BBC Concert Orchestra

The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra. The BBC Concert Orchestra is the BBC's most populist ensemble, playing a mixture of classical music, light music and popular numbers. Its primary role is to produce music for radio broadcast, and it is the resident orchestra of the world's longest running live music programme, Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2.

The parent ensemble of the orchestra was the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and based in Bedford. The orchestra also did opera work and was occasionally billed as the BBC Opera Orchestra. In August 1949, the ensemble was formally renamed the BBC Opera orchestra. In January 1952, the BBC Opera Orchestra was disbanded and the BBC Concert Orchestra was formed from players formerly from the BBC Opera Orchestra.

Until 1972, the orchestra was based at the Camden Theatre. From 1972 to 2004, the orchestra performed regularly at the Golders Green Hippodrome. It also appears regularly at the Royal Festival Hall and The Proms in London, as well as venues around the United Kingdom. As well as its performances on BBC Radio 2, it also performs on BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Proms and was a core part of the BBC's Electric Proms, now discontinued. As well as light classical music, it also plays pop music, jazz, opera, operetta and much of the popular repertoire previously the mainstay of the disbanded BBC Radio Orchestra. It links, from time to time, with the BBC Big Band for concerts and broadcasts.

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