National Youth Jazz Orchestra

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) is a British jazz orchestra founded in 1965 by Bill Ashton.[1] In 2010. Mark Armstrong took over as Music Director of the flagship performing band, and Artistic Director of the organisation; Bill Ashton became Life President, and Nigel Tully became Executive Chair. In July 2021, Susy York Skinner became the Chief Executive.[2]

The British National Youth Jazz Orchestra at an event at the German Embassy in 2017.

Based in the Royal Arsenal, London, England, NYJO started life as the London Schools' Jazz Orchestra, and evolved into becoming the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.[1] Its aims are to provide an opportunity for gifted young musicians from around the UK to perform big band jazz in major concert halls, theatres, and on radio and television, and to make recordings, commission new works from British composers and arrangers, and to introduce a love of jazz to as wide an audience as possible, but especially to schoolchildren.[1]

The performing band, NYJO, is selected by audition and invitation, and has a maximum age of 25. It performs around 40 gigs a year across the UK, the vast majority involving additional inspirational educational workshops for local schoolchildren, in partnership with the local Music Hub. It rehearses every Saturday at Woolwich Works, part of Woolwich's Royal Arsenal Riverside complex.[3]

In 2011, a new band, NYJO London, was created to focus on developing school aged jazz musicians in greater London. In 2013, NYJO's London training and education activities were brought together under the banner of the NYJO Academy, now the NYJO Under 18s program, which focuses on small and large ensemble jazz projects.

In April 2015, NYJO became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), in recognition of its unique role as an excellent youth arts institution and its ability to inspire young people to like and enjoy jazz. At the same time NYJO acquired jazz's first ever Royal patron, the Earl of Wessex, who had seen the band perform live at Buckingham Palace in December 2014.

NYJO has an extensive discography of over 40 recordings. A new double CD album entitled NYJO FIFTY was released in late 2015 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NYJO's formation, with guest appearances by alumnus Mark Nightingale and by Zoe Rahman and Julian Siegel, both of whom were commissioned to write new works for the album.[4] In 2022 NYJO released an album showcasing works by female jazz composers, entitled "She Said". It features music from Nikki Iles, Yazz Ahmed and Norma Winstone among others. [5]

NYJO's members have included many of the major names in British jazz over the last three decades, including Julian Argüelles, Guy Barker, Chris Biscoe, Richard James Burgess, Paul Edmonds, Teresa Gallagher, Steve Hill, David Wood, Nigel Hitchcock, Carol Kenyon, Dave O'Higgins, Simon Phillips, Gerard Presencer, Brian Priestley, Frank Ricotti, Jamie Talbot, Dave Watts, Tom Cawley, Gareth Lockrane, Harrison Wood, Louis Dowdeswell, Callum Au, Chris White, Amy Winehouse,[6] Bobby Worth[7] and Neil Yates.