BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

19/06/2026

Meet the composer of Rainbow Promise! 🌈🎺

On 22 July at Glasgow City Halls, Symphonic Pride features a BBC Radio 3 commission by Elena Kats-Chernin, written for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and premiered last year with conductor Alpesh Chauhan.

The music was part of '25 for 25: Sounds of the Century', marking significant events that have defined the first quarter of the 21st century through music. Rainbow Promise marks 2013 and the passing of the Marriage (Same S*x Couple) Act.

The composer's aim was "to create a piece of pure celebration and joy, with an occasional dark chord to have a glimpse of a memory of the struggle that went to getting to this point."

Built around four themes, the piece opens with a trumpet fanfare and builds to a horn solo quoting Mendelssohn's famous Wedding March!

Jessica Cottis conducts Rainbow Promise at Symphonic Pride, alongside music ranging from Tchaikovsky to Chappell Roan.

Can't wait till then? Listen to Rainbow Promise now on BBC Sounds

18/06/2026

Right at the heart of the action... literally! 🎻 We're looking for a Section Principal Viola to join the BBC SSO, performing across Scotland, at the BBC Proms in London, and on stages around the world. Could it be you?

Apply via Musicalchairs.

16/06/2026

"The manager of this theatre has been instructed, at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theatre any persons after the picture starts."

On this day in 1960, those were the words of director Alfred Hitchcock that warned audiences at the New York premiere of Psycho. Audiences were forbidden from entering after the film had begun, secrecy surrounded its shocking twists, and cinema would never be the same again.

66 years on, Hitchcock's masterpiece continues to terrify. Experience it on Halloween weekend as conductor Ben Palmer and the BBC SSO perform Bernard Herrmann's iconic score live in sync with the film!

Sun 1 Nov, 7.30pm
Glasgow City Halls

🎟️ From £22.00 | Under 26s & Students, Half Price
🎞️ 15, contains strong violence

14/06/2026

Our third night at Aldeburgh Festival! ✨

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts 'All These Lighted Things', a work inspired by the poetry of Thomas Merton, which composer Elizabeth Ogonek describes as expressing an "overwhelming... happiness and joy."

We're also delighted to welcome back pianist Steven Osborne for the piano concertos of Ravel (G Major) and Ryan Wigglesworth.

Steven recently spoke to BBC Radio 3's In Tune about tonight's performance at Snape Maltings, and about the Scottish premiere of Wigglesworth's concerto with the BBC SSO in 2023, described by Vox Carnyx as a "breathtaking experience".

Tonight's concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 on 22 June, 7.30pm

13/06/2026

🌟 Three rising stars. Three remarkable performances alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra!

Last month, Finn Mannion (24) from Crieff was crowned BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Classical Musician 2026, after mesmerising the audience and judges with the first movement of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto

Finn was joined by pianist Anastasia-Maria Barbu (22), who played variations from Rachmaninov's 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Alasdair Cottee (18), who played Vaughan Williams's Oboe Concerto

🎧 Relive every inspiring moment of the competition, presented by Judith Ralston, now on BBC Sounds

12/06/2026

The unstoppable spirit of Ayanna Witter-Johnson 🎶

A song about breaking free, reclaiming your power, and rising together

Jazz, classical and Caribbean rhythms woven together in perfect harmony, arranged by Katie Chatburn and conducted by Enyi Okpara

Catch highlights from our April concert at SWG3, alongside Scottish jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie. Tonight on BBC Radio 3's 'Round Midnight' from 11.30pm

11/06/2026

"I don't know many composers for whom [Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande] is not their favourite opera… it has this multidimensional effect, like looking at a crystal" says Ryan Wigglesworth in The Guardian.

After narrating Prokofiev's ‘Peter and the Wolf’ earlier this season in Glasgow, we're delighted to reunite with award-winning actor Rory Kinnear (star of James Bond, The Diplomat, Bank of Dave) at the 2026 Aldeburgh Festival this week, alongside Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

In a recent Financial Times interview, Kinnear reflects that "in spending time with this work, I have discovered Debussy's shimmering effects are also the opera's ache: any minute its light can be engulfed by the dark waves on which it plays. It reminds me of Macbeth, where Shakespeare's most exquisitely sublime poetry bewitches us into destruction."

Kinnear directs ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ on 12 & 13 June and returns on 15 June to narrate Britten's ‘Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra’ for a performance welcoming local schools and communities alongside the public.

Photo credit: Craig Fuller

10/06/2026

✨ Meet conductor Jessica Cottis! ✨ “I’m so excited to be on the BBC SSO podium for this uplifting celebration of identity and belonging, and to be back in the city where I began my conducting career and first worked with this trailblazing orchestra.

Our programme brings together familiar music heard afresh alongside powerful new compositions, each with its own inspiring story of resilience and celebration. It’s going to be bold, vibrant and impossible not to enjoy!”

🎶 From the electrifying energy of Bernstein to the sweeping romanticism of Tchaikovsky, and even a 'Pink Pony Club' moment of unrestrained joy, Symphonic Pride is a ride through big feelings, bigger personalities, and unapologetically expressive music.

Composer Elena Kats-Chernin captures "pure celebration and joy" in her BBC Radio 3 commission that reflects on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the UK, and there's music from Poulenc that was originally commissioned to mark the first anniversary of the BBC's Third Programme (now Radio 3). Plus, Jennifer Higdon's ‘blue cathedral’ offers a soaring meditation on potential and journeys.

09/06/2026

Waltzing our way into a new week of rehearsals... and our residency at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk!

We're heading to the beautiful setting of Snape Maltings for several concerts with Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, a featured artist at this year's festival.

Ravel's La Valse, Wigglesworth's own Piano Concerto with soloist Steven Osborne and music by Elizabeth Ogonek will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 In Concert on 22 June.

Ahead of that, catch Ryan's recent conversation with Tom Service on 'Saturday morning'. Available now on BBC Sounds!

08/06/2026