25 YEARS
September 2012 – February 2013 Concerts, Workshops and Events BCMG Online: G facebook.com/bcmgfans U twitter.com/bcmg @bcmg
www.bcmg.org.uk
New Music for New Ears
And New Ears for New Music ‘They don’t just inform,
they enthuse. And their sound is utterly ravishing every time.’ The Independent on Sunday
2
Box Office: 0121 345 0491
‘…Britain now boasts some of the finest compositional talent in the world, with virtuosic interpreters to match.’ The Evening Standard
Stephen Newbould, BCMG Artistic Director
Introducing our 25th anniversary season 1987: BCMG’s first concert
About Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Birmingham Contemporary Music Group celebrates its 25th anniversary season in 2012/13. Emerging from within the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1987, the Group quickly established a reputation for brilliant performances, ambitious commissions, innovative collaborations, and a vibrant learning programme. With a central commitment to composers and the presentation of new work, BCMG’s open and inclusive approach takes people of all ages through the rich and fascinating world of contemporary music. BCMG has premiered over 150 new works, many commissioned through its pioneering Sound Investment scheme. In addition to a busy schedule of concerts in the UK and abroad, BCMG runs an extensive learning and participation programme, working with young people in and out of school and with adults in a range of community settings, as well as presenting ground-breaking Family and Schools’ Concerts. The Group has two Artists-in-Association, Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich, and Sir Simon Rattle is Founding Patron. BCMG has received a host of national and international awards, has an extensive catalogue of CD recordings and broadcasts regularly on BBC radio.
Support us in our 25th anniversary year Turn to page 11 to find out more about how you can become involved. Call us on 0121 616 2621 or go to
Those of us present for BCMG’s first season in 1987/88 can take consolation for the passing of a quarter-century from the Group’s achievements since then - including over 500 concerts and a staggering 10 million people reached through performances, learning projects, tours, broadcasts and recordings. Over 25 years we have performed our 150 commissions over 550 times, with 100 new pieces created by young people on our learning programme every year. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, I would like to give a huge thank-you to all our supporters, past and present. I encourage you to keep a close eye on our activities throughout 2012/13 as we’ll be sharing thoughts and experiences of 25 BCMG seasons across the year. A feature of BCMG’s programming has been to throw a spotlight on new works, refracted through the prism of the past. So it’s fitting that important premieres by Alexander Goehr and Richard Baker are couched in the
context of great 20th century figures – Webern, Stravinsky, Ligeti, Bartók (or at least his ghost), Cage and Messiaen, the latter turning up not once but three times. When Oliver Knussen lifts his baton for our main season’s opening concert in September, we will have just returned from the Alicante Festival in Spain, giving Spanish premieres of three Knussen works – fitting too in the year our Artist-inAssociation has been honoured with the Critics’ Circle Outstanding Musician Award. We look forward to welcoming you to our events this 25th anniversary year.
Stephen Newbould BCMG Artistic Director
www.bcmg.org.uk/ supportus
This brochure is available free of charge in large-print, Braille, on audiocassette, CD or by email. Please contact Tim Rushby, Marketing Manager: tim@bcmg.org.uk / 0121 616 2619 / BCMG, CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF
www.bcmg.org.uk
3
Season at a glance
Free music workshops! As well as concerts BCMG runs fun music-making workshops for young people throughout the year.
