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This autumn sees Listen Up! Festival of Orchestras 2006 unleash the talent, diversity and vibrancy of Britain's professional and amateur players in shopping malls, schools, hospitals, and living rooms across the land – as well as in concert halls and on radio.
Listen Up! 2006 will put orchestras centre-stage in a five-week programme of broadcasts, live concerts and educational events, beginning with a live broadcast of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from London's Barbican Hall to celebrate BBC Radio 3's 60th anniversary on 29 September 2006.
Highlights of the festival
Twenty-two living British composers will have their works broadcast on Radio 3.
A key theme of this year's festival will be to showcase the UK's rich treasury of dynamic and diverse – yet still relatively unknown – contemporary British composers.
Performances will include six world premieres by Sally Beamish, Jonathan Dove, Deidre Gribbin, Michael Omer, Joby Talbot and Judith Weir.
Throughout the Listen Up! 2006 season, orchestras will experiment with ways to attract new audiences. Concert innovations will include live video-mixing, large screen projections and audience participation. There will also be chances to see orchestras at work through an Open Rehearsal initiative that starts with London's major orchestras the weekend before the festival.
Due to popular demand, Listen Up! 2006 features an expanded Musicians on Call scheme, where members of the public will be able to phone in to nominate a friend, neighbour or relative, who is unable to attend a concert, for a performance in their own home.
For 36 consecutive nights, Radio 3 will broadcast concerts featuring over 30 British orchestras. For the first time ever, two nights will be dedicated to performances by amateur orchestras and choirs, in recognition of the vital contribution of amateur music-making to the UK's creative life.
Education and outreach form an increasingly significant component of a modern orchestra's work and Listen Up! 2006 will highlight exciting projects being developed with young people, including eight collaborations developed with Listen Up! 2006's associate partner, Creative Partnerships.
Roger Wright, Controller, Radio 3, says: "Live music is a distinctive part of BBC Radio 3's unique output and orchestral concerts are a vital part of the rich musical life of the UK.
"After the success of the first Listen Up! I am delighted that this year's festival has such a strong British music focus and will play a magnificent role in celebrating Radio 3's 60th birthday."
For more information visit www.bbc.co.uk |
