400 teenagers will travel - National Youth Orchestra in Derry-Londonderry

As part of the celebrations in Derry-Londonderry for the City of Culture 2013, the National Youth Orchestra is in Northern Ireland for a 10 day residence, led by conductor Vassily Petrenko. They will be joined by three youth choirs, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, the Irish Youth Chamber Choir and Codetta (a chamber choir based in Derry-Londonderry). The 400 young performers will be playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony along with RVW's Toward the Unknown Region and songs from Shostakovich’s Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets, at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall and at Millennium Forum, Derry~Londonderry. Soloists in the Beethoven include Lisa Milne, Andrew Kennedy and Andrew Greenan.

In addition to the main public concerts there are two NYO Inspire Days offer talented, young, local musicians the chance to work and perform with the orchestra, and Streetlevel takes NYO members to the parks and public spaces of Derry~Londonderry to perform in small groups in locations throughout the city.

Streetlevel takes place on Saturday 3 August, the Belfast concert at Waterfront Hall on Wednesday 7 August and the Derry-Londonderry one on 8 August 2013 at the Millenium Forum.

Vassily Petrenko will also be conducting the NYO and the three youth choirs in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Proms on Sunday 11 August, in programme which not only includes the RVW, but the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze at BBC, Royal Philharmonic Society and New York Philharmonic co-commission.

Further information from the National Youth Orchestra website.