The Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra, together with the Wolverhampton Youth Wind Orchestra, is in Malta for a series of concerts.

Part of the Wolverhampton Music School, there are some 60 musicians in the Youth Orchestra and 40 in the Youth Wind Orchestra and several of the youngsters – who range in age between 14 and 19 – play more than one instrument and so form part of both orchestras.

The young musicians, who play popular classical music to a very high standard, attend normal day schools where they receive tuition from staff based at the Music School, and they meet weekly for rehearsals.

Both the orchestras have undertaken many foreign tours, most recently to Poland, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, France, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia and Italy.

The first concert of the tour was in the parish square in Mellieha last evening and at 8.30pm this evening the orchestras will be playing in the main courtyard of the St Vincent de Paul Residence, under the patronage of Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly and Community Care Mario Galea.

The remaining concerts in Malta and Gozo are as follows:

• Monday, 23 July, 8.30pm: Qala Parish Church parvis.

• Tuesday, 24 July, 8.30pm: Mgarr (Malta) Parish Church parvis, as part of the celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone and the 90th anniversary of the arrival of the titular statue of Sta Marija.

• Wednesday, 25 July, 12.30pm: Courtyard of the Natural History Museum (Palazzo Vilhena), Mdina.