Two teenage brothers from Kenilworth will feature at the Warwick Arts Centre in January as the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO) returns.

Patrick, 18, and Andrew O'Reilly, 16 are among the 156 youngsters to have earned coveted places in the 2023 cohort.

Both string features will play when NYO comes to the arts centre on Saturday 7 January 2023.

Described as 'the world's greatest orchestra of teenagers,' the NYO is renowned for its musicianship and wide repertoire.

The local concert - entitled Odyssey - will feature Richard Strauss's epic Also Sprach Zarathustra (as made famous in Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey); Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes, from the composer's opera Peter Grimes; and Rift, a mesmerising work by contemporary English composer Anna Clyne for which the NYO are presenting the first performances in the UK.

Andrew (cello, co-principal) said: "I kept playing the violin like a cello, so for my sixth birthday, my grandparents got me a cello.

"At NYO, I love playing big orchestral works with fantastic players and I enjoy the wonderful coaching and the magnificent concert halls we get to play in.

"In the future, I hope to take my experiences back into my school and share them with the local orchestras in my county."

Patrick (viola, principal) added: "I began learning the violin at the age of six before transitioning to viola at the age of 10.

"My Gran was the main reason - once when visiting her, she said she had a viola for me to try, however I couldn't find it so my excitement changed quickly to disappointment.

"When I then got the chance to finally try viola, I absolutely loved it and have never looked back.

"I then joined the National Children's Orchestra for four years before being privileged to gain a place in NYO in 2019. At this point, I had just begun studying at the Junior Royal Academy of Music after being at the Junior Birmingham Conservatoire for two years previously.

"I believe that opening up orchestral music for my generation is incredibly important and possibly the biggest challenge of the music education system today and I believe as NYO, we can help with that. I think that visiting primary schools and encouraging children to start playing music at a young age is vital."