Auckland Youth Orchestra

A junior orchestra that outgrew its name

The Auckland Youth Orchestra was founded in 1948 under the name Auckland Junior Symphony Orchestra, and the organisation still describes itself as the first youth orchestra established in the Southern Hemisphere. Its stated purpose has not shifted much in 78 years: to sit between school orchestras and the adult professional groups, giving players who have already reached a high standard on their instrument somewhere to learn the symphonic repertoire properly before they audition for a living. Membership runs to the age of 26, with the orchestra's own fundraising page putting the lower bound at 15.

The numbers give a sense of scale. The history page counts more than 2,500 musicians who have passed through the ranks; the more recently updated donation page says more than 2,600. The orchestra plays up to twelve concerts a year, and it is run by a committee rather than a conservatoire. The current chair is Adrian Hirst, the patron is Christopher Finlayson KC, the orchestra manager is Mary Lin, and the 2026 player representatives are Alex Martin, Eleanor Christiansen and Vin Marsden. Donations go on rehearsal and concert venue hire, transport, instrument storage and professional tutoring.

Only four people have held the music director's post in the orchestra's history. The current holder, Antun Poljanich, was already on the podium when the Northern Advocate reviewed the orchestra in Whangarei in April 2016, and he is named as conductor for every 2026 Town Hall date. That continuity matters in an ensemble whose players, by design, leave.

Berlin, the South Island and the small-town circuit

The orchestra's international record is short but specific. In 2011 it became the first New Zealand ensemble invited to the Young Euro Classic festival in Berlin, and it went back in 2018 to play the Konzerthaus. Earlier tours took it to Australia, New Caledonia and North America, though the orchestra does not date those. At home, a 2013 South Island tour ran through Dunedin, Gore, Te Anau, Wanaka, Westport and Nelson.

The domestic pattern since then has been to build each programme in Auckland and carry it to regional halls. Whangarei has been a regular stop. On 2 April 2016 the orchestra played the Capitaine Bougainville Theatre there with Smetana's Vltava, Spohr's First Clarinet Concerto with former member Kenny Keppel as soloist, and Sibelius's Second Symphony. Reviewer Paul Serotsky noted that entry was free with voluntary donations, a scheme that sponsorship had made possible in Auckland and that the orchestra had extended to other venues without any backing. A Whitianga concert drew a review in the Mercury Bay Informer in May 2019. The 2026 itinerary has taken in Cambridge, Helensville, Howick, Botany and Orewa.

The seventy-fifth birthday: Beethoven's Ninth with 180 on stage

The anniversary programme was tested on the road first. On 14 October 2023, in the Anglican church in Whangarei, the orchestra played Mendelssohn's Verleih uns Frieden, Guilmant's Symphony No. 1 for organ and orchestra with Nicholas Forbes at the organ, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Auckland Youth Choir and soloists Morag Atchison, Catrin Johnsson, Jack Bourke and James Harrison. Poljanich shared the podium with David Squire. Around 180 performers were on stage, and the audience filled about two-thirds of the floor.

Serotsky, writing for Seen and Heard International in a review published on 5 November 2023, called the Mendelssohn opening an “unforgettably thrilling sound”, described the Beethoven as “a veritable revelation” with “blood-curdling intensity”, and said the final chorus emerged as “an accumulation of ecstasy” before a standing ovation. His one reservation was the church acoustic, which let the timpani threaten to overwhelm the orchestra.

The same programme went into the Auckland Town Hall on Friday 20 October 2023 as a free concert, preceded by a reception in the Balcony Bar. The following day the orchestra held a Big Play In at C3 Church in Ellerslie, reading César Franck's Symphony under Michael McLellan with past and present members. New leadership elections were announced that December.

How the soloists are found

Concerto soloists usually come from inside the orchestra, chosen through an annual competition. The 2024 final on 1 December 2024 was won by oboist Alex Wu with Vaughan Williams. The 2025 final on 19 October 2025 went to cellist Howard Lu with Tchaikovsky, and he duly played the Variations on a Rococo Theme across the March 2026 series: St Peter's School in Cambridge on 21 March, Helensville War Memorial Hall on 22 March, All Saints Church in Howick on 28 March and the Town Hall on 29 March, alongside Dvořák's Othello Overture, Fauré's Masques et Bergamasques and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.

Players get airtime as well as stage time. RNZ Concert interviewed the cello section in June 2024 about Philip Glass's Symphony for Eight, principal flautist Alina Chen in July 2024 about her move to the Juilliard School, and June 2025 soloist Tony Yan Tong Chen with presenter Bryan Crump. Poljanich and an alumnus were interviewed on the station in November 2023. Not everything lands: the Howick leg of the June 2025 Tchaikovsky series was cancelled, announced on 6 June 2025.

2026: New World, Firebird and a sixteen-year-old

The June 2026 series ran at Sancta Maria College in Botany on 14 June, the Orewa Arts and Events Centre on 20 June and the Town Hall on 21 June. Poljanich conducted Bizet's Intermezzo from the second L'Arlésienne suite, Emmanuel Séjourné's Double Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone with Eric Renick and Steven Logan, and Dvořák's Ninth Symphony. The Town Hall running time was one hour and 45 minutes with a 20-minute interval.

The September programme opens with Weber's Oberon Overture, continues with Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and closes with the 1919 Firebird Suite. It plays All Saints Church in Howick on 5 September with entry by donation, Orewa on 12 September at $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students and children, and the Town Hall at 2.30pm on 13 September, where premium seats cost $20 and every other seat is free with a booking.

The pianist is Shan Liu, a 16-year-old Year 12 student at Westlake Boys High School. He won the National Concerto Competition in Christchurch in 2025 at the age of 14 with Tchaikovsky's First Concerto, the youngest winner in the event's 57-year history, and made his New Zealand Symphony Orchestra solo debut in July 2026 in Wellington and Christchurch with Prokofiev's Third Concerto under Jaime Martín. The Auckland date brings him back to a youth orchestra weeks later.

In the hall

A concert follows the classic shape: an overture, a concerto and a large symphonic work, all inside two hours with a 20-minute interval. Town Hall dates are Sunday matinees at 2.30pm; regional dates are mostly Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. There is no support act in the touring sense, though in Whangarei in 2016 early arrivals heard the Sistema Whangarei children's ensemble before the main event. The Town Hall offers accessible seating and a hearing loop, and children under 14 must be with a caregiver.

Reviewers have been consistent about the standard and honest about the edges. Serotsky's 2016 verdict on the Sibelius finale was that “if you want to know what 'awesome' really means, this was it”, while arguing that the tempo ran faster than the marked allegro moderato and lost “the essential ingredient of grandeur”. His 2023 review of the Beethoven ended with a standing ovation, and the orchestra's own news page records a Whangarei performance in April 2023 being called “terrific”.