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Orchestra backs City of Culture bid through people's musical memories

Subscribe to RSS RSSThursday, 13th May, 2010

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) will be performing the region's favourite pieces of music in a special concert that backs Birmingham's current bid to be the UK's City of Culture in 2013. As part of this, CBSO is asking people to share their musical memories.

You Call the Tunes concert takes place at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on Friday 21 May, the day the city submits its final UK City of Culture bid. Appropriately, the concert focuses on the music the Midlands' public have voted through an on-line poll to hear.

The unique performance will include:

Holst: The Planets - Mars and Jupiter

Grieg: Peer Gynt - Morning and In the Hall of the Mountain King

Verdi: Rigoletto - La Donna e mobile

Bizet: Carmen - Les Toreadors

Pachelbel: Canon in D

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Rossini: The Barber of Seville - Largo al Factotum

Puccini: Turandot - Nessun Dorma

Bizet: The Pearlfishers - Au fond du temple saint

Ravel: Bolero

Stephen Maddock, Chief Executive of CBSO, said: "We received an overwhelming response to our call for people to vote for their favourite classical music, and now we want to hear from as many people as possible about the stories which connect individuals to these pieces of music, essentially what this music means to them.

This is the final day of cultural celebrations and for us it's an honour to be performing the tunes that Midlanders have told us they want to hear. We all need to show our support for Birmingham's bid in order to win this coveted title. We hope that if Midlands' music lovers really get behind this and tell us why they love these pieces of music, it will go a long way to showing why Birmingham deserves to be the next City of Culture."

Tell us why these tunes have made a musical impact on your life by visiting www.cbso.co.uk/mytune. All stories will be entered into a competition to win a pair of tickets to a CBSO concert.

Tickets for the concert on Friday 21 May, presented by Classic FM's Simon Bates, are £9.50-£39.50. To book, call Symphony Hall Box Office on 0121 780 3333, or visit www.cbso.co.uk/mytune.