Shimmer: the National Youth Orchestra launches 2026 with impressions of Spain and Anne Clyne's dancing cello

The National Youth Orchestra (NYO) launches 2026 with Shimmer, a three-date tour where the orchestra will be conducted by Alexandre Bloch in a programme with a distinctly Spanish theme. The evening begins with Debussy's Ibéria and ends with Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole and in between there is Karim Al-Zand's City Scenes and Anna Clyne's DANCE with cellist Inbal Segev. The tour begins at the Barbican Centre (4 January), followed by Warwick Arts Centre (5 January), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (6 January) and free schools concert at the Elgar Concert Hall, Birmingham (7 January).

There will be around 160 musicians on stage, with over half of this year’s musicians new to the NYO. Demand for places in the orchestra of 2026 was at an all-time high with a record number of applications. Musicians hail from every corner of the country from Bromley to Ballymena and Abergavenny to Aberdeen. NYO’s concerts remain free for teenagers, to ensure there are no barriers for young people experiencing the power of a live orchestra. About half of the Orchestra will stay on in Birmingham to perform in a free schools concert for thousands of secondary school students on 7 January.

This will be conductor Alexandre Bloch's second time working with the Orchestra, he conducted them in in their 2024 Prom.

Anna Clyne wrote DANCE in 2019 for cellist Inbal Segev who gave the premiere of the work at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California. The work is in five movements, each inspired by a line from verse by Rumi: 

Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you're perfectly free. 

 Clyne discusses her inspiration in more detail in an article on Boosey & Hawkes's website.

Karim Al-Zand is a Canadian-American composer. His music embraces a variety of interests, issues and influences. It explores connections between sound and other art forms, drawing inspiration from graphic art, myths and fables, folk music of the world, film, poetry, jazz, and his own Middle Eastern heritage.  His City Scenes from 2006 is described as 'three urban dances for orchestra'.

Full details from the NYO website.