Isle of Man 2025
To kick start our 60th Anniversary year, we're heading to the Isle of Man for the weekend at the end of July. This is sure to be a memorable weekend for our members, and we are very much looking forward to performing a joint concert with the Rushen Silver Brass on Saturday night, 26th July, as well as our own performance on the beach the following morning.
Money raised over the last 12 months has enabled CYM to substantially subsidise this trip, ensuring it is accessible for all our members. Many thanks to those who have attended our concerts and taken part in the raffles and retiring collections! Look out online for updates and photos of our trip...and if you happen to be on the Isle of Man, we'll see you in Port Erin!
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.
