Auckland Youth Orchestra is excited to perform our first concert of 2025 in Tauranga!

We are also hosting an Open Rehearsal and Performance Opportunity for our young musicians in secondary and tertiary education, starting at 2pm.

Concert will start at 4pm, and at the end of the symphony, we will invite all musicians that have attended the Open Rehearsal to join us on stage as we repeat the 2nd movement of the symphony for our audience.

For more information, please email ayomanager@gmail.com, or visit our website

More about our concert repertoire:
Our first programme of 2025 opens with a short, gentle work for strings by Finland’s most famous composer, Sibelius. The music evokes images of the natural wonders of his country – those of mountains, rivers and forests.

Up next is the winner of AYO’s 2024 Soloist Competition, young oboist Alex Wu, performing Vaughan Williams’ oboe concerto (read on to find out more about the competition). This masterpiece for oboe treats the listener to glorious melodies, with the lively final movement seeing the soloist’s fingers flying over the instrument.

Having been lulled by the delightfully lyrical, pastoral music of the first half of the concert, the audience is assured of drama, passion and pathos after the interval with a performance of Tchaikovsky's famous 6th symphony – the “Pathétique”. From the moody bassoon solo of the opening bars to the dramatic, solemn closing bars from the strings, this emotion-packed work draws an impassioned performance from these outstanding young musicians.