BBC Symphony Orchestra
Associate Orchestra
The backbone of the BBC Proms and one of the UK's finest orchestras, the BBC SO performs a thrilling, distinctive range of music, from works at the heart of classical music to contemporary premieres.
Events
![Anna Lapwood, Abel Selaocoe and Sofi Jeannin](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-04/BBCSingers_CentenaryComposite_AnnaLapwood_AbelSelacoe_SofiJeannin_1920x1080.jpg?itok=rxV3jDer)
BBC Singers Centenary Concert
Join the BBC Singers as they celebrate their 100th birthday and look forward to the future with a host of artists and guests.
![Bertrand Chamayou](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/02%20Bertrand%20Chamayou_1920x1080_blue%20%281%29.jpg?itok=KnBd4Fn4)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sousa
Channel waves, folk rhythms and the heartbeat of the cosmos, as conductor Dinis Souza, pianist Bertrand Chamayou and the BBC Symphony Orchestra play Debussy, Bartók and Unsuk Chin.
![Kirill Gerstein](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/01%20KIRILL%20GERSTEIN_1920x10802_GREEN.jpg?itok=OOAgU5CE)
Gerstein plays Busoni’s Piano Concerto
Expect epic visions and piano playing that’s out of this world when Kirill Gerstein and Sakari Oramo champion Ferruccio Busoni’s stupendous Piano Concerto, as well as music by Grazyna Bacewicz.
![Ilya Gringolts](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/01%20Ilya%20Gringolts_1920x1080_blue.jpg?itok=3hEeKpeQ)
Glowing Colours and Grand Passions
Glowing colours and grand passions: Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra join violinist Ilya Gringolts in Szymanowski’s gorgeous concerto – plus music by Wagner, Strauss and Dora Pejačević.
![Hannu Lintu](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/1_Hannu_Lintu_24_1920x1080.png?itok=5HJpZsH8)
Haydn and Strauss: Nelson Mass and A Hero’s Life
Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), Haydn’s Nelson Mass and pure sonic wonder from Samy Moussa. Hannu Lintu conducts a concert of outsize emotions and truly spectacular sounds.
![Yeol Eum Son](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/1_Yeol_Eum_Son_24_1920x1080_BLUE.png?itok=sNg-ssVK)
Yeol Eum Son plays Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto
Respighi’s Roman spectacular and a new American classic frame Prokofiev’s most thrilling piano concerto in this BBC Symphony Orchestra debut for conductor Jonathon Hayward and pianist Yeol Eum Son.
![Sakari Oramo conductor](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/01%20sakari%20oramo_1920x1080_blue%20%281%29.jpg?itok=7omPeeDT)
BBC Symphony Orchestra: Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
A tribute to Sir Andrew Davis: Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.
![Sakari Oramo conductor](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/01%20sakari%20oramo_1920x1080_blue%20%281%29.jpg?itok=7omPeeDT)
A Meditation on Life
An evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter, devised by Sakari Oramo and featuring the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s astonishing final masterpiece Hush.
![Jakub Hrusa](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/1_Jakub%20Hrusa_24_1920x1080_BLUE.png?itok=neaYSMM-)
Hrusa conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
The Year 1905: Shostakovich’s monumental symphony meets Beethoven at his brightest. Unchained energy from conductor Jakub Hrusa, pianist Jonathan Biss and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
![Sakari Oramo conducting, with blue circular swirls framing him](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-01/1_Sakari_Rings_1920x1080.jpg?h=2089562c&itok=kNQV3H2G)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo: A Sea Symphony
Full sail for new shores: Sakari Oramo conducts Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, Britten’s Double Concerto and an enchanting, newly uncovered late work by Oliver Knussen.
![Lise de la Salle looking at the camera, with purple and pink circular lines framing her face](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-01/1_Lise_Rings_1920x1080.jpg?h=2089562c&itok=X9q24Vtd)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Rakitina: Rachmaninov's Rhapsody
Three composers, three dramatic meditations on Fate and the Day of Judgement. Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony maps a journey from darkness to light, reflecting the crisis of his collapsed marriage.
![Tenor Joshua Stewart smiling at the camera, with red and purple circular swirls around him](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-04/1_MG%202399_1920x1080%20web.jpg?h=c3f98666&itok=pZ-sgzID)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins: Old Pictures, New Worlds
Martyn Brabbins takes the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on an adventure that spans oceans – from a majestic choral masterwork from 19th century Brazil to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
![An image of the Roman colosseum, with blue and green colours overlaid and circular swirls framing the image](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-04/BBC%20SO%20Italian%20Radicals%207.30pm%20v2.jpg?h=f076139c&itok=2RpddTBd)
BBC SO Total Immersion: Sinfonia... and more
Martyn Brabbins, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers launch an evening-long odyssey through the music of Dallapiccola, Maderna, Nono and Berio.
