The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

based in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (

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), it is the oldest full-time professional radio orchestra in Scotland. The orchestra is based at City Halls in Glasgow.

History

The BBC opened its Edinburgh studio in 1930, and decided to form its own full-time Scottish orchestra to complement BBC orchestras already established in London, Manchester and Wales. The BBC Scottish Orchestra was established as Scotland's first full-time orchestra on 1 December 1935 by the BBC's first head of music in Scotland, composer and conductor Ian Whyte. In 1938, the orchestra moved into its purpose built home at Studio One, in the newly opened Glasgow Studios, at Broadcasting House in Queen Margaret Drive. The newly formed Scottish Variety Orchestra (which became the

BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra The BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra (SRO) was a light music broadcasting orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1940 until disbandment in 1981. History Established by the BBC in 1940 as the S ...

in 1967) occupied Studio Two. As one of the BBC's many ensembles, the orchestra led a busy though sheltered life, broadcasting live at least five times a week from its studio and only occasionally allowed out. Throughout the war, the orchestra fulfilled 30 hours of broadcasts per week on the BBC Home and World Services. This meant live performances at any time of day or night, often broadcasting live to Latin America at half past one in the morning. By the end of the war, during which the orchestra had been expanded in numbers, Whyte had brought it to a standard considered good enough for the newly established

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

, at which the orchestra has appeared regularly since 1948. Through the 1950s and 1960s, live studio broadcasting still dominated the orchestra's schedule, and there was little time in its schedule for public performances. This situation changed after

Norman Del Mar Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. H ...

's advent as Principal Conductor in 1960. He led the BBC Scottish Orchestra's first visit to The Proms in 1962, and through his efforts the orchestra was further expanded, which led to a change of its title to the "BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra" the following year. Del Mar's earliest projects included the UK premiere of Stockhausen's '' Gruppen'', performed jointly in Glasgow with the Scottish National Orchestra, and it was his interest in contemporary music that laid the foundation for the BBC SSO's long-standing commitment to new work. The BBC SSO has continued to perform the work of Scottish composers in Scotland and at The Proms, such as the 1990 Premiere of James MacMillan's ''

The Confession of Isobel Gowdie ''The Confession of Isobel Gowdie'' is a work for large symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. It is, according to the composer, a Requiem for one Isobel Gowdie, supposedly burnt as a witch in post-Reformation Scotland. Desp ...

''. The last twenty years has seen the gradual emergence of the BBC SSO as a fully fledged 'public' orchestra, with foreign touring, commercial recordings and concerts all over the world consolidating its position as one of the cornerstones of Scottish musical life. The BBC SSO appears annually in such festivals as the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh International Festival, the

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...

and the

St Magnus Festival The St Magnus International Festival is an annual, week-long arts festival which takes place at midsummer on the islands of Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland. History and management The festival was founded in 1977 by a group inc ...

in Orkney. At the beginning of January 2006, the BBC SSO moved from Broadcasting House, Glasgow to the fully refurbished City Halls in Glasgow. From 2003 to 2009, the orchestra's Chief Conductor was

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i-born

Ilan Volkov Ilan Volkov ( he, אילן וולקוב; born September 8, 1976, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli orchestral conductor. Biography Volkov's father, Alexander Volkov, was a concert pianist. He studied with the conductor Mendi Rodan at the Rubin Academy in ...

, the youngest-ever chief conductor of any BBC orchestra. In October 2007, the orchestra announced the appointment of Edinburgh born

Donald Runnicles Sir Donald Cameron Runnicles OBE HonFRSE (born 16 November 1954, Edinburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish conductor. Life and career The son of William Runnicles, a director of a furniture supply company and a choirmaster and organist, and Christine ...

as its Chief Conductor in September 2009. Volkov took the title of principal guest conductor BBC SSO as of the 2009–2010 season, in parallel with the advent of Runnicles as chief conductor. In September 2011, the BBC SSO announced the extension of Runnicles' contract as chief conductor through 2015. In October 2014, the BBC SSO reported the scheduled conclusion of Runnicles' tenure as chief conductor in September 2016, at which time he took the title of conductor emeritus with the orchestra. In March 2015, the orchestra announced the appointment of

Thomas Dausgaard Thomas Dausgaard (; born 4 July 1963 in Copenhagen) is a Danish conductor. Biography Dausgaard studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen and with Norman Del Mar at the Royal College of Music in London. He subsequently partici ...

