BBC Symphony Orchestra

For over 90 years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra has been a driving force in the British musical landscape, championing contemporary works and highlighting neglected composers as well as performing well-loved works at the heart of classical music. As Orchestra in Residence at the BBC Proms, the BBC SO performs regularly throughout each season, including the First and Last Nights.

The orchestra presents a distinctive season of concerts at the Barbican, where it is Associate Orchestra. Performances with Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo in the 25/26 season include Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, violin concertos by Adès and Lindberg performed by Christian Tetzlaff and Lisa Batiashvili, music by Brahms, Coleridge-Taylor, Damström, Stravinsky and more.

Other highlights include John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean with Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska, Puccini’s La rondine with Opera Rara conducted by Carlo Rizzi and starring Ermonela Jaho, the UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s unEarth, piano concertos by Bartók and Rachmaninov with pianists Yeol Eum Son and Gabriela Montero and conducted by Sakari Oramo and Kristiina Poska respectively.

Saxophonist Jess Gillam gives the UK premiere of Anna Clyne’s Glasslands, and there are world premieres of BBC co-commissioned works by Ryan Latiner and Joseph Phibbs. A Total Immersion day focuses on new and recent music from Iceland, with a world premiere from Ólafur Arnalds.

Performances in April and May are dedicated to Making America, a series of concerts exploring the voices that make up the United States in the 250th anniversary of its formal creation, including the UK premiere of Billy Childs’s Saxophone Concerto, Diaspora, with Saxophonist Steven Banks, Korngold’s Violin Concerto with Maria Dueñas and Brent Michael Davids’s searing Requiem for America.

The BBC SO performs across the UK and internationally, with most concerts broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds, and gives regular free concerts at Maida Vale Studios.

The BBC SO offers innovative education and community work, including involvement in BBC Ten Pieces and BBC Young Composer, and works with schools, young people and families in East London ahead of the move to its new home in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford.