Enjoy Bastille Day with a decidedly French flair with the Sydney Youth Orchestras and the winner of the Concerto competition.

With a program consisting of Berlioz and Saint-Saëns, both masters of coruscating orchestral colour, the Sydney Youth Orchestra will be celebrating Bastille Day with their usual sparkling energy and charged enthusiasm.

Performed on the night will be Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3, Op 78 in C minor (Organ Symphony) – familiar to all as the main theme in the 1995 family film Babe . Of composing this work Saint-Saëns said "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." This piece is considered to be a history of his career: virtuoso piano passages and brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period.

In this performance the majestic Sydney Town Hall organ will be played for the first time since the restoration of this heritage building.

Also on the night will be performed Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture. A "corsair" is a pirate or a seagoing mercenary, and this piece filled with vitality, conjures images of swashbuckling adventures on the high seas. The orchestra will be revelling in this exuberant piece, considered to be one of Berlioz’s most brilliant and popular orchestral pieces.

The winner of the 2010 SYO Concerto Competition 16 year old, Benjamin Mellefont, (Clarinet), will perform Carl Nielsen, Clarinet Concerto, Op.57. Benjamin attends the Conservatorium High School and has won numerous awards including the 2008 NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition, finalist for the ABC Symphony Australia Young performers Awards, semi finalist in the 2009 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards and has been selected twice for the Australian Youth Orchestra Young Symphonist program.
“Ben is one of our most finest young musicians and it is a great occasion to be able to give someone of his talent and potential the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the orchestra"