Founded by Yehudi Menuhin & Richard Pontzious
Inaugural concerts conducted in August 1990 by
Yehudi Menuhin
Richard Pontzious, artistic director and conductor
James Judd, principal conductor
The 100 members of the Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) are among the finest pre-professional musicians in China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Chosen through highly competitive auditions held throughout the region, they are together for six weeks each summer, initially for a three-week Summer Festival and Rehearsal Camp in Hong Kong, then for a three-week international concert tour with celebrated conductors and solo artists.
Cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Wang Jian and Alisa Weilerstein, violinists Gidon Kremer, Gil Shaham, Elmar Oliveira, Young Uck Kim, Suwanai Akiko and Cho-Liang Lin, soprano Elly Ameling, pianists Alicia de Larrocha, Cecile Licad, Leon Fleisher, the Beaux Arts Trio and trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger are among those who have performed with AYO. Conductors include Sergiu Comissiona, Alexander Schneider, Tan Dun, Okko Kamu, Eri Klas, principal conductor James Judd, and the orchestra’s co-founders, Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Pontzious.
Since its inaugural concerts in 1990 the Asian Youth Orchestra has played 275 concerts in Asia, Europe, the US and Australia to an audience of more than one million concertgoers. Millions more around the world have seen and heard the orchestra on CNN, CNBC Asia, NHK Television, Radio and Television Hong Kong, and Star TV.
A staggering 20,000 musicians, ranging in age from 17 to 27, have auditioned for AYO. Those selected for the full scholarship program study with an exceptional artist-faculty of principal players from the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, National, San Francisco and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, Brussels’ Monnaie Opera, the Triple Helix Trio, and the Boston and Peabody conservatories.
Highlights in AYO’s history include the first concerts played by musicians from China and Taiwan in Beijing and Taipei, the first concerts by an international orchestra in 50 years in Hanoi, the world premiere performances of Tan Dun’s Symphony 1997 with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Hong Kong and Beijing marking the territory’s reunification with China, multiple appearances in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, performances in the White House and at the United Nations, and concerts around the world, in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, California’s Hollywood Bowl, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Shauspielhaus, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Sydney’s Opera House.
A tuition-free summer program, the Asian Youth Orchestra is designed to ignite a pride for what can be achieved by Asian musicians in Asia, while affecting a positive influence on the brain and talent drain that continues to frustrate all Asian nations. It is the orchestra’s intention to expose Asia’s brightest young musicians to rich and varied artistic experiences that include rare opportunities for exchange, study and performance.
A formation committee of Hong Kong businessmen and women created the organizational structure for the Asian Youth Orchestra in 1987 and established it as a tax-exempt non-profit organization qualified under Section 88 of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Ordinance.
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