The New World Steel Orchestra, based in Carnival Home in Sheepscar Street, Chapeltown, has spent 2008 bringing the house down at a string of high-profile shows.

Performances include a gig at The Summertime Festival, at Gateshead's spectacular Sage music centre, and a slot at a York Minster grand dinner, held to mark the 600th anniversary of completion of the great East Window.

On top of that, the orchestra, made up of members aged from five up to 21, has been booked to play at the National Black Police Association's annual meeting and gala in York later this month.

The top-level gigs built on the orchestra's appearance at Harewood House last year, where members played a version of Handel's Messiah, known as Carnival Messiah. And to put the icing on the cake, orchestra member Tyrone Henry was named Leeds Carnival's first ever king at last August's extravanganza.

Asha France, a member of New World's management committee, said: "I believe this has been our best ever year. Playing Carnival Messiah last year was the stepping stone and they have gone on and built on that. It put them in front of a different audience and seems to have opened some more doors. You could see the difference again when they played the Sage. That place is one of the best professional music venues. I think playing there made them realise how good they really are."
Asha, whose dad is Arthur France MBE, one of the carnival's founders, used to play in the old New World Orchestra, which folded in the 1990s after 15 years.

The group was reformed in 2003, and Asha's five-year-old daughter, Alisia, is one of its youngest members.

She said: "There is a peer mentoring programme and a youth mentoring programme. There are a lot of things the kids could be doing when they are rehearsing and playing, but instead they are getting interested in postive activities. We have a boy who had been labelled dyslexic. His teacher asked his mum what he had been doing at home because his concentration levels had jumped. His mother told the school he had been playing with the steel pan orchestra."

To get involved, ring Asha on 07511450816 or 0113 3070001.