BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor Mark Wigglesworth will be conducting 22 performances across the new 2025-26 season, which takes the region’s major orchestra to venues in major towns and smaller centres including Bristol, Exeter, Sherborne and Taunton, as well as its home at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, where the season opens on Wednesday 1st October.

Highlights of the programme include the appointment of the celebrated baritone Roderick Williams as the BSO’s artist in residence, with four appearances across the season, and 15 performances featuring the orchestra’s partner composer, Dani Howard. The star saxophonist Jess Gillam will give the UK premiere of Howard’s saxophone concerto at Poole and at Bristol’s Beacon centre.

As well as Wigglesworth’s regular appearances, BSO audiences around the region can look forward to the charismatic Conductor Laureate Kirill Karabits marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich, principal guest conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède conducting works by Lili Boulanger, Dvořák, Saint-Saens and Poulenc, and associate guest conductor David Hill conducting Duruflé’s Requiem.

Calleva Assistant Conductor Enyi Okpara’s second year includes a main season concert of Bax, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams, plus a series of symphonic Schools’ Concerts, and a tour with BSO Resound to Bristol, Dorset and Hampshire.

The BSO extends its support for seven regular Community and Wellbeing Orchestras in Bodmin, Boscombe, Bristol, Chard, Exeter, Southampton and Wincanton, following successful pilots in recent seasons. The programme with Arts in Hospital at Dorset County Hospital is being extended to Dorset HealthCare sites across the county. Plymouth’s Theatre Royal is a new venue this year.

If you can’t get to a concert at one of the major venues, you can always enjoy the BSO on-line – the orchestra broadcasts 19 live-streamed digital concerts from Poole. And there are plenty of smaller local events with the BSO On Your Doorstep concerts continue, which take music into rural and isolated communities, in Dorset and further across the region.

And it’s not all serious – BSO Pops has become a major part of the orchestra’s work. The new season has 28 orchestral performances spanning film music favourites John Williams and Hans Zimmer and symphonic specials of music by ELO, Led Zeppelin and more.

Main season debuts include: conductors David Bates, Ludovic Morlot, Anna Rakitina; cellists Julian Steckel, Hugo Svedberg; guitarist Plínio Fernandes; organist Anna Lapwood; pianists Alim Beisembayev, Alexandre Tharaud; saxophonist Jess Gillam; singers Claudia Boyle, Anna Dennis, Bethany Horak-Hallet, Anita Monserrat, Joshua Stewart, William Thomas, Talis Trevigne; viola player Timothy Ridout; violinist Stephen Waarts

Returning guests include: conductors Tom Fetherstonhaugh, Thierry Fischer, Marta Gardolińska, Sunwook Kim, Gergely Madaras, Karl-Heinz Steffens; cellists Johannes Moser, Daniel Müller-Schott; pianists Yulianna Avdeeva, Martin James Bartlett, Elisabeth Brauß, Boris Giltburg, Sir Stephen Hough, Vadym Kholodenko, Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne, Cédric Tiberghien; singers Anthony Gregory, Jennifer Johnston, Ashley Riches, Elizabeth Watts; violinists Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Ning Feng, Clara-Jumi Kang.

On the eve of his second season as chief conductor, Mark Wigglesworth says: “I am so proud to be part of this amazing orchestra, and next season promises a huge number of unforgettable performances. Our communities are richer because of the concerts the BSO gives and in turn we at the BSO receive immeasurable inspiration and fulfilment from those who hear us play. It is a real privilege to be part of such strong musical and social connections.”

Baritone Roderick Williams is really looking forward to his residency, both working with the orchestra in the concert hall and also taking part in the essential work they do elsewhere: “It will be a personal pleasure to work with Mark Wigglesworth again and to join soprano Claudia Boyle in Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony – a work that has featured on my wish list for a long time – and joining the solo quartet team for Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, a piece very close to my heart. On a smaller scale, I shall welcome audiences to my song recital – An English Winterreise, with pianist Christopher Glynn – which features 24 English language songs which are each inspired by the 24 individual songs from Schubert’s great masterpiece.”

Enyi Okpara returns for his second year as Calleva Assistant Conductor, conducting in Exeter, Barnstaple and Truro in a programme including Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with soloist Johannes Moser on 9th, 11th and 14th September. In early 2026, he joins musicians from the orchestra, BSO Resound and members of the National Open Youth Orchestra – the pioneering inclusive orchestra for 11–25-year-old disabled and non-disabled musicians – in a tour of SEND and mainstream schools.

Other significant events include a concert marking the Shostakovich 50th anniversary, conducted by Kirill Karabits, and the 950th anniversary of Chichester Cathedral, under the baton of Gergely Madaras.

The BSO’s livestreamed digital concerts continue for a sixth season with 19 main season concerts, and presenters including music broadcasters Catherine Bott, Katie Derham, Martin Handley, Tom Service and Sarah Walker.

Pictured: Roderick Williams, photograph by Theo Williams; Chloe Van Soeterstede, photograph by Olivia da Costa; Mark Wigglesworth photograph by Sim Canetty-Clarke; composer Dani Howard, photograph by Emma Fenton.