The five-night Services For Education Birmingham Youth Proms 2022 at Symphony Hall opens Sunday 17th July 2022 until Thursday 21st July 2022 and comes after a two-years hiatus caused by the pandemic. Young musicians will also be joined by world-famous bands.

Four thousand Birmingham children will return to the stage over five-nights after an enforced break of two years in what is promised to be the biggest ever Youth Proms the city has ever seen.

The concert series will mark both the tenth anniversary of the Birmingham charity that organises the Youth Proms – Services For Education – and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which open just days later.

In addition to performances by Central Ensembles, featuring 1,000 musicians, a new School Ensemble – drawing young people from 75 Birmingham schools and established during the pandemic – will perform together for the first time at Symphony Hall.

Amongst the highlights are performances by The Band of HM Royal Marines and Corps of Drums – who played a leading role at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with the Corp of Drums opening the Platinum Jubilee Party at the Palace – and Bollywood Brass Band who combine traditional music from India with Bollywood glamour.

Some 350 schoolchildren will perform as part of the Birmingham Schools Primary Choir and the recently formed Soundabout Inclusive Choir – that celebrates that everyone, no matter their abilities or disabilities, has their own way of sharing their voice – will take to the Symphony Hall stage for the first time. The West Midlands has the largest number of choirs in the nationwide scheme launched during the pandemic.

The Dionysus Ensemble, which is featuring in the Birmingham 2022 Festival for the Commonwealth Games, will also be performing. The Ensemble’s Artistic Director, Léonie Adams, is an alumnus of Birmingham’s Music Service which now forms part of Services For Education.  The Dionysus Ensemble was a recipient of a 2021 Royal Philharmonic Society Award and selected by The British Council to represent the UK in their Australia Season in 2022.

All guest bands are also working with Birmingham schools and school children to inspire the next generation of musicians.

The concert series will also include the first performances of Come Together Everybody – a song for choirs, commissioned by Services For Education with the support of The Lunar Society, using words from Her Majesty The Queen’s messages to The Commonwealth in previous Commonwealth Games.

Written by Sarah Baker, Vocal Composer in Residence for Services For Education’s Music Service, the composition will be performed by school children from Birmingham and schools in Malawi, Uganda and Nigeria. Funding from The Lunar Society has also enabled the writing of a score for instrumentalists in schools by Bob Vivian, Conductor of Birmingham Schools’ Concert Orchestra, who has written the accessible parts so schools learning the song can also accompany the piece in years to come.

Services For Education’s Birmingham Youth Proms are supported by Arts Council England, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, The Lunar Society, and Printigo Ltd.

Tickets, priced at £15 (Concessions: £10) with multiple concert discounts, are available from https://sandbox.servicesforeducation.co.uk/our-offer/services-for-education-youth-proms-2022-2/