best young musicians of the Jeunesses Musicales member countries. Right from its inception, this project in music education was noted for its rigour and professional quality. These standards have persisted to the present day and it has attained world recognition. Success has come quickly due to the high artistic quality; furthermore, the World Orchestra has become a symbol, through excellence in music, of solidarity and co-operation between the nations of the world. In 1986, the orchestra established its headquarters in Berlin and offered concerts in the name of peace on both sides of the infamous wall that divided the city. Since then, the World Orchestra has been registered as a harmonious association of musicians without frontiers. As recognition of its peace-building efforts, in 1996 the UNESCO granted it the distinction of ‘Artist for Peace’ with which it has travelled the world over. During the 1960s and 1970s, WOJM went on several tours to Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, the U.K., Japan, the U.S. and Switzerland under such outstanding masters as Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and Serge Baudo. In the 1980s, Walter Weller, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Eduardo Mata, Jeffrey Tate, Vernon Handley, Charles Dutoit and Michel Tabachnik among many others directed the orchestra. That period saw the orchestra travelling to Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Uruguay and Argentina. In the 1990s, the World Orchestra was to be seen in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Israel. In those years the baton was held by Kurt Masur, Franz-Paul Decker, Antonio Pappano, En Shao, Yuri Temirkanov and Kent Nagano and well known soloists as Bobby McFerrin or Yehudi Menuhin joined the orchestra. With the status of Artist for Peace, the World Orchestra performed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of State of Israel (1998), the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia (1998), and in the commemorative events marking the beginning of the Second World War in Warsaw (1999). In the year 2000, it toured south-eastern Europe (Slovenia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia). See also List of youth orchestras External links The World Orchestra official page Youth orchestras Musical groups established in 1949 European youth orchestras 1949 establishments in Spain