Richard Pontzious has spent his life in music. He founded the Asian Youth Orchestra in 1987 with the distinguished violinist, conductor and humanitarian Yehudi Menuhin.

The idea for the creation of an orchestra that would unite the region and celebrate the talents of Asia's brightest young musicians came as the result of Mr. Pontzious' work as conductor, teacher and writer in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where he has lived and worked for some 30 years.

Mr. Pontzious served as conductor-in-residence at the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music in the early1980s, toured with the Conservatory orchestra and guest conducted numerous Chinese.

Since 1987, Mr. Pontzious has devoted his professional life to the Asian Youth Orchestra. This has led to conducting appearances in Beijing, Berlin, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Osaka, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Sydney, Manila, Hong Kong, as well as in Romania and Italy. Mr. Pontzious was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra in 2002.

A student of American composer Lou Harrison and conductors Sergiu Comissiona, Ferdinand Leitner and Josef Krips, Mr. Pontzious received the Bronze Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong Government in 2000 for his contribution to music and the arts. That same year, at age 56, he received his private pilot's license.

Making his Asian Youth Orchestra debut this summer, the British-born conductor James Judd is Music Director Emeritus of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille in France.

A graduate of London's Trinity College of Music, James Judd came to international attention as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he accepted at the invitation of Lorin Maazel. Four years later he returned to Europe after being appointed Associate Music Director of the European Community Youth Orchestra by Claudio Abbado, an ensemble with which he continues to serve as an honorary Artistic Director. Since that time he has directed the Berlin Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic, conducted in the great concert halls of Europe, including the Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna's Musikverein, and made guest appearances with such prestigious ensembles as the Vienna Symphony, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Prague Symphony, Orchestre National de France, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Orchestra, and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg.

As an opera conductor, he has appeared with the English National Opera and at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. He continues to conduct all the major British ensembles, and was co-founder of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he has led on tours throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe. In North and South America he is a frequent and much-admired guest conductor, having appeared with the orchestras of St Louis, Montreal, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Indianapolis, Utah, Vancouver and Ottawa, and for fourteen years served as Music Director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, one of America's orchestral success stories.

Photo by Lord Snowdon