Following, so he says, in the footsteps of Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Sir Neville Marriner will be honorary conductor of the brand new I, Culture Orchestra. The new group will bring together musicians from across Eastern European states to encourage better cultural understanding between Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. New music specialist Pavel Kotla is the artistic director.

The orchestra will tour Europe later this year, starting in Stockholm in September. That will be followed by Kiev, Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid and Warsaw. Concerts will include the soloists Arabella Steinbacher and Peter Jablonski. Prior to the tour, music-lovers will be able to catch I, Culture’s inaugural residency at Gdansk throughout most of August.

The orchestra’s birth is an initiative of Poland’s cultural celebrations marking its presidency of the European Union. It was created by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.