The Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra is an enthusiastic orchestra covering a pretty wide age range (many of us are recent graduates). We aim to play challenging and exciting repertoire in an informal and relaxed atmosphere and perform a wide range of works for chamber orchestra, also spreading our wings into larger works from time to time.
The orchestra was formed at the beginning of 1991 originally for a one-off performance of Mozart's C Minor Mass at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Under its founding conductor, Christopher Cox, the orchestra performed works including Stravinsky's Pulcinella, Strauss' Metamorphosen, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No.1, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Mahler's 5th and 6th symphonies.
In December 1993 the orchestra gave the premiere of Starless by the young English composer Michael Mullen at St James Piccadilly. In 1995 the BCO was joined by the Horn Section of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to perform Schumann's Konzertstuck for four horns and orchestra.
Michael Turner was appointed Music Director in 1996 and has continued and developed the orchestra's policy of performing a high proportion of unusual repertoire. He has programmed Symphonies by Honegger, Piston and Berwald as well as those by Dvorak, Beethoven, Walton and Bruckner.
Among many highlights under Michael's direction have been two highly successful concerts of American works, the first of which included a performance of the complete Old American Songs of Aaron Copland with baritone Henry Herford. During our 1999/2000 season, the BCO gave a performance of Vaughan-Williams' Serenade to Music with 16 vocal soloists. This concert was also the first led by our first professional leader, Alison Dods.
In 2001, our Tenth Anniversary Season, we undertook a celebratory concert at the Royal Academy of Music, performing Malcolm Arnold's Tam O'Shanter, Paul Patterson's Little Red Riding Hood (with Diane-Louise Jordan), Sibelius' En Saga and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. During the rest of the season we tackled works by Barber, Mozart, Ravel, Lou Harrison, Richard Rodney Bennett, Hindemith, Tippett and Stephen Montague.
2003 began with a concert marking 50th anniversary of the death of Prokofiev (which included his 2nd Violin and 3rd Piano Concertos with Alison Dods and David McNulty as soloists respectively) and concluded with a programme including Michael Daugherty's Bassoon Concerto Dead Elvis and the premiere of the string orchestra version of a work by our principal cello, Peter Nagle, Infinite Breathing.
The 2004 schedule was dominated by a Latin-American programme but also included the 3rd symphonies of Berwald and Arvo Pärt together with music by Grieg, Dvorak and Borodin.
To view the repertoire both past and for the future, check out the relevant sections on this website. Also, the orchestra is always open to suggestions of repertoire to perform, both from orchestra members and our audience (practicalities and finances permitting), so please submit ideas to us by sending an email to president@bloomsburychamberorchestra.org.uk