Richard Pontzious founded the Hong Kong-based Asian Youth Orchestra in 1987 with the distinguished violinist, conductor and humanitarian Yehudi Menuhin.

 

The idea for the creation of an orchestra that would unite the region and celebrate the talents of East Asia’s brightest young musicians came as the result of Mr. Pontzious’ work as conductor, writer, teacher and mentor in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

 

In 2010 the Orchestra was awarded Japan’s Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists, a global arts prize.

 

 

Winner of five international violin competitions and widely heralded as “the crowing masterpiece of Zakhar Bron’s talent academy” – with playing described as “utter perfection, emotionally touching and passionate”, and “enthusing with radiance, musicality, and perfect technique” (Berner Zeitung) – Moné Hattori is fast emerging as one of the finest violinists of her generation.

 

At the age of ten she became the youngest ever winner of the Lipinski/Wieniawski Competition (2009), and has gone on to take the Grand Prix at major competitions throughout Europe and Asia.

 

 

The Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO) is a youth orchestra composed of musicians from several Asian countries. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin and Richard Pontzious in 1987, and its first concert took place in August 1990, conducted by Menuhin.