"Ever since I joined TYO, I've loved every minute of it. It's amazing to be given the opportunity to perform in a large-scale symphony orchestra playing exciting and challenging music. We work together week by week to put together pieces, building strong friendships along the way, and the help and support given by section coaches and conductor always pushes you to make every effort and to create the best sound possible.

TYO has not only introduced me to a wide variety of Romantic and contemporary music, but it has also created exciting new opportunities, including performing with talented soloists as well as playing in central London and abroad. Playing in such a high-calibre ensemble as TYO has taught me teamwork, discipline and communication, but most of all, it's a lot of fun."

Natalie Rukuts

The staff

Simon Ferris - musical director

Simon Ferris read music and was organ scholar at King's College London. As an undergraduate he pursued additional instrumental and musicianship studies with Bernard Oram at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, after graduation, received composition tuition and encouragement from Geoffrey Bush.

A skilled and experienced jazz musician, Simon’s wide-ranging professional career now embraces an array of genres and disciplines, comprising a mixture of performing, composing, arranging, writing, conducting and teaching.

Simon is currently Composer in Residence at Tiffin School, and Musician in Residence at Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston upon Thames.

Ian Stott - brass coach

Ian Stott started playing the horn at the age of 11. He studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department and gained grade 8 at 15. At 16 he enlisted in the Band of the Life Guards and continued his studies with Denzil Floyd at the Guards School of Music and at Kneller Hall, where he won the horn prize. He became the band’s principal horn at 18 following his equitation training, and went on to play at many state occasions, including the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Trooping the Colour and the Garter ceremony. He served, as a medic, in the first gulf war, the Bosnian conflict and the 1989 UK ambulance strike.

Ian continued his studies part-time at the Guildhall school of music with Jonathan Lipton and in 1996 left the army to pursue a freelance teaching and playing career. He currently teaches at Tiffin School, Tiffin Girls’ School and Epsom College and has recently been made head of brass for Richmond Music Trust. Ian also performs with several chamber ensembles - notably Chameleon Brass - and has performed with the London Concert and
the National Symphony Orchestras.

Pippa Hyde - lower strings coach

Pippa Hyde read music at Newnham College Cambridge, studying cello as a part-time student at the Guildhall School of Music and subsequently with Caroline Bosanquet.  Some years after graduating, she saw a performance of the Mendelssohn Octet which changed her life, and specifically her first instrument, inspiring her to start the viola from scratch and then study it part-time back at Guildhall.  She now switches happily between instruments and enjoys playing both in chamber and orchestral music.

Pippa is Assistant Director of Music at Kingston Grammar School, where she is particularly interested in developing the string playing.  In addition she is a keen and enthusiastic singer and, as Director of the Girls’ Choir of Kingston Parish Church, is passionately committed to developing singing opportunities for local girls.

Ben Porter - percussion coach

Andrew Watson - woodwind coach

Represented Schools

The following schools currently have pupils playing in the orchestra:

Emanuel School
Esher College
Hampton School
Hampton Court House
Hinchley Wood School
Kingston Grammar School
Nonsuch High School for Girls
Putney High School
St.Catherine's School
St.Paul's Girls' School
Surbiton High School
Teddington School
The Lady Eleanor Holles School
The Tiffin Girls' School
Tiffin School

The Orchestra