Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional orchestra in Scotland. The orchestra is based at City Halls in Glasgow.

The BBC opened its Edinburgh studio in 1930, and decided to form its own full-time Scottish orchestra to complement BBC orchestras already established in London, Manchester and Wales. The BBC Scottish Orchestra was established as Scotland's first full-time orchestra on 1 December 1935 by the BBC's first head of music in Scotland, composer and conductor Ian Whyte.

In 1938, the orchestra moved into its purpose built home at Studio One, in the newly opened Glasgow Studios, at Broadcasting House in Queen Margaret Drive. The newly formed Scottish Variety Orchestra (which became the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra in 1967) occupied Studio Two.

As one of the BBC's many ensembles, the orchestra led a busy though sheltered life, broadcasting live at least five times a week from its studio and only occasionally allowed out. Throughout the war, the orchestra fulfilled 30 hours of broadcasts per week on the BBC Home and World Services. This meant live performances at any time of day or night, often broadcasting live to Latin America at half past one in the morning.

By the end of the war, during which the orchestra had been expanded in numbers, Whyte had brought it to a standard considered good enough for the newly established Edinburgh Festival, at which the orchestra has appeared regularly since 1948.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, live studio broadcasting still dominated the orchestra's schedule, and there was little time in its schedule for public performances. This situation changed after Norman Del Mar's advent as Principal Conductor in 1960. He led the BBC Scottish Orchestra's first visit to The Proms in 1962, and through his efforts the orchestra was further expanded, which led to a change of its title to the "BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra" the following year. Del Mar's earliest projects included the UK premiere of 's Gruppen, performed jointly in Glasgow with the Scottish National Orchestra, and it was his interest in contemporary music that laid the foundation for the BBC SSO's long-standing commitment to new work. The BBC SSO has continued to perform the work of Scottish composers in Scotland and at The Proms, such as the 1990 Premiere of James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie.

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