60th Anniversary Concert
Tickets for our 60th Anniversary Concert on Sunday 12th July will be available from 23rd May, however, as we expect this concert to sell out quickly, we'd like to invite our Patrons, members' families and ex-members to purchase tickets ahead of this date, as we make pre-sale tickets available (with a code) from Friday 1st May.
The early-bird code has been communicated to relevant groups by e-mail and/or Whatsapp - if you haven't received it, please let us know!
Ex-Member Rehearsal
After an excellent evening catching up with ex-members in January, we're holding a second open rehearsal on Friday 22nd May from 7:15pm. Please note, this is a revised date from one previously advertised in April. A busier than expected concert schedule has meant we've had to move it again. We apologise for any inconvenience.
We'd love to invite any past band or choir members to come and rehearse with us at St Joseph's Primary School in Castleford, before heading out for an informal drink and catchup at The Ninth Bar on Sagar Street from around 9pm.
St Joseph' Concert
We ended a very busy few weeks before Easter with a less formal performance at St Joseph's Primary School in Castleford on 27th March.
This performance, to pupils, their families and friends helped to raise money for school trips and visits planned for this academic year. We were very happy to support the school, which has become a vital base in Castleford, not only for ourselves, but also for Castleford Singers, Encore Theatre Company and Encore Juniors, as well as Company A Theatre, who all use the school as a rehearsal venue.
Joint Concert with YEP Brass
It was great to get together with Yorkshire Evening Post Brass the following week, with a joint concert at Holy Cross Church in Airedale. With the majority of the 10-piece YEP Brass, either current or past members, and others who have helped us out when we've been short for performances, it was lovely to be able to share a concert with them during this special year.
YEP Brass conductor Jackie Armitage, spoke so beautifully about this deep connection between our two organisations. Jackie herself is a past member of CYM, joining in 1967; a year after we were founded. It was heart warming to hear how Castleford Young Musicians has played such an important role in the musical journeys of some of their members.
We must also say a huge thank you to Holy Cross Church for their involvement and support. We really appreciated the personalised anniversary cake and cupcakes!
Fundraising Concert
Our first concert of 2026 was our 'Together for Becca' Fundraiser, raising money for Becca Taylor, a 26 year old Castleford Primary School teacher diagnosed with stage 4 astrocytoma brain cancer.
The evening was a great success, raising a fantastic total of £1105.46 from ticket sales, a raffle, refreshments and a retiring collection. A massive thank you to Half Acres Primary School for their support in hosting the event, and of course to everyone who attended the concert. We're also very grateful to those who couldn't attend, but sent a donation instead.
On hearing the amount raised, Becca sent her thanks to everyone involved: "Wow...that's amazing!!! Thank you so so much...it will pay for nearly 4 months of medication, so that's really great. Please pass on my thanks to everyone x"
If you missed our concert, but would like to make a donation, Becca's GoFundMe page can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/becca-taylor
It's our 60th Anniversary!!
September 2025 marked the start of our 60th Anniversary year! We're currently working on a number of ways to celebrate this milestone - why not join our 60th Anniversary mailing list to be the first to find out what we have planned?
We'd love to hear from our many past members, especially those who would be willing to recall some of their favourite memories of CYM (YMS) for our anniversary film, to be recorded throughout the next 12 months. Get in touch if you'd like to be involved!
And of course, we'd love to see you at our Anniversary Concert in 2026 - details to follow soon!
CYM's FREE Christmas Concert - Fully Booked!
Once again, our Christmas Concert in December was a FREE event as we said a massive 'thank you' to all our family, friends and audiences for their support over the last 12 months.
The concert took place on Friday 19th December at Trinity Methodist Church, Castleford to a full house.
Tickets for the event were booked in record time too - thank you for your support!
Christmas Performance in Castleford Market!
Thank you to Castleford Market for inviting us to perform for a couple of hours just before Christmas. It's the first time we have played in the new performance area in the market.
Thanks also to those who stopped to listen and for the support you gave!