BCMG concerts, workshops and events, in Birmingham and beyond, during our 25th anniversary season. For additional information on activities from March 2013 onwards please visit www.bcmg.org.uk
In this brochure… The Fathers are Watching Goehr (world premiere) / Messiaen / Webern / Ligeti Sunday 30 September 2012, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Page 4
Insight: Richard Baker Free composer insight event Saturday 24 November 2012, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Page 8
Looking to the Heavens Schoenberg / Bruckner Thursday 6 December 2012, Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Families@4 Bite-sized interactive concert for ages 7+ Friday 7 December 2012, Bramall Music Building, Birmingham
Page 6 BCMG Family Concert
Page 7
Looking to the Heavens Schoenberg / Messiaen Friday 7 December 2012, Bramall Music Building, Birmingham Thursday 21 February 2013, Dora Stoutzker Hall, Cardiff
Friday 15 February 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Page 8
…and in our next brochure Crossing the Atlantic (conducted by Oliver Knussen) Lee (world premiere) / American experimental music from the 1920s Sunday 10 March 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Into the Little Hill (conducted by George Benjamin) Sawer (world premiere)/ Benjamin / Antonioni Saturday 6 April 2013, Wigmore Hall, London Sunday 7 April 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Illuminating Britten Britten / Berg / Copland / Knussen / Henze
A series of eight workshops that take place at the same time as Music Maze. These fun workshops explore composing and improvising within an ensemble. Young people need to be able to play a musical instrument and read a little bit of music notation. Participants receive free tickets for BCMG concerts. Music Maze and Zigzag Ensemble workshops will be held on the following dates: Sunday 23 September 2012 Sunday 28 October 2012 Sunday 25 November 2012 Sunday 3 February 2013
Feel the Buzz for 14 –18 year olds Create music with other young people, top composers and BCMG musicians. These twoday workshops are an amazing opportunity to learn new ways to compose and develop musical ideas. Workshops to be held on: Saturday 27 October 2012 and Sunday 4 November 2012 Further 2013 workshop dates online at www.bcmg.org.uk
Sunday 14 April 2013, Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon Sunday 21 April 2013, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton
Sunday 28 April 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Zigzag Ensemble for 12 –16 year olds
Page 6
The Tyranny of Fun Baker (world premiere) / Stravinsky / Causton / Cage / Messiaen
BCMG Family Concerts (conducted by Richard Baker) Hour-long, fun concerts for young people and families
Music Maze for 8 –11 year olds A series of eight creative, participatory workshops that take place at CBSO Centre and link to music from BCMG’s concerts. All young people are welcome, whether you can play a musical instrument or not. Each workshop culminates in a performance for parents and family. Children who attend receive a free ticket and a concessionary one for a parent/ guardian to come to the linked BCMG concert.
BCMG Family Concert
Illuminating Britten Britten / Berg / Copland / Knussen / Henze Saturday 18 May 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham Friday 24 May 2013, Maidment Hall, Shrewsbury School, Shrewsbury
BEAST: Vanishing Point Sonic adventures with BEAST’s immersive multi-channel sound system Friday 24 – Sunday 26 May 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham 1988: Launch of The Series with Birmingham Jazz
1989: Vic Hoyland, Colin Matthews and John Woolrich are the first composers to be commissioned by BCMG
4
Box Office: 0121 345 0491 Vocals beginning, grief always / looking upward. Its length barely two and a half minutes, the
same amount of time it would take our fighter
I bend forward in my chair, press Repeat, adjust my earphones, jets to take off, drop their deadly load and return home.
Gabriel Levin, After Webern 3, from Alexander Goehr’s To These Dark Steps
Elsewhere people sift through debris for their dear ones.
The Fathers are Watching Sunday 30 September 2012, 7.30pm CBSO Centre, Birmingham Conductor: Oliver Knussen Tenor: Andrew Staples * Members of CBSO Youth Chorus * Olivier Messiaen: Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes Anton Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra Alexander Goehr: Duos (for two violins) György Ligeti: Melodien Alexander Goehr: To These Dark Steps * (BCMG Sound Investment commission / world premiere) A substantial new work for tenor, ensemble and girls choir - the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Sound Investment commission To These Dark Steps – is the main feature of the programme. To These Dark Steps sets a series of striking poems and prose commentary by Gabriel Levin, written in the shadow of Israel’s bombardment and incursion into Gaza in 2008. The texts view the depredations of war through the prism of music by Webern, Messiaen, Bartók and Ligeti - all favourite composers of Alexander Goehr. This provides the context for the other pieces in the programme. A late work by French composer Olivier Messiaen opens the concert. This threeminute, marvellously incisive tribute to the publisher Alfred Schlee has at its heart a piano solo based on the song of the Garden Warbler, one of Messiaen’s favourite birds. Following this opening are Webern’s Six
Pieces for Orchestra in his arrangement for chamber ensemble; Goehr’s recent violin duos, behind which hovers the ghost of Bartók; and György Ligeti’s 12-minute Melodien, which superimposes waves of melody in a piece rich in allusions to Ives, Mahler and Brahms. There will be a free pre-concert talk from 6.30-7pm with Alexander Goehr and Gabriel Levin, open to all ticket holders. See back page for ticket price and booking information.
