Box Office: 0121 780 3333
Chamber Music at CBSO Centre
CBSO Centre Ticket Hotline: +44 (0)121 767 4050
Click on the individual concert for further programme information, and to book online.
CBSO Centre, in the heart of Birmingham's city centre, is a landmark building between The Mailbox and Symphony Hall. It provides an exclusive and dedicated rehearsal space for the Orchestra and our four Choruses, offices for the CBSO, and a 300-seat venue for the city.
We promote a series of intimate chamber music concerts in the Centre, which has a special 'close-enough-to-touch' atmosphere. Designed to complement the music being performed at Symphony Hall, Centre Stage puts our talented musicians in the spotlight, with many performances introduced by the performers themselves.
Most Centre Stage events start at 1.10pm (unless otherwise marked) and normally last about 50 minutes. Snacks and a licensed bar are available before every performance, and tickets cost only £7.50 with discounts available for group bookers and disabled patrons. A perfect way to relieve the stresses of a busy day!
The CBSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Garfield Weston Foundation for the Centre Stage series.
1.10pmFriday 17 September
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Brahms Piano Quartet No.3
It's a bit of a surprise to find Gustav Mahler writing chamber music - but no surprise at all that his youthful Piano Quartet is fairly bursting at the seams...
1.10pmThursday 23 September
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Tetzlaff, CBSO Players
Christian Tetzlaff plays Dvorak
"How rare, and how powerful, to hear a player stand out not for the brilliance of his technique but for the depth of his sincerity." Critics around the world...
1.10amThursday 30 September
THE BIRMINGHAM MAHLER CYCLE: CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Prewer, Innovation Chamber Ensemble
Mahler arr. Stein Symphony No.4
When the Innovation Chamber Ensemble played Erwin Stein's chamber version of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony last season, it caused a sensation. Incredible as it seems, great late-romantic symphonies become both...
1.10pmFriday 15 October
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Turina, Chopin
We couldn't let Chopin's centenary pass by without performing his one and only chamber work. His Piano Trio is everything you'd expect from the teenage Chopin; it's ardent, poetic...
1.10pmThursday 04 November
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Violissimo
Programme to include Bowen, Bach
Forget the viola jokes; today, the "Cinderella of the strings" gets the last laugh. The gorgeous, dusky sound of massed violas is like velvet for the ears, and it's inspired...
1.10pmWednesday 17 November
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Brass Explosion!
Bernstein, Nyman, Mathias
Five of the CBSO's celebrated brass section show their mettle in a concert with a transatlantic flavour. Leonard Bernstein sets the pace with a show-stopping selection from his revolutionary...
1.10pmTuesday 23 November
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Tchaikovsky PIano Trio
Tchaikovsky only wrote one Piano Trio - but he did it in style! Tchaikovsky's friend Nikolai Rubenstein was one of the greatest pianists of the nineteenth century. So...
1.10pmTuesday 14 December
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Copland, Dohnanyi
Six CBSO players play two "private passions" - but when you hear these two rarely-played sextets, you'll understand why musicians love them so much. Aaron Copland's began life in...
1.10pmTuesday 21 December
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
The Berkley Salon Ensemble & CBSO Youth Chorus
A Palm Court Christmas Party!
It's that time of year again at CBSO Centre! Wind-up gramophones, trombone-playing snowmen and tinsel on the aspidistras; it can only be the Berkley Salon Ensemble's annual Palm Court Christmas...
1.10pmFriday 28 January
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakov
On a midwinter afternoon, nothing warms the heart quite like Russian music. You'd expect the composer of Schereherzade to have a magical way with string instruments, and his rarely-heard...
2.30pmSaturday 05 February
THE BIRMINGHAM MAHLER CYCLE: MAHLER DISCOVERY DAY
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Stephen Johnson (presenter)
Mahler Discovery Day
2.30-5pm ...
1.10pmFriday 18 February
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
New Birmingham String Quartet
Beethoven, Janacek
Astonishing splashes of colour: not what you expect from a string quartet. But then, Beethoven and Janacek followed no-one's rules but their own. Janacek took a Tolstoy novella...
1.10pmThursday 10 March
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Mozart, Elgar
"It is strange music I think & I like it - but - it's ghostly stuff." Even Edward Elgar himself knew there was something special about his Piano Quintet, and...
1.10pmThursday 24 March
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Peter Donohoe, CBSO Players
Martinu, Taneyev
Peter Donohoe is an old friend of Centre Stage - and when he shares his musical passions, he likes to show us something new. Today he does exactly that,...
1.10pmThursday 14 April
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
The Leo Quartet
Haydn, Borodin
When a string quartet by Haydn - the greatest musical humorist of all time - actually gets nicknamed "The Joke", you can expect some fairly off-the-wall musical antics. We...
1.10pmFriday 29 April
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Mozart, Bridge
Before recordings, if you wanted to hear a piece of music again, you had to play it yourself! That's how Mozart's Grand Sestetto Concertante came into existence - it's...
1.10pmThursday 05 May
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Baroque Ensemble
1711 - Year of the Tuning Fork. Music by Vivaldi, Handel & Boyce.
"1711 - Year of the Tuning Fork" Music by Vivaldi, Handel, Boyce and Mondonville - on period instruments. It's not that there wasn't any great music written before 1711 - it's just...
1.10pmFriday 13 May
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
Andrew Litton, CBSO Players
Haydn, Shostakovich
Centre Stage guest artists always choose their own music, and we're delighted that Andrew Litton has opted for one of Shostakovich's very finest chamber works. CBSO colleagues will...
1.10pmThursday 19 May
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Players
Schubert, Beethoven
Schubert didn't write much for string trio - but every note he wrote is simply perfect. And it's all in this concert by three of the CBSO's leading string...
1.10pmTuesday 07 June
CENTRE STAGE
CBSO Centre, Birmingham. +44 (0)121 767 4050
CBSO Cellos
Bach, Villa-Lobos
Inspired by Bach: Heitor Villa-Lobos took the spirit of Bach and gave it an unmistakably Brazilian spin. His haunting Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 is one of those once-heard, never-forgotten tunes,...
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