Isle of Man 2025
To kick start our 60th Anniversary, we enjoyed a fantastic trip to the Isle of Man in July. A big thank you to the Rushen Silver Brass for inviting us to perform with them on the Saturday night, and for recommending we perform on the beach at Port Erin on the Sunday morning! Despite the cancellation of our ferry on our way home, we had a fantastic weekend, and one which our members will remember for many years to come!
Money raised over the previous 12 months enabled CYM to substantially subsidise this trip, ensuring the trip was affordable for all our members. Many thanks to those who attended our concerts and took part in the raffles and retiring collections for your generosity!
Carlton Lanes Concert Features in Local Paper
Once again, our annual presentation concert took place at Carlton Lanes Shopping Centre this year. Many thanks to everyone who supported us and for all the wonderful feedback we received after the event.
This year, we were very lucky to have our concert featured in the local newspaper, the Pontefract and Castleford Express, in an article written by Martin Gosney. An online version of the article can be found here.
With all money raised, after expenses, going towards our trip to the Isle of Man next month, we thank our supporters once again for their generosity.
Open Letter - Closure of Castleford Civic Centre
Following the recent (unannounced) decision by Wakefield Council to close Castleford Civic Centre this year, we have written an open letter to the leader of Wakefield Council expressing our sadness and concern regarding the impact this will have on groups like ours. Although we don't expect it to make much of a difference in terms of the decision to close the Centre, we don't want history to record that there were no objections.
Click here to read the letter
Many thanks to the other local groups who offered their names as signatories to this letter; Encore Theatre Company, Castleford Male Voice Choir, Company A Theatre, Castleford Singers, and Pauline Quirke Academy, Wakefield.
We'd love to hear your views regarding the closure of the Centre. If you'd like to leave a comment, you can do so by clicking here.
Leave us a Review!
If you're a member, past member, a patron or have attended one of our concerts recently, you can make a massive difference to us by spending just a minute or two leaving us a Facebook and Google review. Even choosing the 5 stars option without leaving a comment will make a big difference to our group, increasing our profile online and helping us attract new members. Please click the links below, thank you!
Musical Youth International
Musical Youth International (MYI) were a Michigan based performance organization who took large numbers of music students on elaborate overseas tours during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In 1966, they paid a visit to Castleford as part of their European tour and performed a concert on 7th July at the Girls Modern. It was during a post-concert reception at the neighbouring Boys Modern that the idea to form Castleford Young Musicians came about.
MYI alumni Jim Roth, has been collating vast amounts of information relating to MYI and has produced a very detailed file of the 1966 tour. The full document, plus extracts relating to the visit to Castleford can be found by clicking the links below. A big thank you to Mr Roth for his time and effort putting this together.
Full Document (17Mb)
Extracted Document (950Kb)
Our Choir Members Don't Just Sing...!!
A big thank you to Choir member Jacob (aged 9) who has used ChatGPT to create a poem to advertise our group.
We love that he enjoys being part of CYM enough to put something like this together...why not join him and the rest of us on a Friday evening - we're always happy to welcome new members to our Choir and Concert Band.
Click the our logo on the right to read the poem in full...
We are recruiting!
We are currently recruiting singers and wind instrumentalists of any age to come and join the choir and band. If you are interested, we'd love to see you at one of our rehearsals (either to take part, or just sit and listen!) We rehearse every Friday evening (excluding school holidays and concert nights) at St Joseph's Primary School in Castleford, from 7:15pm.
For more information, please watch our promo video or contact us for more details. There's never been a better time to join!
Help us Spread the Word!
Social media is one of the cheapest, easiest and most effective methods of promotion available to us, but we need your support! Please like and share our pages and posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to help spread the word! Why not keep up to date with all the CYM news and events by joining our mailing list too?! Click here to sign up.
Become a Friend of CYM
Our annual patron's scheme 'Friends of CYM' is a great way to support Castleford Young Musicians if you're not musical or you fall outside our membership age range! Memberships are just £12 (single) and £15 (joint) for 12 months.
This is an excellent way to help CYM with their fundraising efforts - if you're interested please complete the form on our Friends page. Contact us if you would like more information.