1990: BCMG’s first concert in London at Purcell Room, Southbank Centre; and Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Kai – one of BCMG’s most successful commissions
Music Maze
Creative music workshop for 8 – 11 year olds Sunday 23 September 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event September’s Music Maze is all about melody. The young people will create music inspired by: the layers and loops of melodies in Ligeti’s Melodien; Klangfarbenmelodie (German for sound-color-melody); and bird song as found in Messiaen’s Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes.
Zigzag Ensemble Creative music-making for 12 – 16 year olds
Alexander Goehr
‘…this was an extraordinary virtuoso evening for the extraordinary BCMG…’ Times Literary Supplement
Sunday 23 September 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event Led by composer Sid Peacock and others, these fun workshops provide a safe environment for young musicians to explore composing and improvising within an ensemble. Young people need to be able to play a musical instrument and read a little bit of music notation to take part. Places must be booked in advance either through the BCMG website or by calling 0121 616 6525. Booking opens 3 weeks before each workshop.
www.bcmg.org.uk
5
Sound Investment
Share in music’s future
The commissioning of Alexander Goehr’s To These Dark Steps was made possible by the generous support of our Sound Investors. Since 1992, BCMG has premiered 64 new works with the help of a wide range of individuals through Sound Investment. Join Sound Investment now and share the excitement of bringing alive new pieces of music from the leading composers of our time.
By becoming a Sound Investor you can: • attend rehearsals and premieres • meet composers and performers • have your name listed in a new work’s score Invest now in The Lighthouse Keepers by David Sawer and The Tyranny of Fun by Richard Baker (see page 8), both to be premiered in 2013. Sound Unit shares in each commission are priced at £150. Your donation can start from £15 per month.
Go to: www.bcmg.org.uk/soundinvestment call 0121 616 2621 or email gwendolyn@bcmg.org.uk
Music Maze
Feel the Buzz
Sunday 28 October 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event In October’s Music Maze the young people will create new music for BCMG’s musicians; exploring the possible sounds and extended techniques of the musicians’ instruments in order to create a short piece, which they will notate in either traditional notation, as a graphic score, or a mixture of both.
Saturday 27 October 2012, 10am – 4pm, venue tbc, and Sunday 4 November 2012, 10am – 6pm, CBSO Centre. Free event Feel the Buzz is a creative composing and improvising project for 14 – 18 year olds. Led by composer Fraser Trainer the young people will create music inspired by Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the end of time as featured in our December concert. There will be two days of workshops culminating in a performance for friends and family on the evening of Sunday 4 November at 5pm. Participants must be able to attend both workshops. BCMG welcomes musicians from all cultural traditions.
Creative music workshop for 8 – 11 year olds
Exciting composing and improvising project for 14 –18 year olds
Zigzag Ensemble Creative music-making for 12 – 16 year olds
Sunday 28 October 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event Led by composer Sid Peacock and others, these fun workshops provide a safe environment for young musicians to explore composing and improvising within an ensemble. Young people need to be able to play a musical instrument and Music Maze participants read a little bit of music notation to take part. Places must be booked in advance either through the BCMG website or by calling 0121 616 6525. Booking opens 3 weeks before each workshop.
1991: Launch of BCMG’s Sound Investment commissioning scheme
Feel the Buzz will give participants: • a fun environment to make music with other young people • new ways to start composing • confidence in improvising • new ways to develop your musical ideas • amazing professional musicians to create music with and for • ideas for GCSE/A level composing Places must be booked in advance either through the BCMG website or by calling 0121 616 6525. Booking opens 3 weeks before the workshops.
6 Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire was premiered at the Berlin Choralion-Saal on 16 October 1912. The small mixed ensemble that Schoenberg invented for this masterpiece of early atonal music has over the last 100 years become a ‘standard ensemble’, spawning a large repertoire for this grouping of instruments by subsequent composers. Pierrot Lunaire is a three-part work that sets German translations of poems by Albert Giraud. The eight instruments played by five performers are arranged differently in every number and produce an amazing variety of sound. A striking feature of the work is the vocalist’s Sprechstimme (speech-singing), an eerie declamation between song and speech, where the pitch is sounded but not held; instead, the vocalist immediately leaves the note, falling or rising to the next.
