Orchestra under the baton of Josep Vicent included pieces by Tchaikovsky, Markevitch, Bartók, Ginastera, Turina, Adams, Mossolov, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvořák, Ravel, Beethoven, Piazzolla, Ibert, Zheng Lu & Ma Hongye, Sibelius, Gershwin, Bernstein, Stravinsky, Mozart, Martín y Soler, Falla, Stylianou and Xavier Montsalvatge. Guest Conductors and soloists Numerous Guest Conductors and soloists joined the orchestra during this period such as Mihaela Ursuleasa, Iván Martín, Yayoi Toda, Gwyneth Wentink, Yaron Traub, Mayte Martín, Roberto Balistreri, Enric Martínez-Castignani, Alina Pogostkina, Marisa Martins, Mª Luz Martínez or Miguel Zapater. Next Summer 2008 The World Orchestra will be joined by cellist Laurence Lesser, violinist Mitsuoko Usioda soprano Marianne Fiset and maestro Franz Paul Decker. World premières The Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra has premiered five pieces by new composers: Good News From Beijing by Zheng Lu & Ma Hongye, Pax Haganum by Joan Albert Amargós, Ketsana by Emmanuel Séjourné and the new piece specially written by Séjourné for the finals of the 32nd America's Cup. In Summer 2008 it will premiere the revised version of José Evangelista's O Bali, Josep Vicent's composition Ouverture Release for percussion trio and orchestra and Andrés Valero's GP, f-1. UNESCO Artist for Peace As UNESCO Artist for Peace its concerts are committed to peace, interculturality and cooperation between cultures. During the two first seasons held in Valencia The World Orchestra visited China to commemorate the Chinese-Japanese Peace Treaty. Besides numerous concerts for peace in Kurhaus (The Hague), The World Orchestra reinforced its engagement with peace travelling to Cyprus to play concerts for war refugees of the armed conflict between Israel and the Lebanon and performing in Barcelona's GREC Festival as a homage to those who lived the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. History The World Orchestra came into being with the creation of a young orchestra for the Jeunesses Musicales International project. In the period 1949 to 1969, in the Netherlands, the violinist Arthur Grumiaux, Director of the Igor Markevitch Orchestra and other key musicians resolved, as part of the Jeunesses Musicales assemblies, to put together an international orchestra inspired in the vision of Sir Robert Mayer, creator of the orchestral concerts for children in the 1920s. It was in Canada in 1968 that Gilles Lefebvre proposed the transformation of this ‘orchestral conference’ into an ensemble that would develop under the wand of an experienced conductor. Lefebvre envisaged that such an ensemble would receive and continue the education of the