Use the links below to find out more about the Hallé Youth Ensembles and their respective Music Directors, as well as details of their concerts and how to join the two ensembles.
Hallé Youth Orchestra
Hallé Youth Choir
Ewa Strusinska
Gregory Batsleer
Details of concerts
How to join
Hallé Youth Orchestra
The Hallé Youth Orchestra, founded in September 2002, is a symphony orchestra for talented young musicians across the region who do not benefit from the musical opportunities provided by full-time specialist music education. It offers a unique opportunity to local young instrumentalists, under the age of 19, to experience the challenge and satisfaction of rehearsing and performing classical music to a very high standard. The works it prepares draw on the same rich variety of repertoire - from classical and romantic to scores of today - that is performed by professional orchestras.
Under the direction of its Music Director Ewa Strusinska, members enjoy a shared chance to develop their passion for, and commitment to, great music. The orchestra works regularly with both Sir Mark Elder and members of the Hallé, and players have also benefited enormously from collaborating with other artists of international standing including Heinrich Schiff, Cristian Mandeal, Baldur Brönnimann and Emma Bell, as well as previous HYO Music Directors, Edward Gardner, André de Ridder and Rory Macdonald.
The Youth Orchestra rehearses weekly during term-time and enjoys a residential course or tour each summer. It toured Eisenach and Leipzig in eastern Germany in 2004 and, with the Hallé Youth Choir, the south of France in 2006. In 2008, the Youth Orchestra toured to Belgium and Holland, performing in Brussels, Knokke-Heist and Amsterdam and 2009 saw a tour to Wales, performing in Cardiff and Brecon. The Youth Orchestra has an associate membership scheme for younger or less experienced players to enhance their skills and understanding of orchestral playing.
If you or anyone you know is interested in joining the Hallé Youth Orchestra, please contact the Youth Ensembles Coordinator Jane Bulpin, at hyo@halle.co.uk or on 0161 907 9056. Anyone interested in supporting the Youth Ensembles should contact Martin Glynn at martin.glynn@halle.co.uk or on 0161 237 7011.
MUSIC DIRECTOR Ewa Strusinska • HEAD OF ENSEMBLES Naomi Benn •
YOUTH ENSEMBLES CO-ORDINATOR Jane Bulpin
The Hallé Concerts Society is grateful to the Oglesby Charitable Trust, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and many individual benefactors for their continued support.
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Hallé Youth Choir
The Hallé Youth Choir is a mixed-voice choir, founded in 2003, for singers aged 12-19 in and around Manchester. The Youth Choir offers young people from across the region the opportunity to sing stimulating repertoire to an extremely high standard. Under the direction of the Hallé's Youth Choir Director Gregory Batsleer, members develop such skills as vocal technique and communication with an audience through lively rehearsals, masterclasses and chamber groups.
The Youth Choir have enjoyed a busy season throughout 2008-2009 which concluded with a performance of Mendelssohn's Second Symphony and Handel's Messiah, as part of the BBC Proms. They also recently performed with Elbow and the Hallé in two sold out performances at The Bridgewater Hall, which were part of the second Manchester International Festival. Future plans for 2010 include a tour to Europe in July.
In July 2006 the Youth Choir toured for the first time, travelling with the Hallé Youth Orchestra to the south of France, taking in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Sanary-sur-Mer. The two ensembles performed both independently and together in three concerts which included Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music and Poulenc's Gloria. On their return they performed the Serenade, as part of The Bridgewater Hall's 10th anniversary concert, before an audience of over 2,000 people.
Appearances alongside the Hallé and Hallé Choir include Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at the 2005 BBC Proms, Bach's Passions, Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Poulenc's Gloria as well as Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor. The Youth Choir also appears on the Hallé CD label in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, conducted by Sir Mark Elder and featuring Alice Coote, Paul Groves and Bryn Terfel.
