the young people to create it, and it was named by them too.
We also started offering life skills sessions during Spring which was a highlight for me. I loved watching the NOFA members explore the sessions that they were interested in and learn from the incredible skills and experiences of our tutor team in new ways.
The season culminated in our Summer 2026 residential. The four days were spent celebrating all we had achieved, and we got to share the celebrations with hundreds of audience members at our family and primary school concerts. My favourite moment of the season has to be these concerts! The young people led the way, hosting pop-up performances in the café, facilitating drop-in workshops, presenting the concerts beautifully, and creating a visual art film to accompany Spring Morning. I particularly enjoyed seeing Christian, our alum composer, receive his well-deserved round of applause for the premier of Spring Morning!
About NOFA
NOFA is our inclusive, non-auditioned national youth orchestra. Each season it brings together 100 young people from all four corners of the UK. NOFA members come from all backgrounds, at any stage in their musical journey, playing any instrument they choose.
We want to make sure that cost isn’t a barrier to participating, so everything is covered when a young person joins NOFA, including their food, travel, accommodation and tuition.
Recruitment for our next NOFA season is now open!