as its 11th chief conductor, effective with the 2016–2017 season. In January 2018, the BBC SSO announced the extension of Dausgaard's contract as chief conductor through the 2021–2022 season. Dausgaard concluded his chief conductorship of the BBC SSO at the close of the 2021-2022 season. In February 2022, the BBC SSO announced the appointment of

Ryan Wigglesworth Ryan Wigglesworth (born 31 August 1979, Yorkshire) is a British composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Wigglesworth read music at Oxford University, where he held the position of Organ Scholar at New College, and continued his music studies ...

as its next chief conductor, effective September 2022. The Royal Philharmonic Society presented the BBC SSO with its award for Best Orchestra in 2002, and its then-chief conductor Ilan Volkov with the prize for Best Young Artist in 2004. In March 2014, the orchestra made its first trip to India, covering the cities of Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Chief Conductors and Principal Conductors

* Guy Warrack (1935–1946) * Ian Whyte (1946–1960) *

(1960–1965) * James Loughran (1965–1971) *

Christopher Seaman Christopher Seaman (born 7 March 1942, Faversham) is a British conductor. Early life Seaman was born to Albert Edward Seaman and Ethel Margery Seaman. He was educated at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School and The King's School, Canterbury, an ...

(1971–1977) * Karl Anton Rickenbacher (1978–1980) * Jerzy Maksymiuk (1983–1993) * Osmo Vänskä (1996–2002) *

(2003–2009) *

(2009–2016) *

(2016–2022) *

(2022–present)

Chief Guest Conductors and Principal Guest Conductors

* Sir Charles Groves (1981–1983) * Vernon Handley (1983–1985) * George Hurst (1986–1989) * Takuo Yuasa (1989–1992) * Ilan Volkov (2009–present)

Associate Principal Conductors

* Martyn Brabbins (1996–2005)

Associate Guest Conductors

* Stefan Solyom (2006–2009) * Andrew Manze (2010–2014) * John Wilson (2016–present)

Assistant & Associate Conductors

* Robert Irving (1946–1948) * Harry Platts (1948–1949) * John Hopkins (1949–1951) * Alexander Gibson (1952–1954) * Gerald Gentry (1954–1956) *

Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...

(1957–1959) * Bryden Thomson (1959–1960) * James Lockhart (1960–1962) * Bernard Keeffe (1962–1964) * Graham Treacher (1964–1967) * Christopher Seaman (1968–1970) * Andrew Davis (1970–1972) * Christopher Adey (1973–1976) *

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

(1977–1980) * Nicholas Kraemer (1983–1985) * Christopher Bell (1989–1991) * Martyn Brabbins (1992–1996)

Affiliated composers

* Tan Dun (Associate Composer/Conductor, 1994–1998) * Stuart MacRae (Composer in Association, 1999–2003) *

Anna Meredith Anna Howard Meredith (born 12 January 1978) is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Si ...

(Composer in Residence, 2004–2006) * Jonathan Harvey (Composer-in-Association, 2005–2007) * Matthias Pintscher (Artist-in-Association, 2010–2018)

Recordings

As well as its regular live broadcasts and recordings for the BBC, and recordings for BBC Music Magazine, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has recorded 98 commercial CDs for labels including BIS, NMC and Hyperion, with whom it has a long association. The orchestra has gathered 4 Gramophone Awards and a Grammy nomination for its commercial recordings. * Jonathan Harvey: ''Body Mandala'' - Anu Komsi (soprano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor). Label: NMC *''English Orchestral Songs'' – Christopher Maltman (baritone), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor),

Adrian Adlam Adrian Adlam (born 24 December 1963) is a British violinist, conductor and music educator. He was educated at Westminster Abbey, Winchester College, Conservatoire Royale de Musique of Brussels and the Hochschule fur Musik, Hanover. Adlam has ...

(

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

). Label: Hyperion.

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1935 establishments in Scotland Arts in Scotland Scottish Symphony Orchestra BBC Scotland British symphony orchestras Culture in Edinburgh Music in Glasgow Musical groups established in 1935 Organisations based in Edinburgh Organisations based in Glasgow Radio and television orchestras Scottish orchestras Decca Records artists RCA Records artists Sony Classical Records artists