BBC Concert Orchestra to take up residency in Great Yarmouth

The BBC Concert Orchestra performed in Musicals: The Greatest Show

The BBC Concert Orchestra will take up a three-year residency in a seaside town to "raise aspirations".

Its arrival in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, is due to a collaboration with the charity Orchestras Live and arts organisations in the county.

The aim was to "provide learning pathways and improve people's wellbeing", the charity said.

It will run workshops in every primary school in the town and hold a free schools concert.

Clark Rundell conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in November 2020

Part of the Create Yarmouth strategy, it hopes to encourage students to get creative with music.

"The programme aims to raise aspiration, provide learning pathways and improve people's wellbeing through collaborations with world-class musicians, digital artists, producers and arts managers", an Orchestras Live spokeswoman said.

Pop-up performances in public spaces, as part of a Heritage Action Zone, will also be held.

The residency is part of the BBC's wider commitment to better serving audiences across the UK.

Stuart Bruce, senior creative producer, for Orchestras Live, said: "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."

Michael Ball performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra in Musicals: The Greatest Show

The BBC Concert Orchestra can be heard on BBC Radio 2's Sunday Night Is Music Night and on many soundtracks, including Blue Planet, Serengeti and George the Poet's podcast for BBC Sounds.

In February 2021 it performed for the BBC One and BBC Radio 2 national celebration of musical theatre, Musicals: The Greatest Show.

Orchestras Live said it believed that orchestras were for everyone and that live music had the power to inspire people for a lifetime.

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