BBC Concert Orchestra announce Great Yarmouth residency

The BBC Concert Orchestra (BBC CO) has begun a three-year residency in Great Yarmouth, in collaboration with Orchestras Live as part of its Create Yarmouth strategy.

A national producer and music charity, Leeds-based Orchestras Live aims to ensure country-wide access to orchestral experiences. In addition to Create Yarmouth, the organisation has worked on multiple projects in the Great Yarmouth area to provide education, inspiration and wellbeing support through collaborations across the music industry.

BBC CO director, Bill Chandler, said: ‘We’re proud to be collaborating with Orchestras Live and the brilliant work they do, and this exciting residency will allow us to immerse ourselves in the cultural life of Great Yarmouth.’

This residency builds on the BBC CO’s existing educational and outreach work to deliver workshops in every primary school in Great Yarmouth, reductions on ticket prices for orchestral concerts and performances in public spaces across Great Yarmouth.

The orchestra will also offer training and performance opportunities for young composers and local young producers, with an aim to develop its programmes throughout the three-year residency.

Stuart Bruce, senior creative producer of Orchestras Live added: ‘Over the next three years the Concert Orchestra will be bringing a range of inspirational activity that will involve many local young people and adults discovering, creating, producing and performing music together, developing skills, broadening of audiences for orchestral music, and contributing to the cultural infrastructure and living heritage of east Norfolk.’

As well as being an associate orchestra at the Southbank Centre, BBC CO performs across BBC’s platforms, including recordings for BBC Radio 3, soundtracks for Blue Planet on BBC One, and an annual appearance at the BBC Proms.

You can find out more about the BBC Concert Orchestra here.

You can find out more about Orchestras Live here.