Box Office: 0121 345 0491
Looking to the Heavens Three concerts celebrating 100 years of Pierrot Lunaire
Thursday 6 December 2012, 7.30pm Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Friday 7 December 2012, 7.30pm Bramall Music Building, Birmingham
Conductor: Andris Nelsons Soprano: Claire Booth * City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Birmingham Contemporary Music Group *
Thursday 21 February 2013, 7.30pm Dora Stoutzker Hall, Cardiff
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire * (unconducted / late-night performance) The first of three performances of Pierrot Lunaire in our 25th anniversary season follows a CBSO performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. Composed just 20 years before Schoenberg’s tour de force, Bruckner’s symphony is one of late Romantic music’s most overwhelming experiences. Concert preceded by a free 30-minute piano recital at 6.15pm, performed by one of the rising stars of Birmingham Conservatoire. Tickets: £10 - £42 * To book tickets for this concert visit www.cbso.co.uk/concerts (full price tickets only), call 0121 345 0603 or visit Symphony Hall Box Office. * Included in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s 2012/13 Season and standard CBSO discounts apply. See www.cbso.co.uk for further details, or enquire when booking.
Soprano: Claire Booth * Flute: Marie-Christine Zupancic Clarinet: Timothy Lines Piano: Malcolm Wilson Violin/Viola: Laurence Jackson Cello: Ulrich Heinen Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire * Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps For our remaining Pierrot Lunaire performances the piece is partnered with another classic, one of the 20th century’s most ethereally beautiful pieces of music. Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the end of time) was first heard on a brutally cold January night in 1941, at the Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp, in Görlitz, Germany. The title does not exaggerate the ambitions of the piece. An inscription in the score supplies a catastrophic image from the Book of Revelation: ‘In homage to the Angel of the Apocalypse, who lifts his hand toward heaven, saying, “There shall be time no longer”. The Quartet is however, the gentlest apocalypse imaginable. There are no roaring sound-masses of doom, but instead fiercely
elegant dances, whose rhythms swing along in intricate patterns without ever obeying a regular beat - episodes of transfixing serenity, to which words fail to do justice. That Messiaen’s apocalypse has little to do with history and catastrophe, but instead records the rebirth of an ordinary soul in the grip of extraordinary emotion, is why the Quartet remains as overpowering today as it was on that frigid night in 1941. The first of these two concerts sees BCMG decamp from CBSO Centre to the University of Birmingham’s new Bramall Music Building to perform as part of The Bramall Festival of Music and build on our relationship as the University’s Ensemble-in-Association. Bramall Music Building tickets: Tickets priced as per back page information. To book visit www.bcmg.org.uk or call the Box Office on 0121 345 0492. How to find the Bramall Music Building: www.birmingham.ac.uk/bramall Dora Stoutzker Hall tickets: £12 full price, £10 concession. To book visit www.rwcmd.ac.uk or call the Box Office on 029 2039 1391. 1992: BCMG’s first concerts in the USA, in New York and Boston; and the first Sound Investment commission premiered – Geoffrey Poole’s The Magnification of the Virgin
www.bcmg.org.uk
‘BCMG concerts are always invigorating and thoughtprovoking.’ The Telegraph
Music Maze
Creative music workshop for 8 – 11 year olds
7 Places must be booked in advance either through the BCMG website or by calling 0121 616 6525. Booking opens 3 weeks before each workshop.
Sunday 25 November 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event November’s Music Maze is inspired by numbers. Composers Messiaen and Schoenberg were both fascinated by numbers and used them to create their music. In Pierrot Lunaire the numbers three, seven and thirteen keep appearing and Messiaen uses addition and subtraction to change Medieval and Hindu inspired rhythms.
Zigzag Ensemble Creative music-making for12 – 16 year olds
Sunday 25 November 2012, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event Led by composer Sid Peacock and others, these fun workshops provide a safe environment for young musicians to explore composing and improvising within an ensemble. Young people need to be able to play a musical instrument and read a little bit of music notation to take part.
