MORE than 85 players and six support staff set off from Perth, Australia, last week for a musical adventure around Europe.

Before returning down under on February 6 the Western Australia Youth Orchestra will have notched up classical gigs in Manchester, Ripon, Reading, London, Berlin, Mannheim, and Prague as well as gracing Kendal with its magnificent presence in the parish church next Friday (January 17, 7pm).

For the South Lakeland concert, Sedbergh viola player Katie Stables steps up as one of the soloists in a programme including works by Mozart, Shostakovich and a specially WAYO commissioned piece composed by James Ledger, Pipe Dream.

The work was a tribute by the young Perth composer to C.Y. O'Connor, regarded as an Aussie engineering genius and the brains behind the 325-mile Goldline pipeline in Western Australia. He also developed the State's railway system and Freemantle Harbour.

Instrumental in bringing the orchestra to British shores is Sedbergh musician Jane Lomax - who organised the WAYO's Ripon concert - and trombonist and the baton behind the Westmorland Youth Orchestra, Noel Bertram.

Wearing his head of the Cumbria Music Service hat, Noel gave WAYO executive director Geoffrey Lowe (pictured) a guided tour of Kendal in October 2002, when Mr Lowe jetted into the UK on a reconnaissance mission for the award-winning Australian ensemble.

Tickets are £6 for adults / under-18s unaccompanied £2. For each youngster under-18 accompanied by an adult admission is free.

January 9, 2003 10:00