TALENTED young musician William Robertson has joined a major national children’s orchestra and hopes to travel to Italy with it this autumn.

But to join other youngsters from the National Children’s Orchestra on the island of Ischia, William, 13, has to raise £800 towards the cost of the trip.

The Scholes teenager has already rolled up his sleeves and accepted several bookings for guest appearances at concerts this summer to raise the much-needed cash.

And the young cellist’s musical family are pitching in to help.

The Robertson Quartet – that’s William, mum Jane, dad Philip and sister Rebecca – will be in concert at Scholes Methodist Church on Saturday, May 3.

The orchestra has been invited to Ischia, an island off Naples, by Lady Walton, widow of Sir William Walton, one of the 20th century’s greatest composers, who spent much of his later years on the island.

The Walton Trust is closely involved in music education and time spent at Ischia is seen as offering the talented young musicians social as well as musical benefits.

William, a Year 8 pupil at Holmfirth High School, has played the cello for six years. This is his fourth year with the orchestra.

Each year the National Children’s Orchestra auditions more than 800 children who hope to join one of the five, age-banded orchestras.

The children have to audition annually and William’s playing last autumn saw him offered a place in the main orchestra.

There’s perhaps little wonder that he has turned out to have such a talent for music. All four members of the Robertson family have bags of musical commitments which means that they are unable to perform regularly as a quartet.

When they do, they offer a combination of brass, strings, piano and drums and have a wide-ranging repertoire, with a programme designed to have something for everyone, from Vivaldi to boogie woogie, from pop to sacred songs.

The Robertson Quartet gave its first performance at a fundraising concert in aid of Hepworth Church in 2006 before Rebecca went off to study in Manchester.

Mum Jane said: “Now, with the National Children’s Orchestra appeal we felt it was time to pull the quartet together again to do what we can to support this very worthy cause.”

Jane plays piano in the quartet and is a well-established accompanist and piano teacher.

She won a Hertfordshire County Music Scholarship when she was 11 and headed for the Royal College of Music in London, aged 18, to study piano and piano accompaniment.

These days, in addition to teaching, she is the resident accompanist for the Mastersingers and the Huddersfield Choral Society Junior Choirs and was the accompanist for the Holme Valley Singers for many years. She is also part of the RO’KA piano duo.

Dad Philip is also steeped in music. He plays trumpet and cornet and studied music at Huddersfield Polytechnic. He taught brass for several years at Worksop College before moving to London to work as a freelance musician, playing with The London Schubert Orchestra.

Following an injury, Philip retrained and now works as a decorator.

Since returning to Yorkshire he has played cornet and soprano cornet with Yorkshire Imps and Hepworth brass bands.

In recent years though he has enjoyed his music via orchestral trumpet playing and has played with both Huddersfield and Slaithwaite philharmonic orchestras.

Philip is a founder member of Philharmonic Brass, a 10-piece symphonic ensemble which can be heard at St David’s Church, Holmbridge on Friday, June 13, as part of the Holmfirth Arts Festival.

Rebecca shares her dad’s passion for brass and the 19-year-old, former Holmfirth High School pupil, who took up the cornet at the age of 11, is a regular performer and prizewinner at music competitions .

Her most recent success was winning the Holmfirth Rotary Club Millennium Trophy. Rebecca spent four years as a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and has played in this region with Hade Edge, Yorkshire Imps, Rothwell Temperance, Pennine and more recently the Yorkshire Co-Operative Band.

This summer, Rebecca will be playing with Black Dyke at the Yorkshire Show. In 2006 she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She is a regular soloist at weddings and will be playing solo trumpet in a performance of Handel’s Messiah in Batley in December.

As for William, he is a regular performer and prize-winner at the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival and Holmfirth Music Festival on both piano and cello.

He started cello lessons at the age of seven and at 10 he was invited to join Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra. In the same year he was offered a place in the National Children’s Orchestra.

Tickets for the Scholes concert are £5 (£4 concessions) and £1 for children accompanied by an adult. They are available by calling 01484 689184 or by paying on the door.