Sheffield musicians join together to form virtual orchestra in remembrance of VE Day

Sheffield Youth Orchestra have released a virtual performance of a historic World War Two song, – recorded via video call – to pay tribute to the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

The group of 32 performers aged between 11–18, released their rendition of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ on social media this evening, while the country remains in lockdown.

Conductor George Morton, arranged the virtual performance via an online Zoom Call, in an attempt to show the orchestra’s remembrance and respect for the historic anniversary which signified the end of fighting against Germany in World War Two.

“We thought that would be nice to give our young members something to work on and to be part of and have something kind of tangible at the end of all this that we actually created music together and be able to share it with audiences”, he said.

"It's such an important day for many many reasons and our orchestra is made up of young people and this is history to them and is not part of their living memory so I think it's really important that we commemorate VE day even though we don't remember being there.

“It is just out of honour for people that did fight in the war and lose their lives in the war.

"We're getting to the end of the lives of people who were there now so I think it's super important that we continue to commemorate that for them, even after they've gone.”

Sheffield Youth Orchestra’s spring snooker concert was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak but the city’s oldest independent music group has continued to meet for online weekly rehearsals during lockdown.

George explained how the normality of practice sessions is helping to give these young musicians some stability in an uncertain period.

"It's so important for them to have that kind of musical release every week”, he added.

"By keeping that going now, when we do meet up again, we'll be able to have healthy membership and have some quality musical experiences to come together.”