1993: BCMG wins the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Ensemble Award
1994: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Momente performed in London, Birmingham and at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Families@4 Looking to the Heavens Friday 7 December 2012, 4.30pm Bramall Music Building, Birmingham Activities in foyer from 4pm This fun, bite-sized and interactive concert for young people and their families will explore the heavenly music of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the end of time and extracts from one of the 20th century’s most important compositions, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. Get close up to the music and musicians in this informal and relaxed performance. Come early and take part in activities in the foyer. Best suited to children aged 7+. Performances will last around one hour. Tickets: £4 adults / free for under 16s (all children must be accompanied by an adult) Please reserve your tickets in advance for collection on the door by contacting BCMG on 0121 616 2619 or visit www.bcmg.org.uk
8
Box Office: 0121 345 0491
The Tyranny of Fun Friday 15 February 2013, 7pm CBSO Centre, Birmingham Conductor/Piano#: Ryan Wigglesworth Piano: Nicolas Hodges * Electronics: Nye Parry ~ Igor Stravinsky: Sonata for 2 pianos * # John Cage: Second Construction Richard Baker: The Tyranny of Fun ~ (BCMG Sound Investment commission / world premiere) Richard Causton: Chamber Symphony (BCMG Sound Investment commission 2009) Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques * Richard Baker is one of the foremost composerconductors of his generation. Commissioned through BCMG’s Sound Investment scheme, Baker’s new work for ensemble and electronics addresses the theme of ‘irrational exuberance’; taking in Ravel’s death-driven waltzes, and the sounds of 80s New York disco; with live electronics that Baker has developed together with his colleague, composer/sound artist Nye Parry. BCMG premiered Causton’s Chamber Symphony in 2009 and this performance will be the Group’s first since Causton revised the piece following its premiere. Giving context to these works are three pieces from the 1940s and 50s. Scored for unorthodox percussion instruments, John Cage’s Second Construction is one of a series of three works composed between 1939-42, while Cage was touring the west coast of America with a percussion ensemble. Oiseaux exotiques (Exotic Birds), for piano and an orchestra of winds and percussion,
1995: BCMG wins Gramophone Recording Award; and premiere Judith Weir’s Sound Investment commission Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
is an enchanting sound fantasy containing imitations of no fewer than 40 different birdsongs or calls. Pianist Nicolas Hodges, the soloist for the Messiaen, is joined by Ryan Wigglesworth to open the concert with Igor Stravinsky’s Sonata for Two Pianos. There will be a free pre-concert talk from 6-6.30pm with Richard Baker, open to all ticket holders. See back page for ticket price and booking information.
‘Once again, this endlessly innovative group is on to a good thing.’ The Birmingham Post
Insight: Richard Baker
Developing a new electronic percussion interface Richard Baker
1996: Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Simon Russell Beale at the BBC Proms, conducted by Daniel Harding
Saturday 24 November 2012, 11.30am CBSO Centre, Birmingham Free event Join us for this mid-morning event with composer Richard Baker, composer/sound artist Nye Parry and BCMG percussionist Julian Warburton, to gain an insight into Richard Baker’s working method and get a first taste of his Sound Investment piece for ensemble and electronics. This is a free event lasting approximately two hours. Please reserve your tickets in advance by contacting BCMG on 0121 616 2619 or visit www.bcmg.org.uk
www.bcmg.org.uk
9
Music Maze
Creative music workshop for 8 – 11 year olds Sunday 3 February 2013, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event In February’s Music Maze the young people will create music that mixes the use of electronics with live instruments - inspired by composer Richard Baker’s new work in the BCMG concert. Richard is interested in the physicality and drama of musicians as they perform, so as well as using conventional musical instruments, the young people will trigger and manipulate electronic and recorded sounds with their body movements.
Zigzag Ensemble Creative music-making for12 – 16 year olds
Sunday 3 February 2013, 10am – 2.30pm, CBSO Centre. Free event Led by composer Sid Peacock and others, these fun workshops provide a safe environment for young musicians to explore composing and improvising within an ensemble. Young people need to be able to play a musical instrument and read a little bit of music notation to take part. Places must be booked in advance either through the BCMG website or by calling 0121 616 6525. Booking opens 3 weeks before each workshop.
Sound Investment
Share in music’s future
Richard Baker’s The Tyranny of Fun was commissioned with the generous support of individuals through BCMG’s Sound Investment scheme – as was Richard Causton’s Chamber Symphony in 2009. To find out how you too can be involved in creating exciting new music, see page 11 or visit:
www.bcmg.org.uk/ soundinvestment
1997: Britten’s Church Parables triple bill with Birmingham Opera Company in Birmingham, London and at the Aldeburgh Festival
1998: Residency at Salzburg Festival; and David Lang’s Sound Investment commission The Passing Measures premiered
10
Ticket line: 0121 345 0491
Our Learning and Participation programme At BCMG we see young people as discerning listeners, experimental performers and creative musical adventurers. We are passionate about creating the very best learning opportunities which allow young people to flourish, to feel part of a bigger musical community and open their ears to new sound worlds. We create musical pathways that signpost young people from school projects to out-of-school projects
Supporting young composers in school Resolution – secondary school pupils compose new music inspired by biomedical science (in partnership with the Institute for Biomedical Science at the University of Birmingham). Big Ears – primary school workshops connected to our Schools’ Concerts.
