Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is the largest cultural organisation in the South West, based at the Lighthouse, Poole. In 2024, over 144,000 people experienced its performances, either in person in the region’s towns, cities and isolated coastal communities, or online via their digital concerts. A further 47,000 engaged with BSO Participate, the orchestra’s award-winning outreach programme that takes pioneering music projects into schools, community groups, care homes and healthcare settings in over 200 locations across the region. Through this programme, BSO is committed to taking music to the heart of communities across the South and South West of England and particularly to coastal towns and rural communities that typically have less access to the arts.
The Foundation’s grant will supercharge our learning, participation and creative-health programme for three years: from schools’ concerts and mentoring for our young musicians, to a growing network of recovery and wellbeing orchestras. I’m especially delighted that, with the Foundation’s help, we can expand our work in hospitals into new counties, taking the healing power of music to the people who need it most.
The Trustees were impressed by the breadth of the orchestra’s outreach work and its efforts to diversify its income in anticipation of reduced statutory funding. The Trustees were delighted to support BSO Participate over three years, enabling the orchestra to plan with confidence for the future.