Young persons' orchestra created for 2012 Cultural Olympiad

An orchestra is to be set up in London next year, made up entirely of young musicians, as part of the capital’s Cultural Olympiad celebrations.
The Aldeburgh World Orchestra will recruit 124 musicians aged between 18 and 29 and from all over the globe for a one month residency in London.
Dependent on their visas allowing them to travel to the UK and Europe, the scheme will include funding for travel, accommodation and meals, and see the orchestra perform in a concert in Germany, Amsterdam and at the BBC Proms in London.
For most of the month, however, the orchestra, led by Sir Mark Elder, will be in residence in Suffolk at Snape Maltings. They will perform works by Britten, Mahler, Shostakovich and Stravinsky and will give the world premiere of a new BBC commission by Charlotte Bray.
The orchestra is open to ‘exceptional’ players and each musician will be tutored by a number of international orchestral principals as well.
With just one year to go until the London 2012 Olympics, part of the nation’s bid was to offer an alternative Cultural Olympiad spread over four years and culminating at the London 2012 Festival.
It involves art, film, literature, museums, theatre, dance and music, from large-scale commissions to local activities across the UK.
Other projects involved in the Cultural Olympiad include New Music 20×12, a UK-wide programme of 20 new works of 12 minutes long that are inspired by Olympics and Paralympics sports.
Meanwhile, young people aged between 14 and 19-years-old can get involved in Youth Music Voices, a choir encompassing different world styles.
Musicians living in east London are being targeted by a programme run by the London Symphony Orchestra, which hopes to inspire talented young musicians and support them and their families to make sure that they fulfil their ambitions.