Profiles

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group was formed in 1987 from within the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and is established as one of Europe’s leading ensembles. Sir Simon Rattle is our Founding Patron and we have composers Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich as Artists-in-Association. 

Internationally acclaimed and a proud ambassador for Birmingham, the core of our work is the commissioning and performance of new music. We have premiered over 140 new works by leading international composers, giving more than 550 performances of those pieces. Most have been commissioned with the help of a large number of individuals through our ground-breaking Sound Investment scheme (see page 11 for more details).

We are passionate about engaging the widest possible range of people with our work and run extensive learning and audience-building programmes. As well as Family & Schools’ Concerts, these include projects with young people in and out of school, with adults in a range of community settings and free performance projects such as our Urban Tours in outer districts of Birmingham (Learning programme information on page 10). BCMG broadcasts often on BBC Radio, has made TV programmes for BBC and Independent Television, and CD recordings for EMI, Cantaloupe and NMC.