Apioneering pan-African youth orchestra will perform in public for only the second time this weekend – at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Africa United Youth Orchestra (AUYO), the first of its kind to bring together musicians from across the continent, is due to play a “once-in-a-lifetime” concert at the legendary venue on 3 August. It will be one of seven international youth ensembles performing during the Carnegie Hall’s world orchestra week.
“I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to play at Carnegie ever again,” says Olawale Olayinka, a Nigerian vioinist and violist. “So this is very, very important for me.”
Olayinka, from Nigeria’s Osun state, did not pursue his love of music as a child because his family thought he could not make a career of it. He only began playing the instrument in his late teens after spotting that the church opposite his university in Lagos was offering free courses.
“We still have a lot of rehearsals to do. And we are looking forward to the festival’s ‘big play’ event, where more than 700 young musicians will join together under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel,” he says, referring to the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. “We will perform works by John Williams and Beethoven, as well as the much-loved Olympic Fanfare.”
Olayinka was among a few dozen young musicians, mostly in their 20s, chosen from the 220 who auditioned to be part of AUYO earlier this year, from countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Mozambique. The New York appearance is being hailed as “a remarkable moment for African classical music on the global stage”.