ENSEMBLES 2026

The National Youth Orchestra Dubai Strings Camerata

The Strings Camerata is the premier chamber ensemble of the National Youth Orchestra Dubai, comprising a select group of the organisation’s most accomplished senior string players. Drawing on violin, viola, cello and double bass, the ensemble performs both within the National Youth Orchestra Dubai’s main concert season at Dubai Opera House and in dedicated chamber programmes at Dubai Opera’s Studio and other prestigious locations in the UAE. Alumni have gone on to leading conservatoires and music schools in Europe and the United States. The Camerata is directed by Conductor, Jonathan Barrett and Head of Strings, Eva Gräsbeck, Co-Founder of the National Youth Orchestra Dubai. Gräsbeck’s training descends directly from the lineage of David Oistrakh, through her studies with Olga Parhomenko and Igor Bezrodny and it is her standards that define the ensemble’s string culture. Barrett, a composer-conductor based in Dubai since 2012 and former Music Director of the Dubai Chamber Orchestra, brings an instinct for musical architecture and an ability to draw interpretively adventurous playing from young musicians. Repertoire The Camerata’s programmes span the chamber music canon from Baroque through to the twentieth century, alongside contemporary and regional works that reflect the National Youth Orchestra Dubai’s engagement with the cultural landscape of the UAE and the Arab world. Programmes are built to place each work in context, ensuring that both musicians and audiences encounter the repertoire with fresh ears. In June 2025, the Strings Camerata performed at Carnegie Hall, New York City, as part of the National Youth Orchestra Dubai’s historic debut, the first appearance by a UAE orchestra at that venue. Further performances have taken place at Emirates Palace and Al Hosn in Abu Dhabi, the Etihad Museum and Expo City Dubai. The ensemble performs regularly at Dubai Opera House, where the National Youth Orchestra Dubai has presented over 25 large- scale productions to cumulative audiences exceeding 200,000.

Eva Gräsbeck

Conductor

Eva Gräsbeck is one of the Co-Founders of the National Youth Orchestras in Dubai. She grew up in a renowned musical family, thus beginning a lifetime music journey at a very young age. Among Eva’s notable teachers were Olga Parhomenko, a student of David Oistrakh and the legendary Violin teacher Igor Bezrodny. Eva pursued a Master’s degree in Violin Performance at Finland’s prestigious Sibelius Academy. Eva has been highly engaged in the UAE music scene, as a Soloist, Chamber Artist & Orchestra leader. Eva was appointed Concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO-UAE) in 2019. She has led prestigious concerts with Bocelli and Hans Zimmer and performed at Expo Dubai for the Vatican and leaders of the UAE. Since moving to the UAE, Eva quickly established herself as an outstanding educator - as a Private Instructor & an inspiring Head of Strings for the National Youth Orchestra in Dubai (NYO Dubai).

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.