Press Release


For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Keith Lau, General Manager
Tel: (852) 2866-1623
e-mail: ayo@asianyouthorchestra.com

Quest for the best

 Asian Youth Orchestra . . .the search is on

Hong Kong, February 2008 – Eat your heart out Simon Cowell. Classical music’s answer to American Idol – the Asian Youth Orchestra – is back for an 18^th season of auditions, demanding as ever, on the hunt for 100-plus top musicians who have what it takes to become members of an orchestra that celebrates the commitment, dedication and extraordinary talent of the best and brightest in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea – and throughout southeast Asia.

The 1,000 to 1,500 candidates who one-by-one over the next two months will nervously stand alone onstage in audition rooms in 15 cities across Asia and play for AYO founder and artistic director Richard Pontzious and orchestra general manager Keith Lau will quickly appreciate how tough it is to win a coveted place in the orchestra – and the chance to study over the summer with AYO’s distinguished faculty of musicians from the Boston, Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco symphony orchestras, then perform night after night on tour. 

Pontzious, who has a reputation for being as impatient as pop music’s Simon Cowell when auditions don’t go well, says he’s as excited about this 18^th season of auditions as he was in the orchestra’s inaugural year. “Yes, we expect a lot of those who aspire to be in AYO, whether they’re 17 or 27 years old, but these kids are up to it, and at the end of the day I’m so proud of them, and proud that we at AYO can offer them so much as they strive to make the transition from students to professional musicians.”

Audition results will be posted on the orchestra’s website on April 1^st. Those invited to become AYO members will be flown to Hong Kong by long-time AYO sponsor Cathay Pacific for a three-week Summer Festival (Rehearsal Camp), where they will undertake rigorously demanding rehearsals before embarking on a 31-day marathon concert tour taking the orchestra from Hong Kong to China, Japan and on to the United States, where performances in New York’s Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival head the schedule.

“The Asian Youth Orchestra’s reputation as a springboard into professional careers in music is behind the very stiff competition amongst candidates that we see each year – many of whom travel significant distances to audition for us,” says Pontzious. “Selecting the very top 100 is always a serious business, but I think that anyone who comes to one of this year’s concerts will agree with us that we made a great choice.”

Founded in 1987 as a non-profit charitable trust, the Asian Youth Orchestra is designed to ignite a pride for what can be achieved by Asian musicians in Asia, while affecting a positive influence on the brain and talent drain that continues to frustrate all Asian nations. It is the orchestra’s intention to expose Asia’s brightest young musicians to rich and varied artistic experiences that include rare opportunities for exchange, study and touring with this century’s most celebrated artists.

Since its first performances in 1990, AYO has played 261 concerts in 167 cities to nearly 1,000,000 people. Millions more around the world have seen and heard the orchestra on CNN, CNBC, NHK Television, Radio and Television Hong Kong and Star TV.

AYO Audition schedule
Manila, Philippines                2 February
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia       21 February
Singapore                         23 February
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam    25 February
Hanoi, Vietnam                  26 February
Bangkok, Thailand              28 February
Taipei, Taiwan                  1 & 2 March
Guangzhou, China                   8 March
Hong Kong                             9 March
Osaka, Japan                        15 March
Tokyo, Japan                        16 March
Seoul, Korea                          21March
Beijing, China                        23 March
Shanghai, China                     25 March

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