OVER 20,000 school children are to be given a special introduction to live classical music due to a pioneering new education and family-friendly programming initiative. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) today (Thur) announces a landmark 2025-26 season with a special focus on young people and music education that aims to open the doors to new musical adventures for music-starved youths.

The programme will feature a series of enriching musical experiences including targeted school concerts, performances specially designed for toddlers and infants, relaxed performances for children attending special schools and a ‘free in the city week’ bringing orchestral performances to unexpected venues from canal boats to botanical gardens.

There will also be four dedicated family concerts including "Music from the Movies," “CBSO Family Christmas”, "Tunes & Tales," and "Dance Across America".

The focus on youth education comes after research revealed strong cultural confidence among communities served by the orchestra, with 60% of residents considering attending arts and cultural events an important part of their free time, and 79% attending a venue in the last year.

Creative director Tom Spurgin said: “Our schools and family programming is a long-term investment in cultivating tomorrow's audiences while providing today's young people with transformative musical experiences. Building on our commitment to music education at our school – the Shireland CBSO Academy – we’ve worked hard to ensure that our concert season continues to provide young people with opportunities to be inspired by incredible music.”

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is an internationally celebrated symphony

featuring 90 musicians led by music director Kazuki Yamada.

They perform over 150 concerts each year with music that ranges from classics to contemporary, soundtracks to symphonies, and everything in between.

The Daily Express' Strike A Chord crusade is fighting to save the nation's failing music education system and create a more successful funding model to reinvigorate the talent pipeline in which students can flourish.

We have reported on how the future of the UK's world-leading £5.8billion recording industry is in jeopardy unless music lessons are restored as a key part of the national curriculum.

The campaign was launched after a devastating report found the number of A-level students has halved in the past decade and some schools have less than £1 a year per pupil to spend on music provision.