Wider community participation Pre-concert talks Open rehearsals
and from workshops to concerts. Though the main focus of our Learning and Participation programme is young people, there is much for adults too beyond our performances. Insight Events, Meet the Composer days, pre-concert talks and creative workshops all aim to deepen our audience’s engagement and understanding of the music we perform.
1999: Bernstein’s Wonderful Town at the BBC Proms and EMI CD with Simon Rattle
Supporting young composers out of school Music Maze (ages 8–11) Zigzag Ensemble (ages 12–16) Feel the Buzz (ages 14–18) Imagine Compose (beginner instrumentalists in partnership with Birmingham Music Service)
Supporting composers in Higher Education
Concerts for young people
University of Birmingham (Ensemble-in-Association) & Birmingham Conservatoire - undergraduate and postgraduate composer workshops.
Family and Schools’ Concerts (Ages 7+ and Key Stage 2) Families@4 (ages 7+)
Research, development & resources Through the Music Maze – research into the pedagogy of our Music Maze programme and new online resource (in partnership with Birmingham City University). Listen Imagine Compose – new online resources (in partnership with Sound and Music). Big Ears – creative music-making resource packs.
Commissioning new music Continuing Professional Two new commissions for Development young listeners at our Family and Schools’ Concerts. Seven new works for young musicians by emerging young composers.
Imagine Compose – training for emerging professional composers wanting to work with primary age children. Resolution – training for emerging professional composers wanting to work in secondary schools.
Arts Awards
BCMG Family Friendly
Work Experience Placements
Coming to BCMG events can count towards your Arts Award. BCMG also supports Children’s Arts Awards (ages 7-11).
At BCMG concerts we offer our young audience specially designed programmes, front row seats and a juice and biscuits interval reception.
BCMG offers a limited number of placements to students aged 14+. For an application form, please see www.bcmg.org.uk
For more information and to get involved please visit www.bcmg.org.uk, contact Nancy Evans, Director of Learning and Participation, or Jeremy Clay, Learning Co-ordinator (Maternity Cover), on 0121 616 2616 or email nancy@bcmg.org.uk or jeremy@bcmg.org.uk
Online: www.bcmg.org.uk
11
Support us in our 25th anniversary year Birmingham Contemporary Music Group relies on many income sources to create its varied programme of concerts, workshops, and other opportunities for audiences and composers of all ages. As we look forward beyond our 25th anniversary year, individual donors are more important than ever for the vitality of BCMG. Our supporters enable us to develop our artistic vision and become an integral part of BCMG’s extended family.
Gerald Barry’s opera The Importance of Being Earnest was supported by the BCMG Foundation
Become involved and help support the future of new music!
Remember BCMG in your Will Composers and the development of new work need every encouragement we can give. Leaving a legacy to BCMG enables us to support the future of new music even beyond our lifetime. Alan Woodfield, BCMG supporter By remembering BCMG’s work in your Will you can give future generations a very special gift. We should be grateful if you would let us know if you have made provision for BCMG in your Will. BCMG is a registered charity no. 1001474
BCMG Foundation The BCMG Foundation allows you to engage with aspects of our work that concert-goers don’t usually see. You can support the future development of BCMG’s performance and learning activity by becoming a Core Supporter from £1,000 per year. You can also help with specific BCMG projects, with a donation starting from £250 per year. Projects for which we are currently seeking your support include: • Big Ears, a series of creative music-making workshops in primary schools, linked to our Schools Concerts in spring 2013 • The Birmingham premiere performance of George Benjamin’s opera Into the Little Hill in April 2013
I always seem to come away from BCMG events with my horizons broadened, my vision refreshed, and my sense of being part of this wonderful creative city reinvigorated. Through the BCMG Foundation, I feel close to the beating heart of this brilliant inclusive world-class team.
