The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland dances on its journey to the Proms

Fanfares and percussion: the NYOS play an all American programme of Gershwin, Copland and welcome back NYOS alumnus Colin Currie to play Andrew Norman’s Switch.

Music from Vaughan Williams is contrasted with two pieces from Dobrinka Tabakova  in The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concert, Ascent. Senior NYOS strings swell the ranks to produce a reflective evening of richness and warmth.

In a pioneering development, the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland have added a new orchestra to its family which now encompasses eight playing groups. There are now three orchestras providing a full development pathway for talented players aged 8 to 25, starting with the Junior Orchestra, through the new Senior Orchestra and culminating in the flagship National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.

From Canonbie a mile north of the border to Brae in the Shetland Isles, and all points in between, a few days ago 128 top young instrumentalists and their tutors arrived in Perthshire for the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland’s summer school, to rehearse for their summer concert, which this year they are taking to the Proms in London, where they will be joined by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orche

Grisey and Stockhausen show the value of old-school technique in a festival of music from the recent past and futuristic present.