ENSEMBLES 2026

The National Youth Orchestra Dubai

The National Youth Orchestra Dubai is the UAE’s largest youth classical music organisation in the region. Founded in 2018 by Executive and Artistic Director, Ms Amira Fouad, it has grown to encompass five orchestras and two choirs, with over 250 musicians drawn from more than 35 nationalities. The organisation provides weekly rehearsals under a professional international faculty and offers its students performance opportunities at the highest level. The orchestra is led by Conductor Jonathan Barrett, a Dubai-based musician and former Music Director of the Emirates Community Orchestra and Dubai Chamber Orchestra. Eva Gräsbeck, Co-Founder and Head of Strings, trained in the tradition of David Oistrakh and Igor Bezrodny. Jackie Hayter, Head of Winds, is an alumna of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, and has performed with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Ronald Vint, Head of Percussion, trained at the Royal Military School of Music and serves as principal percussionist with the UAE National Symphony Orchestra. The National Youth Orchestra Dubai performs regularly on the main stage at Dubai Opera and has delivered over 25 large-scale productions to audiences exceeding 200,000 in total. In June 2025, it became the first UAE orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City, in a programme featuring a new commission by Emirati composer Ihab Darwish. Further performances have taken place at Emirates Palace and Al Hosn Palace in Abu Dhabi, Expo City Dubai and at Global Village as part of the UAE’s 50th National Jubilee celebrations. The National Youth Orchestra Dubai has worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and the London Mozart Players, and has hosted masterclasses with artists including the Ayoub Sisters and pianist Piers Lane. Institutional partners include the Royal College of Music, the Firdaus Orchestra and Sharjah Performing Arts. Year-round programmes include the Emirati Music Education Programme, fully supported by Dubai Culture, the annual Solo Concerto Competition (Grade 7 ABRSM and above), the National Youth Conductors Course, and the annual Young Musician of the UAE competition supported by the Guildhall School of Music. The ensemble family encompasses a Symphony Orchestra, Strings Camerata, Concert Band, Sinfonietta, Percussion Ensemble, String Quartets and Preparatory Orchestra.

Jonathan Barrett

Conductor

Jonathan Barrett is a multifaceted musician who has been based in Dubai since 2012. In addition to conducting the National Youth Orchestras, he teaches music and drama, is the music producer for the crossover group Sonore Al Andalus, and maintains a thriving private studio of theory, composition and brass lessons. He has conducted and directed various student ensembles for over 10 years, as well as concerts with the Baylor Symphony & Waco Symphony in Texas which featured his compositions. Here in Dubai, he was formerly music director of both the Emirates Community Orchestra and the Dubai Chamber Orchestra. Jonathan enjoys inspiring young students to explore many composers and musical artists and begin composing their own musical works. He teaches students that composing is a vehicle to develop a deeper understanding of music theory, the capability of your own instrument, and the power of music to communicate ideas and challenge our character.

Amira Fouad

Executive & Artistic Director, National Youth Orchestra Dubai and National Youth Orchestra Dubai Strings Camerata

Amira Fouad is one of the most distinguished creative and cultural leaders in the Middle East – an acclaimed concert pianist, visionary artistic director and the founding force behind two of the UAE’s most significant contributions to classical music: Encore! Performing Arts and the National Youth Orchestras and Choirs Dubai. With a career spanning more than three decades across four continents, she brings to this Vienna programme a depth of artistic vision and international experience that is simply unmatched in the region.
Educated across three countries and three great musical traditions, Amira Fouad received her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in Canada on full scholarships, before being awarded grants by the Canadian Government to study in Paris with the internationally celebrated pianist Cécile Ousset. She subsequently earned a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, completing her Master of Music under the eminent Kendall Taylor – a formation spanning the Canadian, French, and British traditions that gave her a musical perspective of rare depth.
As a soloist, she has performed at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Usher Hall in Edinburgh, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Cairo Opera House, and Dubai Opera, among many others. She has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Her Wigmore Hall recording, Portraits: A Pianist’s Journey, received wide critical acclaim from The Piano Journal.
In Dubai, Amira Fouad has built an equally remarkable career as a cultural architect. As CEO and Founder of Encore! Performing Arts, she has directed the celebrated ‘Music in the Studio’, ‘Global Notes’, and ‘Encore Presents’ concert series in close partnership with Dubai Opera – presenting well over 500 musical events and collaborations since 2017 and transforming the classical music landscape of the UAE.
Her most enduring legacy is the National Youth Orchestras and Choirs Dubai, which she co-founded in 2018 and has led as Executive and Artistic Director ever since. Under her guidance it has grown to over 270 young musicians from more than 35 nationalities, performing regularly at Dubai Opera, Emirates Palace and Al Hosn Palace. In June 2025, under her artistic leadership, it became the first UAE orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City – appearing on the legendary Isaac Stern Auditorium–Ronald O. Perelman Stage in a performance supported by Dubai Culture and the UAE Ministry of Culture.
That the National Youth Orchestra Dubai and the National Youth Orchestra Dubai Strings Camerata now perform in Vienna in July 2026 – a city where Amira Fouad herself once played – is a moment of profound personal and artistic significance. It is the fullest expression of a lifelong conviction: that music has the power to bring people and cultures together, and that the next generation of great musicians may come from anywhere in the world.