The tradition which exists today of an annual tour was never consciously taken. The first tour was in 1977. Valuable musical contacts had been made during the previous year’s Music for Youth competition and after dedicated fundraising the necessary £5000 was raised and the Orchestra went to the International Music Festival in Aberdeen during Jubilee Year. Edward Heath came to listen to the Orchestra.
Here more contacts were made and an invitation issued to go on the first foreign tour in 1978 to Sweden. This tour did not always run smoothly as Adrian recalls: “one church we performed in had a gravel floor, into which the cello spikes gradually sank. Despite this we gave an incredible concert, with Ian Killie, Joanna Estall, Douglas Boyd and Andy Jacob playing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for Wind".
Tour venues are carefully chosen, and the schedules are planned to provide a balance between work and play, ensuring that there is also time for sightseeing, shopping and ‘chilling-out’. Past tours have taken the Orchestra to Venice, Krakow, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, St Petersburg, Budapest, Barcelona, and most recently Salzburg (2006), Provence (2007) and Tuscany (July 2008).