Business News A celebration for Symphony Hall


Birmingham’s Symphony Hall has started a programme to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The celebrations started on 15


April, the day the building first opened its doors, and will continue until 12 June, when Symphony Hall was officially opened by the Queen. The celebration will include a


variety of events taking place, from classical concerts featuring the CBSO, to Community Spirit, a celebration of the diverse choral talent in the West Midlands. There will also be an appearance by 80s pop legend, Jason Donovan. The celebrations began with a


concert by the CBSO, ‘The Next 25’ which featured three exceptionally talented artists who all celebrate their 25th birthdays this year, including two home-grown talents, Jamie Phillips and Ryan Latimer, both of whom forged their musical careers in Birmingham. Symphony Hall’s history spans


almost 100 years, and goes back to the time when the city council began buying up land around Broad Street to build a civic centre, which would also include a concert hall. However, this idea was put on hold during the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, concerts were


staged at the Town Hall, but the conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at that time, Sir Adrian Boult, felt that the venue was unsuitable. Boult was told that he would get a new concert hall, but never lived to


see it become a reality. In 1983 – the year Boult died – the


city council began a feasibility study to see if a new home for the CBSO could be built on land in Broad Street formerly occupied by the old Bingley Hall exhibition centre. Thanks to European funding,


Symphony Hall would become a reality, as part of the International Convention Centre (ICC).


‘The building process saw a unique relationship between acousticians and architects’


The building process saw a


unique relationship between acousticians and architects, which helped Symphony Hall become an acoustic triumph. This included the use of an acoustic canopy above the stage that can be raised or lowered. Symphony Hall says that an


acoustic test demonstrated that you could – literally – hear a pin drop anywhere in the auditorium, if one was dropped on stage. Symphony Hall’s opening night


was on 15 April 1991, which saw Simon Rattle conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’ and Ravel’s ‘Daphnis et Chloe’.


Support for music


Herefordshire-based CBSO trustee and philanthropist John Osborn, a concert-goer for nearly 60 years, has donated £250,000 to support the position of music director over the five years leading up to the orchestra’s centenary in 2020. Mr Osborn is making the gift in celebration of the recent


appointment of Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as the CBSO’s 12th Music Director. Gražinytė-Tyla (pictured with John Osborn and CBSO chief executive Stephen Maddock) joins the orchestra for an


initial three-year period from September 2016. This £250,000 gift follows Mr Osborn’s £100,000 donation in 2015


to create an endowment for the CBSO’s chamber music programme. The position of Music Director will be retitled ‘Osborn Music Director’ for five years in recognition of Mr Osborn’s support, Mr Osborn grew up in Birmingham and has been attending CBSO


concerts for nearly 60 years. He has served on the CBSO Board since 2012, and has a long history of supporting music and charities.


The business is booming


A Birmingham plastic injection moulding specialist is benefitting from the UK automotive boom after landing more than £1m of new contracts. Barkley Plastics – a member of


the Midlands Assembly Network – has announced new work including interior parts and light guides for several major automotive OEMs and a rapidly expanding supercar manufacturer. It comes after a hugely successful 12 months that has seen the firm


12 CHAMBERLINK May 2016


take on 15 new staff, exceed sales targets and invest more than £500,000 on a new EDM machine, a 650 tonne injection mould press, a 420 tonne press and new cranes in preparation for handling bigger tools. This has given it the capacity to


produce larger components and to manufacture more than 50 million mouldings every year for automotive clients and customers involved in construction, electronics, medical and retail.


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