The Manx Youth Orchestra embarks on a week-long tour of the Netherlands this month. Forty eight musicians aged 13 to 22 will perform three concerts and enjoy visits to Anne Frank’s house, the Van Gogh Museum and Phantasialand theme park just over the border in Germany. Concert venues include two stunning churches, one of them de Oude Kerk in Amsterdam where the artist Rembrandt was married. The performance there forms part of an international festival of youth orchestras and choirs. The orchestra will also perform at the Mondriaan Centre in Heerlen – a psychiatric hospital with a reputation for giving enthusiastic welcomes to visiting musical groups. The programme includes music by Mussorgsky, Sibelius and Shostakovitch as well as local musician Frank Woolley’s Manx Suite (orchestral arrangements of Creg Willy Syl, Ushag Veg Ruy and Return the Blow) and The Magician, a composition by Ballakermeen High School student Laura Willoughby, the MYO’s principal flautist. Young people will be under the baton of Maggie Richardson, the DEC’s Head of Music Service. Ramsey Grammar School student Caitlyn Fairbairn, 18, who as first violinist is the leader of the orchestra, said: ‘We have been preparing for the tour for months, since our Christmas concert. Some pieces we have played before but we have also been adding various new pieces to our repertoire to build it up. There is a wide variety of pieces for the concerts and I’m sure audiences will enjoy them.’ Caitlyn added: ‘Everyone is very excited about going. For some people it is their first tour with the orchestra. We have been working very hard, rehearsing every Saturday morning during term time. It'll be great to see all our effort finally pay off at the concerts. It should be a really great trip.’ The tour, which departs on Monday 18th July, is sponsored by Friends of the Manx Youth Orchestra, which is chaired by Bernard Osborne. Ends