If you or anyone you know is interested in joining the Hallé Youth Choir, please contact the Youth Ensembles Coordinator, Jane Bulpin, at hyc@halle.co.uk or on 0161 907 9056. Anyone interested in supporting the Youth Ensembles should contact Martin Glynn at martin.glynn@halle.co.uk or on 0161 237 7011.
YOUTH CHOIR DIRECTOR Gregory Batsleer • HEAD OF ENSEMBLES Naomi Benn
YOUTH ENSEMBLES CO-ORDINATOR Jane Bulpin
The Hallé Youth Choir is generously sponsored by Piggott and Whitfield. The Hallé Concerts Society is extremely grateful to many charitable trusts and individual benefactors for their ongoing support of the Youth Choir, in particular the Oglesby Charitable Trust and the Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation.
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Ewa Strusinska
Ewa Strusinska is Assistant Conductor of the Hallé and Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. She graduated as a Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2008.
She was born in Poland and studied at the Frederic Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw where she gained her first diploma in choral conducting. In 2005 she completed her studies at the Academy and was awarded the diploma in orchestral conducting following her performance with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw. In 2007 she became one of three finalists in the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg.
Outside the UK she has worked with many orchestras including the National Polish Radio Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hofer Symphoniker and the Czestochowa Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has taken part in many conducting courses with conductors including Antoni Wit, Gabriel Chmura, Jerzy Salwarowski, Bruno Weil, Mark Stringer and Kurt Masur. She is President of the Warsaw Stage Society and from 1998 to 2006 she was conductor and artistic director of the Polish choir, Jeunesses Musicales. In 2000 she recorded a CD with the choir that was nominated for one of Poland's most prestigious music awards, a Fryderyk Award. She won the Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Russia with the choir Tutti Cantamus.
In 2006 Ewa Strusinska moved to Manchester and began a two-year Junior Fellowship in Conducting at the RNCM. Since that time she has worked with a number of British orchestras including the Hallé, Hallé Youth Orchestra, RNCM Symphony Orchestra, Leeds College of Music Symphony Orchestra, North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra, Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, Chester Philharmonic Orchestra, Crosby Symphony Orchestra, Stockport Symphony Orchestra and Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
She made her opera debut conducting Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen at the RNCM in 2006 and the following year assisted on the College production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, conducting four performances.
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Gregory Batsleer
Gregory Batsleer is the Director of the Hallé Youth Choir, Co-Founder and Principal Conductor of The Manchester Consort and is associated as Conductor with the Royal Northern College of Music Outreach Department. Other work for the Hallé has included Guest Chorus Master work with the Hallé Choir and last summer he conducted the Hallé and over 500 singers in Nottingham for a come and sing performance. Gregory has very recently been appointed Chorus Master with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus, forthcoming performances include Berlioz's L'Enfance Du Christ, Schumann Mass and an appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Other conducting work has included; Conductor and Music Scholar with LUX, the Collegiate Choir of the Episcopal Church at Princeton University and work as Assistant Conductor with the London-based Amadeus Orchestra with whom he conducted on their 12-concert, 2006 tour of China. Gregory has participated in conducting masterclasses and received tuition from Ralph Allwood, Martyn Brabbins, Sian Edwards, Baldur Brönnimann and Mike Brewer where he also conducted the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. He has undertaken guest conducting and vocal coachwork for the Manchester Music Service, musicians of Westminster Choir College and has worked regularly with the Choir of Trinity Church, Princeton. Later this year he will conduct a concert of music by Monteverdi and Gesulado with musicians from the Royal College of Music. Gregory also works regularly giving vocal and choral workshops throughout the UK, most recently for The Associated Board of British Choral Directors he is also in increasing demand as an adjudicator.
Gregory also works in the field of opera. Recent projects include Bernstein's West Side Story (RNCM CO), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Chorlton Arts Festival) and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Princeton Festival Opera). This year Gregory will conduct Mennotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors at the RNCM and will Chorus Master the world premier recording of Balfe's opera Robin Hood with Victorian Opera, he will also return to the States in 2010 to work on another project.
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