The Brighton Youth Orchestra must be one of the city's best-kept secrets.

These players, all aged between 16 and 24, are superb and, with their enthusiasm, exuberance and skills, future orchestras should not go short of musicians.

The evening began with a piece for brass in tribute to the memory of a former BYO member who had recently died.

It was composed by orchestra member Ronnie Hawkins and was an accomplished piece of writing. Tuneful, full of zest and certainly played with gusto.

This was followed by Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, a piece I have heard a lot recently but I don't think in a version so energetic.

Cellist Jocasta Whippy showed off her considerable talent in Kol Nidreia, a piece by Max Bruch which was particularly haunting and poignant. The title translates as All The Vows and is taken from the prayer used on the Day of Atonement.

Jocasta comes from Brighton and is studying for her diploma on piano and cello. Following her performance at this concert, a cello diploma should present no problem.

The Glyndebourne piece, written by Will Todd and Barbados-born novelist Elizabeth Clarke Melville, is a short but intense performance about a young girl's search for a meaning to her voice.

Called Fire Work, it combines abstract with mime and hand work and becomes something of a small jewel sparkling out from words and music depicting fire.

Fire Work has been choreographed by Clare Whistler, director of Glyndebourne Youth Opera, who is also working on another piece being premiered along with Fire Work at a special Brighton Festival concert on May 18.

The opera piece blew my socks off with its freshness and vitality but, more than that, was the brilliance of the BYO.

It hardly needs to be said that the rendition of the massive Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony was just as mind-blowing.

This was given a reading that was mature beyond the orchestra's years.