Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra

The Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra has a tiered structure including instrumental training from the lowest levels. The Orchestra performs in Cyprus and abroad and participates in official events. In its International Summer Academy young musicians from a large number of countries are trained by professors of international standing.

The final concerts of the Academy's Orchestra regularly inaugurate the International Kypria Festivals. In 2010 the Orchestra participated in the 1st International Youth Orchestras Festival in Istanbul, Cultural Capital of Europe 2010.

The Strings Workshop was established in October 2006 as a programme of the Ministry of Education and Culture. It functions with the cooperation of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra Foundation, and is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It forms the initial stage of a comprehensive project for the development of young musical talent in Cyprus. This ground breaking and ambitious undertaking within the general sphere of cultural development provides opportunities for talented young Cypriot children to become involved in music and receive instruction on their instrument at the highest possible level.

The Violin Workshop, the first phase of the project to be established, currently operates as part of the Music Workshop of the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra and at the moment teaches around 35 children from Nicosia and Limassol, aged between 4-14 years.

The long-term objective of the Workshop is to discover children from all over Cyprus, aged between 3-10 years with a special talent in music and interest in learning an orchestral string instrument. Thus, through applying suitable methods of instruction, guidance and supervision, a  young children's string orchestra will be created in the near future, which can be expected within the next ten years to develop into an orchestra worthy of similar ensembles abroad.

The children from the Workshop have already appeared with great success at various events and concerts.

We should stress that the decision to create this Strings Workshop is one of the best things that we have ever imagined for our country, for both young children and the very much needed cultural growth of our island.....watching the children entering the hall with so much joy, the way they were taking their positions on stage, but especially their excellent virtuosic use of the bow, they have assured us... for the future... All perfect, the sound production, the accuracy of rhythm, the collaboration, the general rendition of each piece.