| Biography | The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra was formed by Herbert Menges in May 1925 as the Symphonic String Players to become a large and powerful String Orchestra, and to give periodical concerts of a high standard in Brighton and Hove.
By 1928 they had already moved into the Brighton Dome and become the fully orchestral Symphonic Players. Menges remained as Principal Conductor and in 1932 Sir Thomas Beecham was appointed as the orchestras first President (a position later held by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten).
In recent seasons the orchestra has been working through the Brahms Symphonies. In 2012 the orchestra celebrated Trafalgar Day with a performance of Haydns Nelson Mass, joining forces with the Brighton Festival Chorus. In the same season the orchestra gave one of the first performances of Moerans Symphony no. 2, recently reconstructed by Martin Yates who conducted the performance.
Last seasons young soloist from the Yehudi Menuhin School, William Dutton, won the string section of BBCs Young Musician 2014.
2014 marks the 90th anniversary of the orchestra and to celebrate the occasion the concert on 2nd November includes Schuberts Marche Militaire, which was performed at the very first concert conducted by Herbert Menges in 1925.
Ten years later the Brighton Dome closed for refurbishment and the BPO returned temporarily to Hove Town Hall, and gave a series of Mozart Piano Concerto concerts in the Theatre Royal Brighton with its current President, John Lill. In 2002 the Dome re-opened, since which time more than 93,000 tickets have been sold for the BPOs concerts in its home venue.
The orchestra itself is best described as an all star line up. That is all the musicians on stage play regularly for other premiere orchestras in London and across the UK and we are fortunate to capture their skills, interest and love of the repertoire for our series of Sunday concerts. We share players with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Mozart Players, Britten Sinfonia, English String Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras and the orchestras of the Royal Opera House and English National Opera |