Recent grants:

Introduction

2008

2007

2006


Case studies:

The Feeney
Commissions

Feeney Ballet School Case study

The Feeney Commissions and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

The Feeney Trust started commissioning orchestral works for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1955.

The first composer commissioned was Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen's Music, who based his Meditations on a Theme by John Blow on a fine melody which he came across in a volume of Musica Britannica, sent to him by Anthony Lewis. Anthony Lewis was Professor of Music at The University of Birmingham and a member of the Committee which proposed possible composers for the Trust to approach.

Tippett's Piano Concerto

Michael Tippett's Piano Concerto, premiered in the following year, soon became established as an important work. Steven Osborne, whose 2007 recording of the Concerto has received glowing reviews, describes it as 'certainly one of the most important concertos of the second half of the 20th Century'.

Late '50s and early '60s

The late '50s and early '60s saw new symphonies from Edmund Rubbra, Lennox Berkeley, Alan Rawsthorne, Humphrey Searle, Robert Simpson and Peter Racine Fricker -- an impressive list of high profile commissions, which earned the CBSO considerable kudos.

The '70s and '80s

The list of Feeney Commissions continued to grow through the '70s, receiving an extra boost when the young Simon Rattle became Music Director in 1980. In his time, both Mark-Anthony Turnage and Thomas Adès received their first major orchestral commissions from the Feeney Trust.

Future commissions

Another important commission 'in the pipeline' is Colin Matthews' Violin Concerto, due for performance in 2009.

Soon, the Trust will doubtless be undertaking its fiftieth commission for the CBSO - a truly remarkable record and a thoroughly laudable contribution to the artistic life of Birmingham and of the country as a whole.

Beresford King-Smith
Archivist, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

CBSO recording 'Meditations on a theme by John Blow' by Sir Arthur Bliss with Hugo Rignold conducting
Photo credit Hans Wild

CBSO Orchestra
Photo credit CBSO/ Adrian Burrows

Part of Mark-Anthony Turnage's 'Three Screaming Popes'

Note from Mark-Anthony Turnage to the Feeney Trust