The tour's European leg commences on November 19 at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, with subsequent performances in Zurich (Tonhalle), Lyon (Opera House) and Dusseldorf (Tonhalle).

Touring every November, the orchestra comprises over 100 musicians aged 17 to 29 and trains during the summer in Switzerland as the orchestra-in-residence at the Verbier Festival and Academy. Membership changes annually by audition and this year's musicians come from more than 20 countries.

Conductors with whom the orchestra has performed include Herbert Blomstedt, James Levine and Mstislav Rostropovich. Such soloists as Leif Ove Andsnes, Bryn Terfel and Vadim Repin have also appeared with the orchestra.

Through its global constituency and growing reputation, the orchestra has been invited to perform at the 2003 World Economic Forum in Davos in 2003, while smaller chamber ensembles have performed at the annual meeting of the Nobel Foundation, the International Olympic Committee anniversary, the Swiss Expo.02, the Art 34 Basel art fair, New York's Museum of Modern Art, and at the International Institute of Finance's 2006 spring membership meeting.

Alumni of the orchestra have become members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich.

For more information, visit www.verbierorchestra.com.