Shanghai International Youth Orchestra founder Sam Matthews poses with the orchestra members.

The strains of Mozart fill the night air, drifting from a small building at the back of Fudan Middle School in Luwan District.

Making the beautiful music are some of Shanghai's most talented young string musicians and they have been painstakingly practicing this challenging string composition and other demanding works for the past three months.

The 15-member Shanghai International Youth Orchestra was begun in the autumn of 2007 and its next major performance will be on Saturday at the Oriental Art Center in Pudong.

The orchestra, which has both foreign and Chinese players between the ages of 12 and 19, was founded by its director, American Sam Matthews.

A graduate of the prestigious US music college, the Peabody Conservatory, in Baltimore, Maryland, Matthews is an accomplished solo cellist.

His aim is to actively integrate local Chinese students with international students so that they can learn about playing in an ensemble.

The group is believed to be Shanghai's first community youth orchestra, performing two concerts a year as well as outreach performances in the community.

Sam Wu, 13, is a violinist and one of the orchestra's founding members. He says being in the group enables him to meet students from all over the world and develop his music skills.

"We learn to interpret a piece and we learn the style in which we should play it," he said.

"We also learn a range of technical skills as well as information about the composer and the piece we are playing."

Ned Dana is a 15-year-old American who has played the violin since he was six. Dana has been in China for a year and says the positive pressure to practice and then rehearse for a performance has improved his playing over the past three months.

In their performance on Saturday, the student orchestra will tackle a diverse lineup of works that includes Bartok's "Gypsy Folk Dances" and "Liang Xiao" ("Beautiful Evening") by erhu (two-string fiddle) performer Liu Tianhua.

In the first 40-minute half of the performance, the musicians will also take on Mozart, perform a well-known American Christmas carol and a work by 20th century English composer Peter Warlock.

After a 20-minute intermission, Matthews and teachers from the Shanghai American School and Dulwich College International School will perform a Shubert work for string quartet with two cellists.

Matthews said the students learn about a range of different composers and styles and develop group playing skills.

"They can practice in a room by themselves but they won't learn what they get to know by playing in a room with their colleagues and that is how they gain as musicians," he said.

Date: December 13, 7:45pm

Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 Dingxiang Rd, Shanghai

Tickets: 100-180 yuan, available at ticket office

Tel for tickets: 6282-0989

(Shanghai Daily December 12, 2008)