Christchurch Youth Recorder Ensemble

Cyre Group Photo The Christchurch Youth Recorder Ensemble, a performing ensemble of The Christchurch School of Music, is a group of up to 25 young musicians, which celebrated twentyfive years of music making in 2001. Over the years the ensemble has appeared at six International Recorder Weeks held in Armidale Australia(2000), Auckland (1986), Wellington (1990 & 1996), Nelson (1999), and Christchurch (2002) New Zealand.

In 1996, the group performed the 2 hour Opening Concert for Recorder Week in Wellington, a CD of which has been released called CONNECTIONS - Eight Centuries of Recorder Music.

The Ensemble also performed in the Ensembles Concert of Recorder Week 2000 in Armidale Australia in January 2000. Details of their first overseas trip feature below.

The Ensemble has been held in high regard by visiting tutors and performers from Japan, Britain and USA. It has been claimed by a recent visiting teacher and performer Aldo Abreu from Boston USA that the CYRE is amongst the finest ensemble of its type anywhere in the world - indeed he could only name one other Ensemble he personally knew of (from Spain) that was comparable. We welcome contact with any similar ensembles.

Conductor Neville Forsythe has tutored at the 1990, 1993 and 1996 and 1999 New Zealand Recorder Weeks as well as presented the CYRE in an increasingly prominent performing role. Most recently he was a tutor at Armidale Australia in January 2000 (see "The Call Of The Four Winds" below) and organised "The Winds of Waitaha".

What the Critics Say About CYRE

ChCh Press: "A bouquet goes to the Recorder Ensemble under founder-conductor N.F ...individual expertise and good training.

....delightfully precise .. masterly control... a very competent group of young musicians

... amazingly nimble and stylish...(Strauss Pizzicato Polka).

...excellent playing of Bartok's difficult Roumanian Dances.

Again an outstanding example of excellent tuition combined with youthful musicianship.

Very agile.... handling the slithery chromaticisms and intricate rhythms so capably.

Especially impressive.... the usually polished Recorder Ensemble.

In terms of polish and general excellence... the CYRE were tops.

Here it (the Recorder) was moulded into a fine ensemble sound worthy of any concert platform.

As usual the Recorder Ensemble played work well out of the range of the usual modest school recorder repertoire, handling the wide and winding contours of Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring with impeccable accuracy, a well judged balance of its four part texture and a lovely feeling for phrasing.

... such a very talented group thanks to the total dedication and unbounding enthusiasm of their talented Conductor! (CSM Concert Coordinator).

This ensemble of 23 young people is very competent by any standards. Their programme was often demanding calling for intense and sustained concentration.... At no stage did they appear uncomfortable, nor did the audience feel apprehensive that things might go awry.... If it was not always the items that distinguished this concert, it was certainly the performers themselves, their competence and their commitment to their art, that made a strong and positive impression. David Sell - Christchurch Press.

A note from the Youth Advocate of Christchurch City Council: " I have been reading the Press Review of your performance. Having read the review I am truly sorry that I missed your concert. You obviously performed magnificently. Congratulations on the excellent review - I hope that I can hear you play at some future time. Cheers. Robyn Moore

About The Founder / Conductor

A few details on the conductor Neville Forsythe:

One of the first New Zealanders to gain LTCL Recorder (1972) Itinerant (peripatetic) Woodwind Teacher Canterbury Secondary Schools since 1981. Tutor at 4 New Zealand International Recorder Schools. 1990, 93, 96 & 99. Winner of Best Recorder Arrangement 1993 NZ Recorder Week. CSM conductor and teacher since 1967. CYRE director since 1976.

Recipient of University of Canterbury Vernon Griffiths Prize in Musical Leadership 1996/7 Citation ....for dedicated work in the community and founding director of CYRE....outstanding qualities of musical leadership. Over the twenty years life of the Ensemble he has been instrumental in ensuring that the full musical potential of the recorder has been developed by his students and recognised by the public...

What We Play

"We play everything, from mediaeval to twentieth century - from Richard the Lionheart's poignant Ballad (written when languishing in prison awaiting his ransom) and Henry VIII's boisterous Pastime with Good Company, through Elizabethan music, C18th Baroque Suites to the Twentieth Century with Vaughan Williams Suite for Pipes, Pete Rose's 1994 New Braun Bag" a Rag in the jazz idiom and the wacky Loecki Stardust arrangements of the Pink Panther and You Are the Sunshine of My Life.

The size of group is negotiable from 3 to 25 players. Musical arrangements of your favourite music can be commissioned for special occasions (by negotiation).

What We Play On

(CYRE recommend the high quality Yamaha YR series Recorders) Including the well-known descant recorder, the group plays on a total of nine sizes from the tiny gakklein (8 cm) to the Paetzold sub-contrabass in C (> 2m).

Renaissance instruments that the group performs on include - a set of five authentic Hopf Renaissance recorders (copies), crummhorn, gemshorn, three-holed pipe. Other instruments which can be commissioned as appropriate include viols, shawms, dulcian, baroque oboe, cornetto (display only).

CYRE Calendar

Rehearsals every Tuesday evening 5.30 - 7.00 p.m. Music Centre of Christchurch CSM Chamber. New members are sought for all sections. Applications for audition are invited.