Student Placements

Our Insight Placements will work on our non-residential orchestral weekends. These are held twice a year, and we welcome up to 100 children from Grades 3 – 8+ in each location (Bolton, Birmingham and London). They come together with a team of experienced music tutors, guest artists and conductors to work on orchestral and creative music-making.

We are looking for music students of varying instrumental specialties and experiences to gain valuable first experiences of delivering outstanding youth music activity and to inspire our young musicians. To be considered for this placement, students will need to be available for both weekends at one Orchestral weekend location in Spring and Summer, attend the 2026 programme launch and participate in an online briefing and training session.

Our Tutor Placement takes place on our residential orchestral weeks. Our residential orchestral weeks programme consists of three symphony orchestras – Under 14 (13-14 year olds), Under 13 (12-13 year olds) and Under 12 (11-12 year olds) – who meet for two week-long residentials in the spring and summer school holidays, culminating in astounding concerts in public concert venues.

Our Tutor placement provides the opportunity for young people studying Undergraduate or Postgraduate music to deepen their understanding, experience and skills of supporting youth ensembles through innovative approached to orchestral coaching. You will improve your confidence in tutoring and leading young musicians, and build a toolkit based on NCO’s distinct approach to learning with a focus on facilitating creativity, child voice and wellbeing.

Working in partnership with Music Education Hubs, NCO has created a new placement opportunity for 1 emerging music leader. The Advance placement opportunity is open to instrumentalists only and is not suitable for first study conductors or composers.

NCO Advance is a more intensive programme for a recently graduated music student with a higher level of hands-on delivery than our other placements; a chance for built-in progression in a broad variety of settings to inform their future career choices.

The Advance Placement will include around 20 days of activity plus 3 mentoring sessions. This activity ranges from working on our weekend activity, being part of our tutor team during a residential week, performing in our schools’ concerts and joining our partnering Music Hub for a bespoke project. The successful candidate will be mentored by Helen Brew, who is a tutor for NCO. Helen is Associate Principal Flute of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has served on the faculty of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Chetham’s School of Music as well as numerous music courses around the country. Helen is a keen advocate for music in community outreach work especially working with young people with special needs.

Through this opportunity you will:
• have an enhanced understanding of mentoring large youth ensembles aged 8-14 years.
• improve your confidence in tutoring and leading young musicians
• gain a deeper understanding of your own practice
• gain experience in a variety of Music Education settings and forge valuable professional connections
• create a toolkit based on NCO’s distinct approach to learning with a focus on facilitating child creativity, child voice and wellbeing