The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) remains at the forefront of the British orchestral music scene, continuing to serve communities across the South and South West of England, and extending its influence across the whole of the UK and internationally with regular festival appearances, an extensive catalogue of recordings and live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. It is one of the most dynamic and innovative symphony orchestras in the UK today.

Founded in 1893, the BSO has worked with many famous composers, conductors and musicians including Elgar, Sibelius, Holst, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams and Sir Thomas Beecham, and more recently with Sir Michael Tippett, Sir John Tavener and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Principal conductors since the founder Sir Dan Godfrey have included Sir Charles Groves, Constantin Silvestri, Andrew Litton, Marin Alsop and now the dynamic young Ukrainian, Kirill Karabits.

The BSO is known internationally through over 300 recordings, and continues to release numerous CDs each year with Naxos. Recent critically acclaimed recordings have included music by Bernstein, Bartók, Sibelius, Glass, Adams and Elgar, and three discs with José Serebrier featuring arrangements of Mussorgsky, Bach and Wagner by Stokowski were nominated for GRAMMY awards in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Photo: Chris Zuidyk