About the orchestra

The BMCO is a well-established, amateur symphony orchestra that has been rehearsing and performing concerts for more than 30 years. For the most part, it rehearses fortnightly on a Tuesday evening at the Bristol Music Club.

The Orchestra gives three concerts each year in St George's Bristol, in mid-November, early March and at the beginning of July. The concert venue is a prestigious one in the centre of Bristol, benefitting from a beautiful setting and superb acoustics. .

To give some idea of the diversity of the works that are rehearsed, the Orchestra has more recently performed, with excellent reviews, Brahms' 2nd symphony (March 2009), Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony (March 2008), Britten's 4 Sea Interludes (July 2007), Mahler's 1st symphony (Winter 2006), and Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra' (Summer 2005).

The concert in July 2007 included a specially commissioned work, 'Luna Nueva', written by local composer and classical guitarist Hayley Savage. The critic from the Bristol Evening Post gave the concert a rating of 4 stars out of 5, the best that the Orchestra has ever attained and commented: -

"Elgar's Enigma Variations are a challenge to any amateur orchestra and this heartfelt performance, under the expert guidance of the excellent William Goodchild, was awe-inspiring."

The Bristol Evening Post rated the BMCO's recent concert 7/10 with the following remark -

"....the orchestra came into their own with their presentation of Brahms’ Symphony No 2 in D.

They responded readily and fully to every request from conductor William Goodchild, passing on to the audience their love of the symphony. The work built steadily from the opening bars to a third movement that tripped along freely and merrily and on to a robust triumphant finale."