A TALENTED teenage musician from Joseph Rowntree School, in York, is one of the top young violinists in the country.

Year 11 student Jacob George has been selected to play with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain after a gruelling audition process which involved performing his own work, being interviewed in Leeds and then playing as part of a workshop in London to see how he played in a group.

The school’s head of performing arts, Rachael Clarke, said: “What Jacob has done is remarkable. He is not yet 16 and is playing first violin – the most important section in violins – and he’s now one of only 70 kids in the UK to have made it into the orchestra.

“We are all really proud of his achievement at the school.”

Both Jacob’s parents are musicians and he started playing the violin when he was in his first year at Park Grove Primary School.

Jacob said: “My parents didn’t make me play the violin, I just took it up because there was always music at home.”

Currently, Jacob plays for the North Yorkshire Schools Symphony Orchestra as lead violin and also plays in the young symphonia, which is a smaller orchestra made up of children from all over the north east of England and North Yorkshire who play at the Sage in Gateshead.

He is studying music at GCSE and wants to go on to study it at A-level. He hopes to teach music as a side-line in later life – though he says career-wise he wants to become an architect or interior designer.

Last year Jacob passed his grade-eight violin examination with distinction and said he could not believe it when the email came through to say he’d made it into the NYO.

He said: “I was just ecstatic. When I was practising for the auditions I was doing two hours most days and I have never practised so much in my life.”

Jacob will play with the first violins next in Liverpool on January 5, following a residential course with the youth orchestra over the Christmas holidays. Next summer he will play in a televised performance at The Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.

He said: “I don’t get nervous when I’m playing in a group normally, but I think I’ll be pretty nervous playing at The Proms on the TV.”

He said his friends had been really supportive throughout the audition process and Mrs Clarke said the Year 11 music group will be going to Liverpool to support Jacob.

She said: “It was their suggestion and they are really keen to go and support him.”

Mrs Clarke said Jacob’s success has helped create a real buzz around performing arts at the school which is already a thriving department.

She said preparations were well under way for the next school musical, We Will Rock You, which is taking place from February 6 to 9 next year, building on the success of previous school musicals Joseph and RENT.

She said: “We had more than 250 auditions for the show, which is a testament to just how much the school loves the performing arts. And as well as Jacob’s success, we have got a lot of pupils who sing in the National Youth Choir.”

On a Friday lunchtime the school uses their huge atrium, known as the Hubb, to stage performances at 1.40pm with the whole school coming together to watch and listen to them.