The Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) is seeking a new Principal Trumpet player.  The BPO is one of the leading amateur orchestras in the country, specialising in large symphonic works and by composers such as Mahler, Richard Strauss and Shostakovich, and we are looking for a new Principal Trumpet player to lead our trumpet section. Role The Principal Trumpet will be responsible for the musical leadership of the trumpet section, normally playing the first trumpet part for the majority of the BPO concerts.  They will be responsible for arranging players for each concert, includ ..read more

SHOWTIME! A celebration of 100 years of Broadway and West End masterpieces.  We’ll be counting down to our Showtime concerts by featuring all of the fantastic numbers from our concerts.  2 – Wicked – Stephen Schwartz (2003)  Get ready to be transported back to the magical Land of Oz with Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 musical, Wicked, which takes you on a journey beyond the familiar story of Dorothy and Toto, delving into the untold lives of Elphaba, the misunderstood girl with emerald green skin who is destined to become the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the bubbly popular ..read more

SHOWTIME! A celebration of 100 years of Broadway and West End masterpieces.  We’ll be counting down to our Showtime concerts by featuring all of the fantastic numbers from our concerts.  4 – Sweeney Todd – Stephen Sondheim (1979)  “He kept a shop in London Town; of fancy clients and good renown; and what if none of their souls were saved; they went to their maker impeccably shaved; by Sweeney Todd….the demon barber of Fleet Street”. The dark-comedy and horror of Stephen Sondheim’s finest musical is epitomised through these lyrics. The music is melodic, theatrically bold and a ..read more

SHOWTIME! A celebration of 100 years of Broadway and West End masterpieces.  We’ll be counting down to our Showtime concerts by featuring all of the fantastic numbers from our concerts.  6 – Chicago – Kander and Ebb (1975)  Kander and Ebb’s 1975 classic, Chicago, takes us back to the Jazz Age of 1920s America with “All That Jazz”, “Cell Block Tango”, “Roxie” and “We Both Reached for the Gun” featuring in our performance.  The original Broadway production ran for two years before revivals in the 1990s on both sides of the Atlantic led to the production of a film version of ..read more

SHOWTIME! A celebration of 100 years of Broadway and West End masterpieces.  We’ll be counting down to our Showtime concerts by featuring all of the fantastic numbers from our concerts.  12 – Girl Crazy Overture – George Gershwin (1930)  We start our concerts with the Overture from George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 musical, Girl Crazy. The first production of the show, which features the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You”, made stars of Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman and included Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the pit orchestra.  The s ..read more

The BPO was sorry to learn of the sudden death of bass-baritone Keel Watson, shortly after his commanding performance in the final movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with us in Birmingham Town Hall on 22 October 2023. A full obituary appears in The Guardian. The post Keel Watson 1964-2023 first appeared on BPO ..read more

The BPO is delighted to welcome Yufei Zhu as our third annual Royal Birmingham Conservatoire percussion bursary student for the 2023/24 season. Yufei will be in her second year studying percussion at the Conservatoire and has already played with the BPO on several occasions during the past year ..read more

We are sorry to learn of the death of the violinist John Ludlow. John was the son of David Ludlow who both led and conducted the Birmingham Philharmonic in its formative years. John played violin and also led the orchestra for a while during the late 1940s with his father conducting. The BPO Concerto Prize which was originally called the Ludow Prize was named after the family. A competition for solo performers organised and staged by Birmingham Conservatoire in association with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, it is acknowledged as the Conservatoire’s premier instrumental competition. &n ..read more

It was a packed house for Space Odyssey at Leominster Priory on Sunday 4 June.  The audience demanded an encore of Also sprach Zarathustra – and especially enjoyed a surprise extra item in the programme.  But there’s still time to get tickets for the remainig performances of the same concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on the afternoon of Sunday 11 June, or Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury on the afternoon of Sunday 25 June. Tickets for 11 June (£16 adults, £14 concessions, £6 children/students, £35 families) are available on the door or online from the Royal Birmingham Conserva ..read more

BPO members were very sorry to hear of the death of one of our ‘cellists, Andy Perry. Andy had been a member of the BPO since 1997 and will be greatly missed. BPO members’ recollections of Andy go back as far as his days in Sandwell Youth Orchestra. More recently, he worked for the University of Birmingham, helping students to access bursaries and awards. Andy leaves two daughters, of whose piano playing he was extremely proud. He is pictured here taking part in our performance of Mahler’s 5th Symphony in the Elgar Concert Hall in June 2019 ..read more