What do violinist Priya Mitchell, tenor Ian Bostridge, soprano Susan Gritton and the Belcea Quartet have in common? Answer: they all had their early careers handled by the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), which this year celebrates 25 years of promoting some of this country’s most outstanding young soloists and chamber ensembles.

Now Oxford audiences can enjoy hearing some of the talent that YCAT nurtures, as the trust has entered into a joint initiative with the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building to present a series of concerts featuring some of the current YCAT artists.

The inaugural series opened on November 28, with cellist Bartholomew Lafollette, pianist Chiao-Ying Chang and flautist Adam Walker, who — at the age of 21 — has just been appointed principal flute of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The next concert, on April 24, features 24-year-old violinist Thomas Gould, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2006, and who has since given recitals at the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, St George’s Bristol and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, as well as appearing with a number of prestigious orchestras both in the UK and overseas. He has recently performed in Oxford as co-leader of the Britten Sinfonia and leader of the Aurora Orchestra.

He will be followed on May 22 by percussion ensemble O Duo, which was formed in 2000 by Oliver Cox and Owen Gunnell, and has since performed extensively with orchestras in the UK and across Europe, as well as working on television and film scores and broadcasting on several television and radio stations. In 2003 and 2004 they won ‘Best Music Act of the Fringe’ at Edinburgh, and their debut CD, released in 2007, was nominated CD of the week by the Daily Telegraph.

The final concert of the series will feature the Heath Quartet, which was formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2002, and has since amassed an impressive string of prizes and awards.

For the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, the series fits perfectly with its long-standing philosophy of promoting young talent, and builds on its existing education and community projects. Jacqueline du Pré Music Building fellow Elaine Matthews, who served on the governing body for many years, sees it very much as part of an evolving process.

“It was built as a national memorial to Jacqueline du Pré, but it’s also a college building and was always intended to be seen in an educational context — the promotion of music for students,” she told me. “We’ve had lunchtime recitals for the last two years, which can be student performances but can also be workshops with professional musicians.

“We’ve had cushion concerts since 2004 for under-fives and over-fives, with each one exploring a different musical instrument. For the last 12 months we’ve being rolling those out in a developed form of those to schools at Key Stage 1.

“Then there’s community work. We run, in association with John Lubbock and the Orchestra of St John, concerts for sufferers of dementia.

“And we have just rolled our education programme out to two special schools for emotionally disturbed children. I find that very exciting. One of the groups that’s coming, O Duo, are going to work with schools and special schools, so we’re hoping to have a special day with them next year.

“So all this is the sort of complex evolving that the YCAT series is building on.

“For us, it seemed a wonderful opportunity to bring in young artists who are bound to be excellent because they have to go through a very rigorous audition process with YCAT.”

Although this is the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building’s first major initiative with YCAT, their links with the trust go back 2001, when the Belcea Quartet — themselves former YCAT artists — were quartet in residence at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Now the Belcea’s former cellist, Alistair Tait, has been appointed chief executive of YCAT, which has helped to cement links between the two organisations.

From next year, Elaine hopes that Oxford will host presentation concerts — currently held at the Purcell Room and Bridgewater Hall — at which new YCAT artists are presented to the public. She also hopes that YCAT artists will get involved in their education programme.

“In the wider musical world that kind of work is now considered important for musicians to have experience of,” she said.“YCAT are very interested in their artists getting this kind of educational experience, and we’re very well placed to facilitate that.

“I think the college wishes to signal that it takes this very seriously as a building which is a memorial to somebody, but also a key to the quality of the music that takes place in the college.”

lFor tickets phone the box office on 01865 305305 or go to www.oxfordplayhouse.com