National Youth Orchestra of Iraq

The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI) is an orchestra comprising musicians from different parts of Iraq. The members are aged between 14 and 29 years. They are selected every autumn-winter through a process of online and video auditions.

National Youth Orchestra of Iraq's logo and official colour for 2011

The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq

The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is the brainchild of Zuhal Sultan at 17 years of age. She worked with Raw Television on their award-winning Battlefront series of Generation Y leaders during 2008/9 to create the orchestra.

In September 2008, Raw TV sent out a press release entitled "Iraqi Teen seeks Maestro for Youth Orchestra" to UK press, which Scottish Conductor, Paul MacAlindin, read and responded to. After choosing Paul as musical director, Zuhal brought in friend and fellow musician, Allegra Klein, Director of Musicians for Harmony in New York. Together, they worked online to set up the first summer course for 2009.

Auditions by YouTube were organised with players in Baghdad and the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Funding was secured from the Baghdad and Kurdish governments, as well as the British Council[1] and Foreign and Commonwealth Office of Great Britain. The British Council, at that time directed by Tony Reilly, also became the operational partner in Iraq.

Courses

The orchestra meets once a year in a two- week summer course. For the second year in a row, the course has been held in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. The course includes intensive training by European and American professional musicians, providing an opportunity for the talented musicians to receive group lessons as well as one to one as most of the members have had little tuition or have been self-taught. The course includes ice-breaking and bonding sessions between members and tutors.

gollark: They might actually have less, since the government is bound by laws to provide loans or whatever subject to some fixed constraints, and people will probably complain if the government says "no, we're not paying for this thing".
gollark: They don't seem to actually use it much.
gollark: Arguably governments subsidizing it worsen the problem, since the government is even *less* sensitive to how much money they're burning than individual people spending money on this stuff.
gollark: This cannot possibly go well.
gollark: I'm fine with people talking about it theoretically.

See also

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20160305080922/https://vimeo.com/7222431 https://web.archive.org/web/20091208190127/http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/about-us/Creating-opportunity-worldwide/Iraqs-first-ever-National-Youth-Orchestra/ https://www.facebook.com/NYO.IRAQ http://wn.com/National_Youth_Orchestra_of_Iraq,_BBC_Reporting_Scotland

  1. "Iraq's first ever National Youth Orchestra". British Council. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
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