Launching the careers of hundreds of talented young kiwi musicians, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) National Youth Orchestra (NYO) celebrates fifty years in July, with New Zealand’s promising young musicians coming together for the 50th Anniversary concerts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Launching the careers of hundreds of talented young kiwi musicians, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) National Youth Orchestra (NYO) celebrates fifty years in July, with New Zealand’s promising young musicians coming together for the 50th Anniversary concerts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The concerts feature the premiere of NZSO NYO Composer-in-Residence Natalie Hunt’s Only to the Highest Mountain, John Chen performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Mahler’s mighty 7th Symphony. 

Since 1959 when founder John Hopkins first conducted this generator and focus for NZ’s young musical talent, 1,700 young kiwis have played with the NZSO NYO.

Tutored by players of the NZSO, the NYO helps one generation of top-level musicians inspire the next, aspiring musicians get a taste of life as professional musicians, and like-minded individuals come from all over the country to learn from each other, study and perform.

Today, many of the NZSO NYO’s alumni have gone on to become players of the NZSO, whilst others perform or conduct with some of the finest orchestras in the USA, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia.

NZSO NYO Founder John Hopkins will attend this year’s special concerts to watch the NZSO NYO under the baton of esteemed British conductor Paul Daniel (CBE) who arrives in New Zealand fresh from conducting the Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Daniel was Music Director of English National Opera from 1997 to 2005 and appears regularly as guest conductor with all the major orchestras of the world including the London, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Hallé Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He has received an Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera, and a Gramophone award for his English music series on the Naxos label.

The 50th anniversary celebrations began earlier in the year with a residential music camp in Napier. The players for the 50th anniversary concerts attended the camp and are the same as those who performed in 2008’s orchestra, allowing them to prepare even more challenging works than usual for the July concerts.

In the year of its 50th Anniversary, the NZSO NYO also celebrates ten years since NZSO NYO Concertmaster Amalia Hall started out in the NZSO NYO as a 10-year-old violinist as well as ten years of generous support for New Zealand’s young performers from The Adam Foundation and its trustees Denis and Verna Adam.