The Australian Youth Orchestra undertook a seven concert tour of Europe, beginning at Berlin’s Konzerthaus on 9 August. The orchestra was conducted by Christoph Eschenbach (returning to the orchestra after 25 years) and Joshua Bell was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The programmes were completed by Peter Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry – one of the Tasmanian-born composer’s best known works inspired by the Australian landscape and featuring renowned didgeridoo player William Barton — and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which alternated on the tour programmes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Shéhérazade. The tour also took in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the summer festivals of Grafenegg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kultursommer Nordhessen, Rheingau and the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, where the tour ended on 17 August.

Aged up to 25 years, orchestra members are selected through an annual audition process and represent the best young musical talent in Australia. Since its founding in 1957, the orchestra has made over 20 international tours, including a critically acclaimed appearance at the BBC Proms in 2010.

Other recent landmark performances by the orchestra include the world premiere of Carl Vine’s Violin Concerto at the Sydney Opera House, Neil Armfield’s production of Peter Grimes with the West Australian Opera at the Perth International Arts Festival, an award-winning Beethoven symphony cycle conducted by John Nelson at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and a concert performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Queensland Music Festival.