The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has announced details of its 2026/27 season. Beginning in the autumn, the programme includes symphonic cycles, new compositions, innovative musical fusions, and the chance to relive a historic performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. 

The CBSO has also reaffirmed its commitment to presenting concerts for the people of Birmingham and the Midlands, as the orchestra’s chief executive, Emma Stenning, explains...

­­As well as celebrating new music and favourite composers, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s (CBSO) 2026/27 programme aims to bring the orchestra to both the people of Birmingham and the global stage. 

The programme includes, on Wednesday 11 November, a commemoration of Benjamin Britten, half a century after the composer’s death. And Emma Stenning, the CBSO’s chief executive, is suitably excited about the concert: “There was really only ever one piece that could mark this orchestra’s connection to one of our country’s most celebrated composers in the year that marks 50 years since his death: his War Requiem. [The work was] written for the consecration of the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral and premiered there by the CBSO in 1962, when the memories of war were still frighteningly real. 

“The Requiem is music that remains in the DNA of the orchestra, and on November the 11th - Remembrance Day - the CBSO will perform it once again at Coventry Cathedral. 

“It’s not a comfortable piece, but a timeless, intensely moving meditation on man's inhumanity to man. As resonant today as the day it was written, the immense work is both a reflection on war and a cry for peace. Performing it again, in the place where it was first heard, is in no way an act of nostalgia; it is music that still needs to be heard, as the world grows ever more troubled by conflict.

“The scale is extraordinary, calling on the full forces of the CBSO’s orchestra and chorus, along with a number of guest soloists. After Coventry, we visit Lucerne, Brussels and Luxembourg, with over 200 artists ‘on the road’. It’s Birmingham’s orchestra, creating an epic event here in the Midlands, before taking it to some of Europe’s finest concert halls.”

The tour has far-reaching implications, says Emma, both for the orchestra and the city it represents.

“It’s a reminder of something that we sometimes forget to say clearly enough: that big artistic statements do not only happen in London. This concert, at Coventry Cathedral on the 11th of November, is for and about the Midlands, its history and its people. A cultural moment with worldwide resonance, rooted entirely in place.

“That sense of rootedness runs through everything we are doing in our new 2026/27 season.”

The programme features many tantalising offerings, including beloved classics, ambitious projects, and a look to the future.

“We are in our third year with Kazuki Yamada as music director, and the relationship between him and the orchestra has become something very special indeed. Concert after concert, the connection deepens. To mark that, we are committing to two symphony cycles running in parallel - a full Beethoven cycle through 2027, and the next chapter of our ongoing Mahler series, with his symphonies opening and closing the season. It’s ambitious, and it also feels exactly right for us, right now. You discover a narrative by sitting with the complete work of a single composer - an evolution, a maturation - and Kazuki and this orchestra are ready for that kind of commitment.

“We are also celebrating contemporary music with the same energy. This season, we mark the 90th birthday of Steve Reich. And we have appointed a composer-in-residence, Anna Clyne, whose new work we will premiere. The CBSO performs the music being written today as naturally as it does the scores of Britten, Beethoven and Bach - and our players, who are extraordinary, thrive in the space to perform the full breadth of such repertoire.”

Part of the CBSO’s mission - in performing music to the people of Birmingham - is to reach audiences who otherwise might not have access to orchestral performances.

“Access is not an afterthought for us,” says Emma. “It is, in many ways, the point. CBSO In The City returns for its third year across the August Bank Holiday weekend - free music in parks, gardens, pubs, cafes and some more surprising locations across Birmingham, including reaching into communities with whom we have not yet connected. Our one-pound ticket offer continues: pick up a flyer at any CBSO In The City event and you can get into anything in the new season for a pound. We mean it when we say this music is for everyone.

“And so does our Community Board, which brings together faith leaders and community leaders from across the city. [The board] helps us understand Birmingham's extraordinary cultural complexity and hold us accountable to it. The result is programming that celebrates the city as it actually is. Our enduring partnership with the Orchestral Qawwali Project, led by Associate Artist Rushil Ranjan, draws on Sufi poetry and fills Symphony Hall with some of the most diverse audiences I have seen anywhere. We celebrate Bollywood music as a core part of who we are as a city. We use our rehearsal home on Berkley Street as a small performance venue for evenings curated by the Community Board - sitar players, tabla players, Sikh sacred music, Bangladeshi New Year.

“And for children who have never been near a live orchestra, there are Notelets concerts, with chamber music, storytelling and instruments to try, created and led by our own players. One of my favourite moments from last season was a chamber ensemble performing S Club 7 to a roomful of dancing school kids. This orchestra commits as much to this work as it does to Mahler, Beethoven and Britten, and that’s why I love it so much.”

Emma is confident that the new programme includes plenty of events for the orchestra’s local audiences to discover: “When I look at this season, I see an orchestra that knows who and what it’s for. It’s not for a particular kind of audience, or a particular kind of music. It’s for Birmingham and the Midlands, and it’s in demand across the world. It’s for the die-hard orchestral fans, but also for anyone who’s never been and thinks it’s not for them. It’s for the people who have been coming for decades, and for the six-year-old who picks up a triangle at the end of a Notelets concert and cannot put it down.

“In short, it’s for you - and we hope to see you at a concert soon!”

Visit cbso.co.uk for more information about the orchestra’s 2026-27 season 

By Jessica Clixby