A young German conductor has established a new symphony orchestra in Edinburgh which will launch a programme of concerts next year.

Luis Schmidt, 20, who is from Munich, founded Capella Edina which will present four concerts at the capital's Usher Hall with the aim of making classical music more accessible and serving the community.

"I grew up in a completely non-musical family, it was my school, in fact, that introduced me to music," he told The Herald.

"We learned to play instruments, attended concerts of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and made music together. Without my school and my teachers, I would never have gone down the music route.

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"This made me realise how important it is for people, especially young people, to experience music. Music is not a static exhibit from a museum, quite on the contrary, it is a dynamic manifestation of our lives and culture. Only through us, can we preserve this part of our cultural heritage, but more importantly, we can ensure that music evolves with us."

He added that when he first visited Edinburgh to see a friend in 2022 he loved the city and was surprised it did not have its own symphony orchestra.

"Being a young conductor, I thought to myself: 'Well I can do something about this'. However, I did not just want to copy an existing orchestra model, I wanted to ensure that I created an organisation with the people that it serves at its heart by bringing them together and changing the status quo in our industry. There it was born, Capella Edina, and with it the motto: United by Passion for Music."

Mr Schmidt's will also be holding music workshops and educational concerts for school pupils next year.

Capella Edina is funded by sponsors and from donations from members of the public and is the city’s first resident professional orchestra since 1937.

The orchestra is a charity registered in England & Wales and its Board of Trustees includes musicians such as Christopher Bruerton (first baritone of The King’s Singers) and Robert Ames (co-principal conductor and co-principal artistic director of the London Contemporary Orchestra).

Mr Schmidt began his musical career by learning the trumpet at the Klenze-Gymnasium, a grammar school in Munich, Germany, at the age of ten.

Aged 15, he started conducting and established his own brass ensemble, which he expanded to a wind band and thereafter a chamber orchestra.

He then went on studying conducting with worldwide renowned conductor and Haydn researcher Bruno Weil.

Mr Schmidt was educated in the Swarowsky-method after the infamous Austrian conductor Hans Swarowsky, a pupil of Arnold Schönberg.

Two years ago, he started reading music at Newcastle University on a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship. His research focuses on the works by Edward Elgar, Anton Bruckner, Charles Ives, Anton Schönberg, and other late-romantic and ‘contemporary’ composers.

Mr Schmidt’s sound world can be described as full-bodied, dark, powerful, and very German, with some intimate moments. He is currently dividing his time between Edinburgh and North-East England.

In 2024 Edinburgh celebrates 70 years of twinning with Munich, which makes Munich Edinburgh’s oldest twinned city.

Advanced ticket sales are due to start today (Monday 28 October) via the websites of the orchestra and the concert hall.