London's Southbank Centre New Resident Orchestras

The Southbank Centre has not changed its resident orchestra roster since 1992. However, the Chineke! Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra will join Southbank Centre's existing resident orchestras: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and London Sinfonietta.

The Aurora Orchestra has been an associate orchestra at the Southbank Centre since 2016. Expanding their role as a new resident, they will create a year-round program of performing, educational, and digital content.

"Many of Aurora’s happiest artistic memories have been forged at Southbank Centre, and we’re thrilled to be able to expand and deepen the relationship," said Aurora's creative director, Jane Mitchell. "As Resident Orchestra we look forward to offering the richest, most vibrant experience of orchestral music to the broadest possible audience, both in and beyond the concert hall."

The Aurora Orchestra will perform full symphonies from memory and employ its unique orchestral theatre staging in its inaugural appearance as a resident orchestra on Tuesday, September 27 with principal conductor Nicholas Collon.

"No other venue in the world boasts such an extraordinary array of varied orchestral talent, and we are excited about supporting the bold ambitions which the venue has for the future, from radical audience development initiatives to helping transform the UK’s music education landscape," Collon said.

Meanwhile, the Southbank Center will also diversify with the inclusion of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra.

One of the Chineke! Orchestra's first performances as resident at the Southbank Center can be heard on Thursday, April 28. The performance will feature the nine-movement work by African American jazz icons Duke Ellington and arranger Billy Strayhorn's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.