Mike graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 1961, and then spent a further two years studying composition and orchestration at the University of Wales. In 1963 Mike began teaching at Darlaston Grammar and Technical School (now Grace Academy), with the responsibility of setting up a …
BPO’s concerts in February 2020 celebrate the lives of recently departed members of our orchestra; Mike Syrett (Bassoon), Sue Peters (Bassoon), Richard Elliott (Tuba) and Tony Smith (Violin). Richard grew up with a passion and talent for music. He graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and followed …
BPO’s concerts in February 2020 celebrate the lives of recently departed members of our orchestra; Mike Syrett (Bassoon), Sue Peters (Bassoon), Richard Elliott (Tuba) and Tony Smith (Violin). Performing with us for over forty-five years, Sue will be remembered for her liveliness, sense of humour and enthusiasm, qualities reflected in the …
Das Rheingold is an incredibly innovative opera; characters changing into animals, Rhinemaidens swimming on stage, and dramatic scene changes are just some of the imaginative techniques used by Wagner. The instrumentation used by Wagner for the opera was also ground-breaking. Bass trumpet and contrabass trombone, seven harps and the incredible …
On Sunday 6th October, the BPO invites you to join us at an open rehearsal for our performance of Richard Wagner’s opera, Das Rheingold. The rehearsal is being held in the Elgar Concert Hall which is in the Bramall Music Building at the University of Birmingham and the doors will …
BPO’s performance of Das Rheingold on the 13th October in Symphony Hall will be unique in many ways. Never before has a non-professional orchestra performed this amazing work in one of the first concert halls in the country, Symphony Hall. Our cast has been hand picked by our musical director, …
The first performance of Das Rheingold was on 22nd September 1869 – exactly 150 years ago – at the National Theatre in Munich. All was not well in the run up to the first performance. Wagner’s primary financial supporter, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, was keen for a performance of …
The integration of mythological characters in dramatic present day settings has in part led to the incredible success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last ten years. Thor and Loki in particular are significantly influential in Marvel storylines as they have been from the early days of the Marvel …
“One Ring to rule them all….” There are many parallels between J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung. Both works centre around an all-powerful, but cursed, golden ring; dragons, hoards of gold and reforged swords also feature strongly in both works. During his …
2019 is the 150th anniversary of the first performance of Richard Wagner’s opera, Das Rheingold (22nd September 1869) – the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing the opera in a concert performance on 13th October 2019 in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. Tickets can be purchased from the Symphony Hall website or from BPO …
