What is National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain?
The '''National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain''' ('''NYO''') is an [[orchestra]] for young [[musician]]s in the [[United Kingdom]]. The members of the orchestra are all aged between 13 and 19 years. It is a very large orchestra with about 150 players. Children who want to play in the National Youth Orchestra have to be able to play their [[musical instrument|instrument]] very well. They need to be at least [[Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music|Grade 8 Distinction]] standard and they need to be very good at [[sightreading]] so that they can learn very quickly. They have to pass an [[audition]] to get a place in the orchestra. These auditions take place in the [[autumn]] in several towns in Britain. The National Youth Orchestra was started in [[1947]] by Ruth Railton (later Dame Ruth King). The current director is Sarah Alexander. The orchestra meet three times a year during the school holidays at [[New Year]], [[Easter]] and [[Summer]] for about two weeks. They [[rehearse]] very hard together and then give one or two concerts in famous concert halls in Britain such as [[Barbican Hall]] in [[London]], [[Symphony Hall]] in [[Birmingham]], [[Bridgewater Hall]] in [[Manchester]], [[St David's Hall]] in [[Cardiff]] and [[Glasgow Royal Concert Hall]] in [[Glasgow]]. Every year they play in a [[BBC Proms|Promenade Concert]] in the [[Royal Albert Hall]]. In 2007 they played the [[Symphony no 7 (Shostakovich)|Leningrad Symphony]] by [[Shostakovich]] at the Proms. In June that year they played at the [[Glastonbury Festival]]. The [[trumpet]]ers and [[drum]]mers woke people up with [[Aaron Copland]]’s ''[[Fanfare for the Common Man]]'' In [[April]] [[2008]] the NYO played [[Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Rite of Spring]]'' in Birmingham Symphony Hall, and in August they will play at the [[Snape Maltings]] and at the [[BBC Proms]] conducted by [[Antonio Pappano]] with the [[piano|pianist]] [[Boris Berezovsky (pianist)|Boris Berezovsky]] as soloist. The concerts are always conducted by famous [[conducting|con