THE Yorkshire Philharmonic Orchestra's Summer Solstice Showcase will celebrate the longest daylight of the year on Sunday at the Grand Opera House, York, under the baton of conductor Alexander Conway.

Reviving the long-gone Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic brings together talented musicians from all walks of life from all over the old county, with long-term plans for the paid, freelance ensemble to become a full-time professional symphony orchestra.

"This orchestra is an entirely new venture," says Alexander, who has a BA and MA in music from the University of York. "The old orchestra was functioning about 60 years ago, so it's been dormant for a long time, but we know it used to travel a lot though its base was at Leeds Town Hall.

"There's a variety of reasons for the new orchestra to be formed now, the top of which is to provide opportunities and education, both for established players and aspiring professionals.

"Compared with other regions in the country, Yorkshire is not well provided for orchestrally: we have Opera North and the Northern Sinfonia and not a lot else. Sheffield has visits from the Hallé and Manchester Camerata, but considering that the Yorkshire region breeds so many fine musicians, it's a shame they have to go elsewhere to prosper."

Alexander suggests there seems to have been a reluctance to start an orchestra because "there's a lot of work and a lot of risk involved", but that has not dissuaded him from assembling the Yorkshire Philharmonic Orchestra. "I'm not sure if its courage or insanity," he says, as he reflects on setting up the orchestra with orchestra manager Rebecca Martin, from Hull, who is a former deputy manager of the Liverpool Philharmonic.

"It's something I've been thinking about for a few years, while I was studying my BA at York in 2011 and my MA in 2014. I had a fantastic time at the university with a real variety of ensembles, but I realised there was a ceiling there.

"Then I came across this paper from 2005 outlining orchestral provision and I read about the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and the prestigious musicians they had. On top of that there's the momentum of Hull, City of Culture 2017 and Gary Verity working so hard for Le Grand Depart and the Tour de Yorkshire, so we've just bitten the bullet and gone head and started the orchestra and we've had a phenomenal response from musicians, quite a few from York, as well as Sheffield, Hull and elsewhere."

Alexander and Rebecca wrote to university and college music departments and "just about every single amateur orchestra we could get our hands on", as well as using social media to draw together an orchestra in a community-driven project that will rely on funding and ticket sales to pay its musicians and put on concerts.

Step one is Sunday's "challenging but accessible" 7pm programme of Glinka’s fast and furious Overture to Ruslan & Ludmilla, Beethoven's "Pastorale" Symphony No. 6 and Dvorak's "New World" Symphony No. 9, taking Alexander back to the Grand Opera House, where he was the conductor for the university’s Don Giovanni last year.

"The plan is to get people there on Sunday, get them excited and to see we're a good ensemble, and then look to put on a series of concerts to keep the quality up."

The new orchestra also has an outreach programme that Alexander is keen to develop for concerts for young people, and there will be two competitions in the first year too. "One is a concerto competition where anyone can audition to play a concerto in the opening season; the other will be an annual call for scores; essentially a composition competition," he says. "Further details of these competitions will be posted on the website."

After leaving the University of York, Alexander must look to make progress in his musical career while being practical too. "So I've accepted a full-time job outside music in an estate agency, and Rebecca has a full-time job too, but we give as much time as we can to the orchestra," he says.

Tickets for Sunday are on sale at £25, concessions £19, students £15, on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york