Young Orchestral Pops Orchestra

Performing Planxty Fanny Power  & Cork Hornpipe (arr. Leo Rowsome) with Mark Lysaght on Uilleann Pipes.

The Young Orchestral Pops (YOPS) Orchestra was set up in 2002 under the direction of Kitty Dalligan to offer students the opportunity to play film music, traditional music, popular classics and newly commissioned works. YOPs now includes both a junior and senior orchestra. Both orchestras rehearse once a month in the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines, Dublin.

YOPS Orchestras have won prizes at the Wesley Music Festival and the Arklow Music Festival. The Senior Orchestra have completed successful concert tours to Prague, Krakow, Paris and Verona and are looking forward to their next tour to Andalucía in spring 2015. To mark the YOPs 10th anniversary they recorded a CD, ‘Concert Favourites’ which was released in 2013.

YOPS keep a busy performance schedule with an annual Christmas concert and a performance at the Barnardos ‘Spirit of Christmas’ fundraising dinner. The YOPS Orchestras have also performed in the Temple Bar TradFest. In April 2015 they will give a concert in the Civic Theatre, Tallaght.

Recent joint concerts included performances with the Julianstown Junior Youth Orchestra, Sligo Academy of Music Junior Orchestra, Rush / Lusk Educate Together String Project and the Whitefriar Strings Project. The YOPS Junior orchestra will be taking part in the Coole Music Orchestra Festival in March 2015.