The Scottish Chamber Orchestra will become the first professional orchestra to perform in Shetland in 15 years this June.

The SCO Strings opens a weekend of music-making in Lerwick's Clickimin Leisure Complex on Friday 15 June, followed by a performance by the full Orchestra on Saturday 16 June with conductor Garry Walker and tenor Joshua Ellicott, and a concert by the SCO Winds on Sunday 17 June.

In addition to these performances, the island's amateur wind players will have the opportunity to learn from and play alongside members of the Orchestra in the SCO Education project, Wind Farm. SCO Education will also be taking their acclaimed music projects, Bear Hunt and Twa Sisters, to six of Shetland's primary schools in early June.

The SCO's return to Shetland takes place almost seventeen years to the day since its last performance in Lerwick's Clickimin Leisure Complex in June 1990. The opening concert sees the Orchestra's virtuoso Leader, Christopher George, direct the SCO Strings in a programme which includes Grieg's delightful Holberg Suite and Mozart Divertimenti, as well as music by Britten and Sibelius.

Young Edinburgh-born conductor Garry Walker directs the full Orchestra on Saturday 16 June in Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, Beethoven's Symphony No 1 and Sally Beamish's The Day Dawn, based on an old Shetland fiddle tune of the same name. Tenor Joshua Ellicott joins the Orchestra for Benjamin Britten's Folk Songs of the British Isles.

The SCO Winds brings the weekend to a close on Sunday 17 June with an upbeat programme that includes Rossini's Overture from The Barber of Seville and music by Stravinsky, Hummel and Raff.

On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 June, amateur wind, brass and percussion players are invited to get together for a non-pressurised weekend of music-making in the SCO Education project, Wind Farm. Participants will receive sectional coaching from SCO musicians and rehearse and perform as part of a large ensemble under professional conductor, Mark Heron. Wind Farm participants will perform their own concert in Anderson High School at 1:30pm on Sunday 17 June, to which friends and family are invited (admission free).

In advance of this weekend, Orchestra musicians and SCO Education staff will visit the islands in early June to deliver music directly into six primary schools. Bear Hunt, one of SCO Education's most popular initiatives, is led by a wind trio and uses the classic children's story of the same name as the inspiration for a magical musical journey for children in Primary 1 to 3. School pupils in Primary 4 to 7 will also get the opportunity to meet a string quartet of SCO players and their instruments, learn a song, take part in an interactive concert, and write their own music based on the story of The Twa' Sisters - a tale of jealousy and revenge. Both activities finish with school concerts performed by pupils and members of the SCO.

Roy McEwan, Managing Director of the SCO commented today:

"This summer's visit to Shetland is a very special event for the SCO.

We have been eager to make a return visit for many years now and, with generous support and co-operation from Shetland Arts and tremendous financial support from the Scottish Executive, it has at last become possible. It promises to be a fantastic weekend for both Shetlanders and members of the Orchestra, something which we will all remember for a very long time."

Gwilym Gibbons of Shetland Arts said:

"Shetland Arts is delighted to welcome back the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to the islands in June to open the 2007 Johnsmas Foy festival. The tour promises a truly magnificent programme of performance and education work."