England’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Collaborates with Hip-Hop Artists 

The orchestra will host workshops and a concert featuring grime and hip-hop stars in April 2025

The City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has partnered with the Punch Records agency and the city’s hip-hop icons to present a collaborative concert on April 12, 2025, at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. 

Titled “Legacy,” the concert pays homage to a book and documentary of the same name by Punch Records, which details the untold stories of Birmingham’s grime, hip-hop, and rap scenes.  

To perform alongside the CBSO led by the multi-award winning conductor Phil Meadows, the artists will include Lady Leshurr, Big Dog Yogo, Brixx, C4, Creezon, Jaykae, Mayhem, Nodb, Pressure0121, Roxxxan, Saf One, Sox, T Roadz, Trappy, and Trilla.

As reported in The Times, the CBSO is also launching a “listening project” this year to determine the extent to which potential audiences would like traditional concert hall rules to be relaxed — the CBSO is now allowing audience members to film on their phones if they wish to. 

“How do we make the symphony hall more welcoming and a place where people feel comfortable and themselves and how do we protect that space so that it is right for artists and so that people engage in the music in the best possible way?” CBSO’s CEO Emma Stenning told The Times. 

The “Legacy” concert ultimately forms part of the CBSO Explores program, which aims to attract new people to its performances. 

“All the research that we do into new audiences says that people are really wanting a more immersive experience, something that speaks more directly to the music they might listen to at home and feels more relevant in their day-to-day lives,” Stenning explained. 

“A huge amount of grime music is based on orchestral samples,” added CBSO’s creative director, Tom Spurgin. “So many of the bass lines those artists work with are tubas, trombones, bass trombones and double basses. They are actually not too far away and part of the project is proving to people that an orchestra is a resource for artists no matter what background you are from or no matter what art form you make.”

For more details and to attend the concert, click here.