South African National Youth Orchestra

Founded in 1964, the SA National Youth Orchestra is the top youth orchestra in the county, with an impressive legacy of international and national tours since its inception nearly 50 years ago. In 1994 the NYO gained recognition as one of the leading youth orchestras in the world with performances broadcast by the BBC. In 1998 it participated in a mass concert conducted by Gérard Korsten on Red Square in Moscow – the spectacular performance was televised worldwide.

In 2006 the NYO toured Germany to participate in the prestigious Beethoven Fest in Bonn, where it was described as one of the best youth orchestras that had ever performed at the festival. In 2011 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu narrated the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten at a NYO performance in Johannesburg. The National Youth Orchestra Foundation also includes a number of other groups, such as the National Youth Concert Orchestra (founded in 1970), String Ensemble (1974), Wind Orchestra (2005), String Orchestra (2012) and Baroque Orchestra (2010), as well as the National Youth Brass (2012).