CHINEKE! CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

“Chineke! is not only an exciting idea but a profoundly necessary one,” says Sir Simon Rattle in talking about Europe’s first orchestra to feature a majority of black and minority ethnic musicians. “It’s the kind of idea which will deepen and enrich classical music in the UK for generations. What a thrilling prospect!”
Chineke! here play Wynton Marsalis' A Fiddler’s Tale, a modern reinterpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 masterpiece, A Soldier's Story. 
Matthew Lynch (pictured), conducts.

Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Wednesday 4 June

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BBC PHILHARMONIC: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA 

Residing at the Corporation's Manchester home of Media City in Salford Quays, the BBC Philharmonic visits the Potteries this month to celebrate the centenary of Stoke-on-Trent becoming a city. Billed as an event featuring ‘many of your favourite opera songs and arias’, the concert includes contributions from Elizabeth Watts (soprano - pictured), Ilker Arcayürek (tenor) and James Atkinson (baritone).
Jonathan Bloxham is the conductor. 

Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Friday 6 June 

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EX CATHEDRA: MUSIC FOR A SUMMER'S EVENING

Steven Grahl picks up the baton to conduct Birmingham’s highly rated early music ensemble - on this occasion in a concert that Ex Cathedra confidently predict will see audience members heading for home singing of summer. The programmes for these annual get-togethers - presented by candlelight as dusk falls - bring together madrigals, part-songs, close harmony, and readings from across the ages. 
The Shrewsbury concert is being advertised by Shropshire Music Trust under the title Summer Music By Candlelight. 

St Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury, Friday 6 June; St Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, Saturday 7 June; St Mary’s Church, Moseley, Birmingham, Tuesday 17 June

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THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM CHOIR

The ever-impressive City of Birmingham Choir make a welcome return to the limelight, this time to perform a concert entitled From The Sublime To The Ridiculous. Described as ‘a joyful riot of song, old and new’, the programme features John Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals, George Shearing’s Music To Hear settings of Shakespeare, Elgar part-songs and Richard Rodney Bennett’s Nonsense, all presented alongside a selection of madrigals from the 16th century onwards. 

Elgar Concert Hall, University of Birmingham, Saturday 7 June 

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CBSO: FAMILY CONCERT: SPORTS DAY!

The mind boggles in terms of the finer details of this City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra ‘sports day’ event... ...Will the family-friendly get-together see audience members engaging in egg-and-spoon racing? Might hopping around Symphony Hall in sacks be the order of the day? 

Who can say? But what we definitely do know is that it’s going to be an interactive experience - and one in which ‘everybody is able to join in the fun’.

The CBSO has selected a programme of music which they’re confident will be as bold, fast, and full of energy as the ultimate race day. Indeed, ‘from the unstoppable drive of Beethoven and Shostakovich, to the playful rhythms of Valerie Coleman and the sweeping melodies of Brahms, every piece is packed with excitement’.

Jack Lovell-Huckle (pictured) conducts.

Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Sunday 8 June

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NATIONAL OPEN YOUTH ORCHESTRA: RING OUT!

 

Publicity for this concert makes it clear what audiences can expect: ‘Sixteen brilliant young disabled and non-disabled musicians invite you into a musical universe without barriers, performing beautiful new pieces commissioned for the orchestra’s thrilling mix of acoustic and electronic instruments.’ 

The concert programme will see the orchestra performing two new commissions - including piano concerto Ring Out! by British Composer Award winner Liam Taylor-West. It also features, alongside other works, a composition titled Barriers, written by past orchestra member Oliver Cross in ‘heartfelt tribute to lost friends and fellow disabled musicians’. 

Birmingham Town Hall, Sunday 8 June

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SPIRES PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & ORCHESTRA

“We are acoustic adventurers,” explain Spires Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, a community of ambitious musicmakers from Coventry. “We seek out unheard gems and then programme them alongside classics we know and love, crafting concerts that are not only outstanding to listen to but that we love to perform, too.”
The choir and pro/am orchestra’s latest outing sees them celebrating their 20th anniversary with a tribute to founder Colin Touchin, who passed away in 2022.  
Music includes Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and two works by Brahms: Academic Festival Overture and Song Of Destiny. Frankfurt’s Lithuansa Singing Voices offer support; Jack Lovel-Huckle (pictured) conducts. 

