The Irish Association of Youth Orchestras will run a Festival Orchestra made up of players nominated by IAYO member orchestras that will rehearse in the weekends running up to the Festival and open the 8pm performance on the day.

In 2015, we had a 96-piece symphony orchestra of young players grade 4 and above that played an arrangement of the Overture to Rienzi by Richard Wagner, music from The Lord of the Dance and a commissioned work, Dreaming in Sign Language, by Sam Perkin (you can see the score here).

For 2020, we would like to work with a conductor who has a vision for something great, something that can include lots of young players from around Ireland in a rehearsal process over a few weekends and a performance at the National Concert Hall as part of the Festival of Youth Orchestras. We are very open to ideas on what might happen and how.

If you would like to be that conductor, then please send us your recent biography or CV along with a paragraph or two on why you are interested and what you would envision.

See link below for further details.