The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, one of the UK’s most prestigious ensembles, has cancelled a long-planned tour of China scheduled for next month, due to health concerns surrounding the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS is believed to have originated in China, and there is still much uncertainty surrounding the size of the outbreak there, due to information which was withheld by Chinese medical authorities. The BBC-SSO’s tour “would have been one of the most extensive Chinese tours undertaken by a western orchestra.”