Transcend roundup

NYO BBC proms 2026

Transcend marked the culmination of a transformative journey for the Orchestra of 2026. They’ve spent the last year exploring where orchestral music can take them, reaching new heights as musicians and inspiring their generation to see where orchestral music can take them too.

The Orchestra took audiences across the country on a powerful musical journey. Starting out with a 5-star performance in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, then onto a spellbinding concert in the stunning surroundings of Snape Maltings concert hall. Before reaching their peak at a sold-out BBC Proms in the iconic Royal Albert Hall.

Musicians described their experience as “one of the best nights of my life”, “I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like it before“, “It was a dream I can’t put into words.”

Conductor Thomas Adès, once a percussionist in The National Youth Orchestra himself, returned to work with the Orchestra for rehearsals and the tour, leading the teenage musicians through a programme of extraordinary music and formidable challenges.

Performances opened with Liszt’s fearless Mephisto Waltz No. 1, before taking musicians and audiences alike into the transformative Purgatorio from Adès’ ballet Dante. From there, they stepped into the surreal world of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, with its immersive energy coming from every direction. The Orchestra then brought the house down with John Barry’s Space March from You Only Live Twice – a powerful, fitting finale.

Couldn’t catch Transcend live? The BBC Proms performance was recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four, and is now available to catch up on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.

Watch on BBC iPlayer
Listen on BBC Sounds
The quality of the NYO’s sound and responsiveness to Adès’s conducting were wonderful, but above all it was their understanding of the music’s emotional life that made this such a compelling performance.
The Times
…no one would have failed to register the NYO’s musical, indeed human energy from the conductor’s first downbeat, indeed before that too. Unanimity of sound, but also of purpose, reached through collaboration… was apparent throughout the entire concert.
Seen and Heard International
...all-guns-blazing finale of the cohort’s year together.
The Guardian
Phenomenal in execution…this cohort delivered in spades.
Thoroughly Good
…a typically demanding programme that played to the strengths of some 150 players in no small measure.
Arcana.hm
The joy of these young people is evident in every note.
BroadwayWorld
…Adès’s colourful canvas, played with unbounded enthusiasm, enthralled the ear and fed the imagination.
Colin's Column

During the summer residency and tour, the transformative power of orchestral music reached hundreds of young people across the country.

  • 500 teenagers in Birmingham and Suffolk experienced Transcend with Free for Teens offer, with teenagers making up 48% of the audience in Birmingham.
  • The Orchestra musicians acted as mentors to 100 young musicians through Side by Side rehearsals in Keele, Birmingham and Snape.
  • Teenagers from OnSide Youth Zones in the North West joined us for a three-day residency, discovering orchestral instruments and music through interactive sessions with musicians from the NYO community.
  • NYO Inspire musicians came together for a creative session in London before cheering for the Orchestra in the audience at the BBC Proms.
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