Cornwall is to play host to an unprecedented week of music-making as the world class Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra visits the county. Over six days the BSO – one of the UK’s most highly acclaimed orchestras – will provide an unprecedented 357 man hours of music-making as part of some fifteen specially-designed projects. There will be a variety of performances in venues throughout Cornwall, culminating in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor Kirill Karabits’ first concert in the Hall for Cornwall on Friday 26 April.All through the week, in the lead up to the concert, the Orchestra’s inspiring new music education initiative BSO Blast is funding music projects in schools; as well as conducting and composing masterclasses with college students and workshops and performances with music groups across the county.
Cornwall is one of the first places in the South West to benefit from this three-year initiative, which is funded by Arts Council England’s Catalyst Fund and J.P. Morgan, the largest private employer in Bournemouth.
One of the many projects for young people will see BSO Community Musician Andy Baker work with children from four primary schools, involving them in Mussorgsky’s epic piece Pictures at an Exhibition, which will culminate in a joint performance with the musicians of the BSO Resonate Strings. As the BSO is aiming to work with people of all ages, at the other end of the spectrum the Resonate Strings will also offer projects with the elderly community; and the BSO Brass will work with the local Camborne Town Band at the Tolmen community Centre in Constantine.
The Orchestra’s pioneering participation project for amateur musicians, Rusty and Not So Rusty Musicians, is also taking place in the County, with applications from amateur music-makers already flooding in to take part, being coached by and playing with BSO musicians in a performance setting.
Each season Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra demonstrates extraordinary cultural reach, creating world-class performances across an area in excess of 10,000 square miles’ said Dougie Scarfe, Chief Executive. ‘I am particularly delighted to be bringing the whole Company to Cornwall, a county with a wonderful and diverse musical landscape. This week-long residency with its extensive programme of performances and community work, aims to inspire, and entertain, further developing our existing strong links with new ones and bringing great music-making to a range of audiences and participants’.
The Cornwall residency and symphonic concert further extends the extraordinary geographic reach of the BSO, which attracts an audience of 5,000 concert-goers each week across 10,000 square miles of the south and south west of England through multiple residencies in Poole, Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter and Portsmouth, and reaches more than 125,000 children and adults each year through its education and community work.
For further information please contact Victoria Bevan at Albion Media: victoria@albion-media.com / 020 3077 4947.