Our Story

It all began in January 2013 when the Oasby Music Group was founded by violin teacher Laura Gardiner. In the very first group, there were seven young string players, which rapidly grew year-on-year to nearly 100 string players from Lincolnshire and seven surrounding counties. Of the original seven, two have since been accepted to study at specialist music school, one is studying at the Royal Academy of Music, one is training to be a paramedic and still playing the cello and the rest are still taking lessons and are active members of OMG!

Growing up in Ayrshire and learning Suzuki violin with Brenda Smith, Laura and numerous other children benefited enormously from the group sessions and holiday workshops their teacher provided for them.

Inspired by the dedication and commitment of Brenda to give the best opportunities for her pupils, Laura based the Oasby Music Group on a model that worked for her, growing up as a young musician in Scotland. She has built on it and developed it, drawing further inspiration from another major influence, Vivienne Price, founder of the National Children’s Orchestras. It is no coincidence that so many of the children have been members of the NCO since 2014.

As a classroom teacher lucky enough to begin work in a very musical (and therefore quite rare) state primary school, Laura was immediately aware of the massive differences in the musical experiences of children at different schools – even in the same area. The Oasby Music Group aims to offer a high level of music education accessible to as many children as possible.

The young people really support each another - OMG really is a family you belong to and are welcome back at long after you leave school!

Ensemble playing is the essence of belonging to OMG from the moment the youngest players join. As children progress with their ensembles, playing more and more challenging repertoire, they still return to the younger groups to act as mentors - typically standing behind the younger players, playing parts with them and pointing out notes on the music if they get lost. At the 5th anniversary concert in March 2018, the original members of the Oasby Music Group stood with the youngest players and performed side by side - a beautiful moment.

It is worth reflecting on some of the achievements of the members in the past 11 years. Setting aside some impressive exam results and festival appearances, our players have successfully gained places in orchestras including National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Chineke! Junior Orchestra, National Youth Music Theatre Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and National Children’s Chamber Orchestra.

In addition, two of our small ensembles were the Pro Corda Chamber Music Champions Under 12s and Runners Up in Under 19s - the only state educated groups to reach the finals. Several ensembles and individuals have been awarded the Ann Abbott Trophy for Best Performance of Grantham Music Festival. Our ‘Minims’ Ensemble holds the record for the highest score at Grantham Music Festival in recent years. We also were thrilled to win the North London Music Festival ensemble competition in 2019.

In 2019, the group took its first trip abroad as we toured to Belgium, and then in 2020 travelled to The Netherlands with our two most senior ensembles performing in venues across both Brussels and Amsterdam.

From the very first Summer, OMG has run holiday courses open to all young string players. They have had tutors the from the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity College, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire; but they also draw on the considerable music teaching talent and experience available locally. OMG involves year-12 and 13 musicians as mentors. We are very proud that several of these mentors are now studying / have studied music at conservatoire, and have been successful in becoming Ambassadors for The Benedetti Foundation.

Special events have included working with Nicola Benedetti and Leonard Elschenbroich in October 2017. We were delighted to welcome back Nicola for a 2nd visit in March 2019 before hosting the trial-run Benedetti Sessions in November 2019.

In July 2019, our Giocoso String Quartet were privileged to meet and work with Wynton Marsalis on the final movement of his string quartet, which they performed in our Summer Concert 2019. The group have also worked with Tasmin Little, Jonathan Bloxham, had percussion workshops with the Principal Percussionist of Opera North, Chris Bradley and freelance percussionist Elsa Bradley and coaching from both the Villiers String Quartet and The Stringcredibles. Members of the group were also honoured to be part of Nicola Benedetti’s ‘With Nicky’ series with some of the children demonstrating techniques Nicky teaches in the films.

Looking to the future, we’re bound to wonder what the group will look like in another five years’ time. Who knows? One thing we can say for sure: eleven years ago, nobody would have predicted anything like this!