Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

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The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra. The orchestra was originally based in Bournemouth, but has now moved its office to the adjacent town of Poole. The Winter Gardens hall,the orchestra's former Bournemouth base,was demolished in May 2006. In Poole, the orchestra performs at the the Lighthouse Centre for Performing Arts (formerly Poole Arts Centre), where the concert hall has 1596 seats.

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[edit] Origins

The Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra was founded in 1893 by Sir Dan Godfrey as a small group of wind players. The band quickly expanded to become a full orchestra, gaining a reputation for championing contemporary British music. Elgar and Holst (among others) conducted the orchestra in their own works. The Bournemouth Municipal Choir, founded by Godfrey in 1911,sang regularly with the orchestra.

The orchestra changed to its present name in 1954,and developed its present role of giving concerts at more venues in the south west of England. The choir was re-named The Bournemouth Symphony Chorus in 1979, when it entered into a closer relationship with the orchestra.

In addition to its roster of principal conductors, other conductors affiliated with the orchestra have included George Hurst, who served as de facto principal conductor from 1969 to 1972, between the tenures of Constantin Silvestri and Paavo Berglund, without having been formally appointed to the post. Simon Rattle was "conductor in residence" from 1974 to 1976 in one of his earliest orchestra affiliations.

In more recent years, Kees Bakels has served as the orchestra's chief guest conductor (1990-2000) and Richard Hickox as principal guest conductor (1992-1995). Marin Alsop was appointed principal conductor from September 2002. She steps down from this post in 2008.[1] In November 2007, the orchestra announced the appointment of the Ukranian conductor Kirill Karabits as their next principal conductor.[2] Karabits is scheduled to serve as the orchestra's Principal Conductor-Designate for the 2008-2009 season, and to become Principal Conductor from the 2009-2010 season.[3]

[edit] Offshoots

In 1968, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta was founded. Despite considerable artistic acclaim as a small orchestra, funding difficulties led to its sudden closure in November 1999.

[edit] Concert programme

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra currently gives around 150 concerts a year. Many highly acclaimed recordings include Deryck Cooke's completion of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 10, conducted by Simon Rattle, Elgar's "In The South" with Silvestri, Tchaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto with Rudolf Barshai and Peter Donohoe, and more recently Elgar's 3rd Symphony with Paul Daniel, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with Marin Alsop.

The orchestra performs regularly in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and in the other great halls of the world, such as the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musikverein, Vienna.

[edit] Principal Conductors

[edit] References

  1. ^ "'I don’t need to be liked, I’d rather be respected'", The Times, 9 February 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-08. 
  2. ^ James Inverne. "Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra names new chief conductor", Gramophone, 23 November 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-24. 
  3. ^ Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (29 November 2007). "Karabits appointed new Principal Conductor". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-11-30.

[edit] External links

See Grammy awards in Wikipedia: "Grammy Awards of 1997: Andrew Litton (conductor), Neville Creed, David Hill (chorus masters) & the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for Walton: Belshazzar's Feast"