Birmingham's orchestra to welcome more than 20,000 children to the concert hall  with family-friendly programming and ambitious education initiatives

The new season will give more than 20,000 young people enriching music experiences through:

• Targeted Schools' Concerts for different key stages in partnership with Services For Education, reaching thousands of children who might otherwise never experience live orchestral music.

• Notelets performances specifically designed for toddlers and young children's first music experiences – these are fun-filled interactive concerts that give children the freedom to dance, sing and learn about musical instruments for the first time.

• Relaxed Concerts created for pupils attending Special Schools to enable pupils to experience live music in a supported, accessible and engaging environment.

• Four dedicated family concerts including "Music from the Movies," “CBSO Family Christmas”, "Tunes & Tales," and "Dance Across America".

• Free CBSO in the City week (23-28 July 2025) bringing free orchestral performances to unexpected places across the city, from canal boats to botanical gardens.

All in addition to the CBSO’s wide programme of work with young people and communities, including their youth ensembles, Associate Schools programme, community performances, and the Shireland CBSO Academy.

Tom Spurgin, CBSO Creative Director – Learning & Engagement, says: "Our schools and family programming is a long-term investment in cultivating tomorrow's audiences while providing today's young people with transformative musical experiences. Building on our commitment to music education at our school – the Shireland CBSO Academy – we’ve worked hard to ensure that our concert season continues to provide young people with opportunities to be inspired by incredible music.” 

Emma Stenning, CBSO Chief Executive comments: “Our new season is a magnificent celebration of music that promises to deliver joy filled concerts for everyone, whether you find us at Symphony Hall, across Birmingham and the West Midlands, or on national and international tour. Birmingham is our inspiration. Our home city is fantastically musical, and full of diversity and creative adventure. This new season is drawn from exactly that spirit, and presents us to the world as a truly future facing orchestra, that both celebrates the great classical repertoire, and dares to try something new”.

“As you delve into what’s on offer, we hope that you will discover music that moves you, uplifts you and offers you moments of celebration and reflection. We very much look forward to welcoming you to a concert soon”.

The focus on youth education comes as the CBSO's "Listening Project" – a West Midlands focused research initiative – revealed strong cultural confidence among local communities, with 60% of Birmingham residents considering attending arts and cultural events an important part of their free time, and 79% attending a Birmingham venue in the last year.

About the CBSO

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is an internationally celebrated symphony orchestra, at home in Birmingham. A family of 90 incredible musicians, led by Music Director Kazuki Yamada, proud to make exciting musical experiences that matter to the people of Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond.

Resident at Symphony Hall, the orchestra’s musicians perform over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, the UK and around the world, with music that ranges from classics to contemporary, soundtracks to symphonies, and everything in between. With a far-reaching community and education programme, a ground-breaking partnership with Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust, and a family of choruses and youth ensembles, it is involved in every aspect of music-making in the Midlands – and has been for more than 100 years.

This longstanding tradition started with the orchestra’s very first symphonic concert in 1920 – conducted by Sir Edward Elgar. Ever since then, through war, recessions, social change and civic renewal, the CBSO has been proudly ‘Birmingham’s orchestra’. Under principal conductors including Adrian Boult, George Weldon, Andrzej Panufnik and Louis Frémaux, the CBSO won an artistic reputation that spread far beyond the Midlands. But it was when it discovered the young British conductor Simon Rattle in 1980 that the CBSO became internationally famous – and showed how the arts can help give a new sense of direction to a whole city.

Rattle’s successors, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, helped cement that global reputation and continued to build on the CBSO’s tradition of flying the flag for Birmingham. In April 2023, Emma Stenning was appointed Chief Executive and Kazuki Yamada took up the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and in May 2024 became Music Director. Under their dynamic leadership, the orchestra continues to celebrate the joy of music and of Birmingham through creating unmissable and unforgettable musical experiences for all.

The CBSO is supported by its principal funders Arts Council England and SCC.