Coventry Central Hall, Saturday14 June

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WORCESTER PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

An amateur community orchestra made up of more than 50 playing members, the Worcester Philharmonic presents a varied classical repertoire, as well as film scores and stage music. Their mid-month summer concert features, among other works, performances of Ethel Smyth’s Overture from The Wreckers, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song Suite and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Petite Suite de Concert.

Pershore Abbey, Saturday 14 June

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ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN: INTERSTELLAR

Midlands born & bred Wolf Hall and Game Of Thrones actor Anton Lesser once again teams up with Orchestra Of The Swan, on this occasion for their fourth and final concert of the season at Warwick Hall. 

Anton takes the role of narrator for an event which features performances of Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar, John Luther Adams’ Canticles Of The Sky (Sky With Four Suns), and Gustav Holst’s Planets suite, presented alongside stunning images captured by the Hubble space telescope. 

Numerous readings about the cosmos, ‘from the Bible, Ptolemy and Galileo, through to Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong and Stephen Hawking’ also feature. 

Warwick Hall, Warwick, Thursday 19 June

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KAZUKI YAMADA & RBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s music director, Kazuki Yamada (pictured), here helps bring the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) Symphony Orchestra’s concert season to a close by guest conducting a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s ever-popular Eighth Symphony and Tōru Takemitsu’s Signals From Heaven. 

The rest of the concert sees Daniele Rosina taking the baton for performances of Serenade To Music - by Ralph Vaughan Williams - and A Symphonic Synthesis -  from Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov, transcribed by Leopold Stokowski.   

Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Friday 20 June

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ARMONICO CONSORT: RACHMANINOV VESPERS

Founded in 2001 by organist & conductor Christopher Monks - and using authentic period instruments - Warwick-based baroque consort Armonico here turn their talents to the task of performing Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vespers. Composed and premiered in 1915, the work is based around the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, Saturday 21 June; Malvern Theatres, Tuesday 8 July 

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UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Sir Karl Jenkins’ best-known work, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace, has been performed over 3,000 times in countries across the world.
Little wonder, then, that the University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra have chosen the piece for their end-of-year concert... 
In what promises to be a memorable afternoon of musicmaking, the orchestra will also be performing Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919). 
The programme is completed by Sergei Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto, here performed by the university’s 2023 student Concerto Competition winner Max Li.

Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Sunday 22 June

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LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL CHAMBER CHOIR

If you’ve never enjoyed the pleasure of a Lichfield Cathedral Chamber Choir concert, then why not make June the month that you break your duck? With 40-plus years of musicmaking behind them, the 30-plus-member choir is directed by Martyn Rawles, the organist and assistant director of music at the cathedral. The choir’s repertoire covers a broad spectrum, from early music through to more contemporary composers. This latest concert, taking the title O Sing Joyfully, features a programme of sacred music inspired by the cathedral’s currently showing exhibition, Book Of Books. 

Lichfield Cathedral, Sunday 22 June

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NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra here marks the 100th anniversary of Stoke-on-Trent being granted city status. 
The programme for the evening features works by six composers, including Delius’ North Country Sketches, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto, Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations and William Walton’s Spitfire Prelude and Fugue. 
Stoke-on-Trent Centenary Laureate Nick Degg also contributes with his critically acclaimed poem I Come From A Town.

King’s Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Saturday 28 June 

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TELFORD ORCHESTRA

Telford Orchestra has been making music for more than 160 years, during which time it’s had a number of name changes and experienced wildly fluctuating fortunes in terms of its size - at one stage, it numbered just five people! Thankfully, it is nowadays in far more robust health, boasting between 40 and 50 players at most of its concerts. The latest of these finds the orchestra presenting ‘music for a summer’s evening’. The programme features compositions by, among others, Strauss, Smetana, Rossini and Delius.

Anstice Hall, Madeley, Telford, Saturday 28 June

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MIDLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Bringing together teachers, students, young professionals and recent Royal Birmingham Conservatoire alumni, the well-regarded Midland Chamber Orchestra perform a repertoire which mainly consists of classical, baroque, and early romantic music. Their lunchtime concert at St Mary’s Church late this month sees them presenting a programme featuring Mozart’s 'Jupiter' Symphony, Haydn’s Overture to L'Isola Disabitata, and Rosetti’s Concerto for Two Horns in E flat. 

St Mary’s Church, Moseley, Sunday 29 June