BISYOC 2016 was an Intercultural Youth Music Exchange. Building on a proven and unique formula that has evolved and developed during the BISYOC charity’s 16-year history, the concept combines cultural exchange with the medium of participating in a large symphony orchestra to bring about a wide range of benefits to participants. The 2016 exchange included young people from 8 organisations throughout the length and breadth of Europe; from Norway in the north to Malta in the south; from Portugal in the west to Romania in the east. Over 70 participants, from a range of socio-economic, educational and cultural backgrounds, but united by their high level of skill in music, lived and worked together for 12 days and nights in Ludlow, United Kingdom, interacting with the local community as well as with one another. The medium of the working symphony orchestra has proved itself as a special tool for individual and collective development, representing as it does a model of cooperation towards achieving a common goal. Guided by highly-qualified experts, participants intensively studied challenging orchestral repertoire and prepared public performances. At the same time, daily inter-cultural activities and discussion combined with the musical activity to create an environment where cultural interaction quickly became the norm and any pre-existing barriers or prejudices were broken down. In line with the objectives of Erasmus Plus, BISYOC’s ultimate objectives in 2016 were to deepen the impact of the exchange to reach beyond the immediately obvious musical and social transformations that usually take place during the 12-day period of activity. We aimed to stimulate the participants to think at a deeper level, by helping them to recognise the transferable skills and competences they were developing by taking part, and to recognise the ways that their attitudes and viewpoints were broadening. This was in the hope that they will become better citizens of the world, equipped with better tools to find employment, with better tools to interact with their foreign counterparts, and with an increased motivation to engage in future learning. We also aimed to strengthen the impact of BISYOC on the local community in which the exchange was hosted in a tangible way, by involving local people in both the musical and inter-cultural activities. As always, we aimed through our publicity to make BISYOC as visible as possible in the region as an exemplary result of pan-European collaboration and European Union support.