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Of the five orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Company, the BBC Concert Orchestra is the most oriented toward light music, popular music, and jazz. The orchestra's name is somewhat inaccurate: although it does often perform live concerts, the group's most important tasks are connected to radio broadcasting.

The BBC Concert Orchestra grew out of the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and was later renamed the BBC Opera Orchestra. In 1952, that group was reorganized as the BBC Concert Orchestra. The following year, it became the house orchestra for the BBC program Friday Night is Music Night, which, as of the late 2010s, remained on the air as the world's longest-running radio program. The orchestra performed a variety of other light music on BBC programs, accompanied popular singers, sometimes teamed with the BBC Big Band, and at times performed operatic and symphonic works. For two decades, the group gave live concerts at London's Camden Theatre, moving to the Hippodrome in North London in 1972. The orchestra's first conductor was Gilbert Vinter. Subsequent conductors have included Charles Mackerras (1954-1956), Vilem Tausky (1956-1966), Marcus Dods (1966-1970), Ashley Lawrence (1970-1989), Barry Wordsworth (1989-2006), Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart (2010-2017, remaining as the principal guest conductor), Bramwell Tovey (2018-2022) and Anna-Maria Helsing (2023-). Early digital recordings of the group include four volumes of "Golden Cinema Classics," released on the Bainbridge Classics label in 1992.

Composers associated with the BBC Concert Orchestra have sometimes been associated with popular music spheres; they include Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, who became the orchestra's composer-in-association in 2004. The orchestra's other responsibilities have included recording jingles for BBC News programs. The BBC Concert Orchestra has a large catalog of recordings, many of them covering British light music, film music, and symphonic music that has not been recorded elsewhere. Many of their recordings have appeared on the Dutton Laboratories (which has issued a lengthy series of light music/easy listening recordings), Chandos, and Somm labels, among others. In 2019, the orchestra issued an album on Regent of music by its new composer-in-residence, Dobrinka Tabakova. Recent recordings have seen the orchestra moving further into serious repertory. In 2020, the group released a recording of Herbert Howells' Missa Sabrinensis on the Hyperion label and another of Britten's Saint Nicolas and A Ceremony of Carols on Signum Classics. By 2024, when the BBC Concert Orchestra released the album Dorothy Howell: Orchestral Works on Signum Classics, its recording catalog comprised at least 90 items. ~ James Manheim

The BBC Singers bill themselves as Britain's only full-time, fully professional choir. The ensemble was founded at the same time the British Broadcasting Corporation created its Symphony Orchestra for the same purpose: to be available for broadcast work of a wide range of musical repertory. Since the group's inception, the BBC Singers have excelled in the performance of works ranging from the Renaissance to the present day. They were featured on the recording Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen in 2024.

The BBC Singers were originally formed in 1924 as the Wireless Chorus under the direction of the BBC's first chorus master, Stanford Robinson. The ensemble's first broadcast was on September 28, 1924, in a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah. From 1929 until 1994, the group sang for the Daily Service broadcast. Other broadcasts included premieres of new choral music and revivals of great British music from the Renaissance through the age of Purcell. The choir has sung world premieres of such notable works as Britten's A Boy Was Born and Hymn to St. Cecilia, Poulenc's Figure humaine, Henze's Orpheus Behind the Wire, and Magnus Lindberg's Untitled, a piece thought to be too difficult to perform. Over the years, the ensemble assumed various sizes and names -- including the Wireless Singers, the Variety Chorus, and the BBC Chorus -- but in 1972, the name BBC Singers was affixed permanently.

The group has always had its own chief conductor. Following Robinson were Leslie Woodgate (1934-1961), Peter Gellhorn (1961-1972), John Poole (1972-1989), Stephen Cleobury (1995-2007), and David Hill (2007-2017). Under Cleobury, the Singers made numerous recordings, including the works of Charles Ives and Richard Strauss, and became the first choir to sing an a cappella selection as a part of one of the traditional Proms Concerts. The Singers began touring abroad in the 1940s, going as far as Japan and Mexico in the 2000s. While touring, the group has worked with distinguished conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Wilhelm Furtwängler. The choir is also heard at festivals in the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as special events, such as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Along with its chief conductors, the group has worked with guest conductors, including Stravinsky, Milhaud, Beecham, Bo Holten, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Pierre Boulez. In 2017, the BBC Singers announced the hiring of Sofi Jeannin as the ensemble's first female chief conductor. Jeannin began her tenure in 2018, and her contract was extended through 2026.

The BBC Singers have commissioned a large number of works by such composers as Britten, Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, and Iannis Xenakis, among many others. In 2002, the Singers named Edward Cowie as the ensemble's first associate composer. Cowie was followed by Judith Bingham -- a former member of the Singers -- (2004-2010), Gabriel Jackson (2010-2013), Judith Weir (2015-2022), and Roderick Williams (2022-).

The BBC Singers' distinguished recordings have appeared on the Signum, Naxos, and Chandos labels, among others. In 2019, the Singers can be heard on G.F. Handel: Messiah on Resonus, as well as Enrique Granados' opera Goyescas on Harmonia Mundi. While continuing a rigorous recording output and performing schedule into the 2020s, the future of the BBC Singers was put into doubt suddenly in early 2023 when the BBC announced the group's dissolution, citing a new direction for their classical entities. Following immediate and vigorous backlash, the BBC rescinded its decision and partnered the Singers with the Voces8 Foundation to financially support the group's efforts. In 2024, the BBC Singers were heard on recordings of the orchestral songs by Charles Villiers Stanford and Discovering Imogen, a program of works by Imogen Holst. ~ Patsy Morita & Keith Finke

Alice Farnham is one of Britain's leading female conductors. She has a long résumé of appearances as a guest conductor with leading opera companies and orchestras, and she has served as artistic director for productions at the Welsh National Youth Opera. Farnham has devised programs designed to encourage women in the conducting profession, and she is the author of a book about the training of modern conductors. In 2024, Farnham made her debut on the NMC label with the album Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen.

Farnham was born in Cromer in England's Norfolk region in the early 1970s; a 2023 article in London's Daily Mail gave her age as 52. Both her parents were interested in music; her father was a clergyman who played flute and guitar. Farnham took up the trumpet at age nine and piano at 11. She began her career as a keyboardist, earning an organ scholarship at St. Hugh's College at Oxford University. She held an organ fellowship at St. Thomas' Church on Fifth Avenue in New York. Switching to conducting, she moved to Russia for studies with Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Back in England, Farnham began a two-decade career as a regular guest conductor at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

She has also made guest conducting appearances with opera companies and orchestras all over Britain, Europe, and North America, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Malmö Opera in Sweden, the Calgary Opera in Canada, and the BBC Concert Orchestra. With the latter group, Farnham made her recording debut in 2024, releasing the album Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen on the NMC label. Farnham is especially noted for her educational activities. She has led some 500 workshops for women conductors and has served as co-founder and artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Women Conductors program and of a similar Female Conductor Program at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Farnham is the author of In Good Hands: The Making of a Modern Conductor, published in Britain by Faber & Faber in 2023. ~ James Manheim