Other ways you can help We always welcome one-off donations to support our programme, such as our popular Music Maze workshops for 8-11 year-olds. Any level of donation will make a difference to BCMG’s work. You can send us a cheque made out to ‘BCMG’, or donate online:
www.bcmg.org.uk/donatenow Would you like to get involved? Call Gwendolyn Tietze on: 0121 616 2621 email: gwendolyn@bcmg.org.uk or go to: www.bcmg.org.uk/supportus
John Christophers, BCMG supporter
Sound Investment Share in music’s future
Sound Investment involves individuals in the thrill of bringing alive new work by the most exciting composers of our time. Invest now in new pieces by Alexander Goehr (see page 4), Richard Baker (see page 8), David Lang, Colin Matthews, Harrison Birtwistle, David Sawer, and many more. You can support BCMG’s commissioning programme from £15 per month.
www.bcmg.org.uk/soundinvestment
How to Find Us Brindleyplace
St
Commercial St
Ho
llow
nd St
Snow Hill
Edmu
Town Hall
Unless otherwise stated, tickets for all BCMG concerts are priced as follows:
w
Colmore Ro
Ne
w
St
et re
40 A45
Mailbox
ueensway S u ff o l k S t r e e t Q
y St
ay
lid
H ol
Paradise Circus Central Library
St
St ville
t St
nan
Ten
tr
Bridge St
ad S
n Gra
est
Five Ways Island
B ro
e et
G as
40
oa d W
Symphony Hall
le Berk
Sheepcote St
A 45
ley R
way ens Que
Livery St
Ring Road to M5 & M6
Ha g
Booking tickets
Bull Ring New Street
ay H
ead
Ring Road
BCMG, CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF Parking There is metered parking on all streets around CBSO Centre. There are also car parks at Brindleyplace and Mailbox, both within a 5 minute walk of the centre.
BCMG videos
Access CBSO Centre is equipped with adapted toilet facilities, key signposting in Braille and the hall is fitted with an infra-red amplification system. Limited free parking can be arranged on request. More info: 0121 616 2619 / info@bcmg.org.uk
Join our mailing list
Watch BCMG videos on YouTube and Vimeo and gain a deeper insight into the world of composition.
www.vimeo.com/bcmg www.youtube.com/bcmgtv Scan to join email and/or post mailing lists and receive regular updates from BCMG. Sign up via www.bcmg.org.uk/jointhemailinglist Write to us at Freepost RRAY-KLRC-LUES, BCMG, CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF, specifying what information you’d like to hear from us about.
Acknowledgments Many of our projects would not be possible without the generous support of our individual donors, charitable trust and foundations, organisational partners and statutory funders. Our particular thanks for supporting BCMG in 2012/13 goes to:
In advance: £14 full price £8 concession £5 under 16s On the door: £16 full price £10 concession £6 under 16s Tickets can be booked in advance via: The Symphony Hall Box Office, Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EA
Ticket Line: 0121 345 0491 Online: www.bcmg.org.uk Please note that a £2.50 transaction fee is charged by Symphony Hall Box Office on all bookings, except purchases made in person.
On the door tickets can be purchased at CBSO Centre on concert nights subject to availability. All seating is unreserved unless otherwise stated. Concession tickets are available to over 65s, passport to leisure holders, wheelchair users and disabled patrons, and recipients of the following benefits: Income Support. Pensions Tax Credit and Disability Tax Credit. Disabled patrons can bring one companion to BCMG concerts free of charge.
Student tickets just £4 £4 tickets can be purchased (subject to availability) at CBSO Centre on concert nights by Birmingham Conservatoire and University of Birmingham music students. Valid student ID will be asked for prior to purchase. Photographs: Adrian Burrows, Maurice Foxall, Clive Barda, Mark Allan, Robert Day, Brian Voce Illustration: Sarah Ray Design: www.weared8.com BCMG would like to thank Clennell Custom Brass, Dot Brodie (Wind World) and Turner Violins.
Our Sound Investors, and our BCMG Foundation members BCMG, CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham B1 2LF Tel: +44 (0)121 616 2616 Fax: +44 (0)121 616 2622 Email: info@bcmg.org.uk Web: www.bcmg.org.uk The Barber Trust, William A Cadbury Charitable Trust, City of Birmingham Orchestral Endowment Fund, The Hinrichsen Foundation
Registered in England no. 2446126 Registered charity no. 1001474 VAT reg. no. GB 614 418 655