Australian Youth Orchestra
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The Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) is an Australian organisation for young musicians. It operates the flagship Youth Orchestra as well as Camerata Australia, Young Australian Concert Artists and Young Symphonists. It also runs several other activities including masterclasses, outreach programmes and a generous scholarship scheme.
The AYO finds its origins in the music camps founded by John Bishop and Ruth Alexander in 1948. These camps saw the foundation of the National Music Camp Association (NCMA) in 1951. The Youth Orchestra itself debuted in 1957 at the Sydney Town Hall.
The organisation changed its name to Youth Music Australia in 1993 before adopting the name of its flagship in 2000.