91Èȱ¬

91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 clears its schedules on Sunday 13 June for The 91Èȱ¬'S Big Concert, more than 10 hours of live music making from the 91Èȱ¬'s performing groups across the UK. More than 400 91Èȱ¬ musicians play in six cities, playing a huge range of music spanning more than 400 years of music history.

The ambitious relay of live music making begins in Salford with the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic at 11.30am.The baton passes to the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra in its Maida Vale home in London before going to Glasgow, where it is picked up by the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The 91Èȱ¬ National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales continue the relay in Cardiff, before it goes to the 91Èȱ¬ Concert Orchestra in Plymouth, then back to London for a 91Èȱ¬ Singers performance in St Paul's Knightsbridge. The day of live music culminates in Belfast, when the Ulster Orchestra joins the celebrations.

Radio 3 presenters introduce the concerts from the stage of each event. The team includes Christopher Cook, Sara Mohr-Pietsch, Jamie MacDougall, Ian Skelley, Sarah Walker and Petroc Trelawny, who presents from Salford in the morning and Belfast in the evening.

From Bach to Bartók and Byrd to Judith Bingham, the profusion of music included in the day spans more than 400 years and shows off the huge range of world-class music making that the 91Èȱ¬'s performing groups bring to the nation through more than 400 public broadcast concerts around the UK each year.

Roger Wright, Controller of 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3, says: "The 91Èȱ¬ performing groups are a cornerstone of British musical life providing a diverse and rich array of live orchestral and choral music across the UK. I'm delighted that we are providing a unique schedule busting day to put them in the spotlight on Radio 3.

"This will give the chance to sample their immeasurably valuable work, not just in the concert hall and on Radio 3, but also with children and adults through their wide-reaching and imaginative learning and outreach work."

Particular highlights of the day include the 91Èȱ¬ Concert Orchestra's performance of Paul Patterson's musical re-telling of Roald Dahl's Three Little Pigs, with Brian Blessed narrating as part of their "Best of British" celebration from Plymouth and the 91Èȱ¬ Singers's performing classic choral works from the Forties, written for them by Tippett and Britten.

The 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra – as part of its third annual big weekend of orchestral music in Glasgow with a whole weekend of free events in Glasgow City Halls – feature symphonic blockbusters from Sibelius, Bartók and Korngold, while the 91Èȱ¬ National Orchestra of Wales and 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra focus on music specially chosen by their principal conductors – Thierry Fischer and Jiří BÄ›lohlávek, who have been tireless champions of French and Czech repertoire respectively.

The 91Èȱ¬ performing groups are renowned for the performance of new works, including the 40-plus works commissioned each year by Radio 3.

This is reflected in the 91Èȱ¬'s Big concert with a UK premiere of Sally Beamish's A Cage Of Doves In Scotland, as well as music premiered by other groups recently by Simon Holt, Gabriel Jackson, Judith Bingham, Bob Chilcott and others, while the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra gives a rare performance of Foerster's unjustly neglected Fourth Symphony.

The performing groups also committed to opening up their work to the widest audiences through extensive learning and outreach work.

Throughout the day there are on-air documentaries exploring some of the ground-breaking projects undertaken by the performing groups with tens of thousands of children and adults around the UK.

Included are reports about the 91Èȱ¬ Concert Orchestra's MusicMix tour, in which the Orchestra gave eight concerts across the east of England to 7,000 school children, and an exploration of how the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra has brought the music of ultra-contemporary composers George Crumb and Wolfgang Rihm to life for children (and their parents) as part of Total Immersion days devoted to those composers.

The 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra reports on its work with Sistema Scotland which is using music to build a strong society, while the 91Èȱ¬ National Orchestra of Wales looks ahead to a project aimed at children with special needs all over Wales.

There's a bird's eye-view of the wide-ranging projects undertaken by the 91Èȱ¬ Singers with children, young professional conductors, composers and the amateur choral community at large and there's a chance to meet members of the Salford Family Orchestra, created by the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic as it continues to build strong bonds with the local community ahead of its move to its new home at Salford Quays next year.

The 91Èȱ¬'s Big Concert is framed by further celebrations of 91Èȱ¬ musicians either side with a focus on the Radio 3's New Generation Artists in Sunday Morning (10am) and a Jazz Line-Up focusing on the 91Èȱ¬ Big Band (11pm).

Full information about the the 91Èȱ¬ performing groups can be found at bbc.co.uk/orchestras.

VB