San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO), now in its 25th anniversary season, is recognized throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. Founded in 1981, the mission of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra is to provide the finest orchestral training, tuition free, to young musicians at the pre-professional level and to enrich the cultural life of the community by presenting music at the highest level of artistic achievement. The SFSYO rehearses and performs in Davies Symphony Hall under the direction of the San Francisco Symphony's Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the Youth Orchestra, Benjamin Shwartz.

SFSYO members work with many of the world-renowned artists performing with the San Francisco Symphony. San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt, Edo de Waart, Kurt Masur, Valery Gergiev, Leonard Slatkin, Yo-Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukerman, Midori, Vadim Repin, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, Maxim Vengerov, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Joseph Silverstein, Richard Stoltzman, Paula Robison, and Mstislav Rostropovich have all worked with the SFSYO.

The SFSYO has toured widely with concerts in Asia and many visits to Europe; during its first European Tour in 1986 it was awarded the world's highest honor for a young musician's orchestral ensemble, the City of Vienna Prize, at the Fifteenth International Youth and Music Festival. The orchestra has since returned to Europe many times performing at the most prestigious halls, including Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Musikverein, Moscow Great Hall and Amsterdam's renowned Concertgebouw. Askonas Holt are delighted to be organising the next European tour for San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in summer 2008.