Every year NYO welcomes 10,000 teenagers from all UK backgrounds and different levels of musical ability into its community to play, share and experience orchestral music.

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 At the heart of this community is NYO: an inspirational orchestra of 160 teenagers playing together at an exceptionally high level of musicianship, celebrated internationally as ‘the world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers.’ Driven by their passionate commitment to bring classical music to their generation, each NYO musician plays their part as a leader and role model. They share music, enthusiasm and skills through the NYO Inspire and NYO Open programmes, encouraging thousands of other young people to enjoy orchestral music and aspire for their own progression.

Since 1948, this organisation has played a pioneering and vital role to support the aspirations of musical teenagers, acting as a beacon for the transformative power of music education.

2023 was a busy year for NYO with three residencies, in Warwick, Uppingham and Newcastle, and performances across the country, including Liverpool, Nottingham, Saffron Walden and Birmingham, as well as the BBC Proms in London. 

The charity’s ‘NYO Inspire’ programme offers free opportunities for teenagers who want music to be a bigger part of their lives, but face barriers and lack of opportunity to progress. The 2023 programme took place across a variety of locations including Liverpool, Nottingham, Warwick, Gloucester, Sheffield and North Tyneside, involving almost 700 young people, and consisted of workshops, flash mobs and mini concerts as well as tours of state schools, where the teenage musicians performed concerts and ran workshops. 

The Inspire programme culminated in a week-long residency for 60 of the almost 700 young people enrolled on the programme. In total, 5,600 young people were reached in performance across schools and concert venues, with 27% of the audience at concert hall performances being teenagers