Harrogate teenager wins spot with National Youth Orchestra

Clarinettist Andy Mellor, 17, beat more 750 musicians to be selected for this year’s 163 member strong orchestra.

There was a chance at the weekend to see his superb talents in action when the orchestra played a concert at Leeds Town Hall when Andy was the capable hands of charismatic conductor John Wilson.

Andy is among eight teenagers from Yorkshire who have succeeded in battling it out with 750 of the UK’s brightest players over the past eight weeks.

The National Youth Orchestra’s current tour will also take Andy to London’s Barbican the following day for a showstopping performance.

The programme for the Leeds Town Hall concert included Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, widely considered the first great British symphony, alongside Bach’s richly imaginative Fantasia and Fugue in C minor and Respighi’s impressionistic and colourful Pines of Rome.