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| The National Youth Orchestra’s Spring tour, To the Beat |
The National Youth Orchestra’s Spring tour, To the Beat, kicks off at Birmingham Town Hall on 14 April 1014. Taking in Birmingham, the Roundhouse in London (15 April), Sheffield City Hall (16 April) and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (18 April), the orchestra will be conducted by Paolo Bortolameolli and Joana Carneiro.
The programme features the Percussion Concerto written by American composer Jennifer Higdon with soloist Jordan Ashman. Ashman is an alumnus of NYO Inspire and won the 2022 BBC Young Musician Grand Final with his performance of Higdon’s Percussion Concerto.
Higdon’s concerto was written in 2005 for percussionist Colin Currie and dedicated to him. The work features a large battery of instruments, from vibraphone and marimba (a favourite instrument of dedicatee Colin Currie), to non-pitched smaller instruments (brake drum, wood blocks, Peking Opera gong), and to the drums themselves.
Alongside this work the orchestra plays the 1947 version of Stravinsky’s ballet, Petrushka, and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein’s 1960 suite from the 1957 musical. The original musical was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and it was they who prepared the expanded orchestration of the suite, under Bernstein’s supervision.
Tickets for all performances are free for teenages. Full details of To the Beat from the National Youth Orchestra’s website.