![An image of the Roman colosseum, with green and blue colours overlaid and circular swirls framing the image](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-04/BBC%20SO%20Italian%20Radicals%203pm%20v2.jpg?h=f076139c&itok=-gI8O87e)
BBC SO Total Immersion: Italian Radicals
Miniatures by Berio, Maderna, Nono and Dallapiccola, introduced and performed live by virtuoso instrumentalists and singers from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
![Kate Atkinson looking at the camera, with circular purple and red swirls around her](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/240426%20Kate%20Atkinson.jpg?h=9e335514&itok=yik60szw)
Kate Atkinson and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
The author of Life After Life, Case Histories and Behind the Scenes at the Museum, joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra to read from her own work, and share the music that has moved and inspired her.
![Jader Bignamini turning his head to look at the camera, with orange swirls surrounding him](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-04/01%20Jader%20Bignamini_1920x1080.png?h=5a677eaa&itok=FD9N0CKX)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Bignamini: Fantastic Symphony
Severed heads, demonic orgies and obsessive love. Jader Bignamini pairs Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with the equally colourful imaginations of Poulenc and Camile Pépin.
![Against a black background, Clemens Schuldt holds his baton, framed by circular orange swirls.](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2024-03/02%20Clemens%20Schuldt%20_1920x1080%20%281%29.jpg?h=ecd02914&itok=vVzranBQ)
Clemens Schuldt conducts Beethoven
Clemens Schuldt conducts Raymond Yiu’s powerful new violin concerto, framed by explosions of colour and joy from Kodály and Beethoven.
![Mary Bevan smiling, with circular purple and red swirls around her](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/240315%20Mary%20Bevan.jpg?h=9e335514&itok=U4xJS5XV)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/MacMillan: Let There Be Light
Let there be light! The UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux, conducted by the composer himself.
![Sakari Oramo conducting, with circular orange swirls around him](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/240308%20Sakari%20Oramo.jpg?h=9e335514&itok=Vlv-9bMj)
Oramo conducts Brahms
Still waters run deep: Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Chorus perform Brahms’s German Requiem, plus two emotionally charged rediscoveries from postwar Finland.
![Missy Mazzoli with her hand up by her face and her hair blowing in the wind, with circular purple and pink swirls around her head](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/02%20TOTAL%20IMMERSION%20MISSY2_1920x1080_9.jpg?h=8e15d2fd&itok=7V8tm8oZ)
BBC SO Total Immersion: Missy Mazzoli's Song from the Uproar
The UK premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s opera Song from the Uproar, the story of a woman who redefined the possible, performed by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, the BBC Singers and musicians from the BBC SO.
![Side profile of Missy Mazzoli, with circular orange swirls around her head](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/02%20TOTAL%20IMMERSION%20MISSY2_1920x1080_10.jpg?h=beff22f3&itok=k1qpe4aZ)
BBC SO Total Immersion: Missy Mazzoli – New worlds
For Missy Mazzoli, small ensembles unlock infinite possibilities, and her music for ensemble and electronics finds her exploring the wildest reaches of a boundless musical imagination.
![Missy Mazzoli looking at the camera, with circular blue swirls around her head](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/02%20TOTAL%20IMMERSION%20MISSY2_1920x1080_5.jpg?h=beff22f3&itok=v85ynxIC)
BBC SO Total Immersion: Missy Mazzoli – Worlds in Us
Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra as the composer introduces four of her most powerful (and personal) orchestral pieces.
![Alexander Malofeev playing the piano, with circular blue swirls around him](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/240216%20Alexander%20Malofeev.jpg?h=9e335514&itok=NCG0jzHi)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Lintu: Fireworks and Fantasies
Alexander Malofeev plays Prokofiev, and Hannu Lintu conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in colourful showpieces by Adams and Stravinsky – plus a Bernard Rands world premiere.
![Sayaka Shoji with her eyes closed, and circular blue swirls framing her head](/sites/default/files/styles/event_listing_small/public/images/2023-08/240209%20Sayaka%20Shoji%20%C2%A9Laura%20Stevens_1920X1080.jpg?h=9e335514&itok=yt9v3tk6)
Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony
Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony crowns an evening of music that speaks directly to the world around us, in the first London appearance by conductor Kahchun Wong.
Discover
![architecture detail of the barbican hall](/sites/default/files/styles/discover_small/public/images/2018-12/DSC_6059_0_0.jpg?itok=6PHs6Ol8)
Composer Focus – Episode 5: Jean Sibelius with Sakari Oramo
In the final episode, host Edward Seckerson is joined by BBC Symphony Orchestra conductor Sakari Oramo to discuss his fellow countryman Jean Sibelius, and the themes of nature and Finnish national identity woven throughout his music.