About the orchestra

The BMCO is a well-established ensemble, having recently celebrated its 30th Birthday. We are an amateur symphony orchestra of about 60 players who rehearse fortnightly on a Tuesday evening at the Bristol Music Club, hence our name.

We give three concerts each year in St George's Bristol, in mid-October, early March and at the beginning of July. Our concert venue is a prestigious one in the centre of Bristol. There, the Orchestra has the opportunity of performing with superb acoustics in a beautiful setting.

We are fortunate to have both an excellent Conductor and Leader. We rehearse and perform a wide variety of music. To give some idea of the diversity, we have recently performed, with excellent reviews, Britten's 4 Sea Interludes (July 2007), Mahler's 1st symphony (Winter 2006), Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra' (Summer 2005), and Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony (Spring 2004).

Our 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."