City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to perform centenary concert in warehouse
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first ever concert with a landmark performance featuring the full orchestra and filmed at a production warehouse in Birmingham.
The programme will be conducted by former music director Sir Simon Rattle, who is handed the baton for this special event by the orchestra’s current music director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, while she is on maternity leave.
They are joined by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and sitar player Roopa Panesar, and the performance will be presented by Birmingham-born actor Adrian Lester.
The orchestra will be playing at PRG’s Live Stage Studio, a warehouse and temporary production facility in Longbridge, Birmingham, which is large enough to house the full symphony orchestra adhering to social distancing measures.
The performance will take place without a live audience present.
It will take place on Saturday 5 September and will be broadcast internationally on the CBSO’s Facebook and YouTube channels on the same day at 7pm, where it will be available to stream free of charge until the end of September.
The performance takes place 100 years to the day of the orchestra’s first concert, when the then City of Birmingham Orchestra (CBO) took to the stage at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, on Sunday 5 September 1920, under the baton of their principal conductor Appleby Matthews.
Two months later, on 10 November 1920, the orchestra’s first full symphonic performance was given at Birmingham Town Hall, with Edward Elgar conducting a concert of his own works.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla said: ”This is a very special moment for the orchestra. These are extraordinary circumstances, but it has been a wonderful task and challenge to devise this programme for both the orchestra and our audiences. When we were thinking about our centenary season, we chose works that have a special connection with the CBSO story, both past and present. It has felt like an intense conversation with the past and an opportunity to look ahead to the next chapter in the Orchestra’s story. One of the CBSO’s core values has always been innovation, and one of our tasks for the next 100 years is to make sure that continues.”
The performance will explore the work, history and future of the CBSO, the flagship of musical life in Birmingham and the West Midlands and one of the world’s most renowned orchestras.
CBSO chief executive Stephen Maddock said: “For 100 years the CBSO has been a source of joy, education and entertainment to audiences across the West Midlands, the UK and internationally, and we are hugely excited and proud to be presenting this ground-breaking performance to mark our centenary and showcase our vision for the future.”
The performance marks the public launch of an ambitious £12.5m fundraising campaign, The Sound of the Future, designed to ensure the orchestra’s recovery post-Covid and drive its longer-term renewal for its second century.
