Civic pride: New research shows Birmingham is as proud of its orchestra as its football teams

New research from the CBSO puts the popularity of Birmingham’s orchestra and concert halls alongside that of its football teams and reveals a healthy appetite for exploring orchestral music ahead of the return of CBSO in the City

As the country’s biggest TV audience of the year cheers on England’s World Cup chances, new research closes the gap between the pitch and the concert hall, revealing that Birmingham feels almost the same civic pride for its orchestra as it does for its football teams.

Asked what Birmingham can be proud of on a national and international stage, a third of residents (32%) chose the city’s orchestras and concert halls alongside its football teams (38%). In the city that produced Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion, the orchestra sits alongside the sporting institutions residents point to first when asked what makes Birmingham matter.

The preliminary findings come from the Birmingham Listening Project, a new study set to be published later this month. Commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), the report presents the perspectives of more than 1,000 residents surveyed across an 18-month period.

Emma Stenning, Chief Executive of the CBSO, said:

“Birmingham is not a city waiting to be introduced to culture: it is already living it, in kitchens and on commutes, long before anyone walks through the doors of Symphony Hall. The audience is already there, and it always has been. Our job is not to ask who classical music is for; it is to make sure that when people arrive, the room feels like it belongs to them.”

The wider picture is of a city already living a rich musical life long before anyone buys a ticket. 93% of residents include at least one kind of music in the soundtrack of their daily lives, listening when they relax (67%), cook or do chores (56%) and commute (39%). The appetite to go further is just as broad. Asked which genres they would like to experience live in 2026 to broaden their musical horizons, 89% of residents named at least one. Of that group, one in five chose orchestral or classical music as a genre they’d be interested in exploring. 

The CBSO’s upcoming Birmingham-wide festival is the perfect chance to do just that. CBSO in the City returns for its third year across the August Bank Holiday weekend (27 to 31 August), bringing orchestral music to the city’s residents wherever they are with free concerts in parks, gardens, libraries, pubs and cafes. The full programme will be announced on 27 July.

Birmingham wants to invest in music

The new Listening Project data challenges perceptions around the public appetite for arts investment, with one in ten Birmingham residents (91%) wanting the government to spend more on arts and culture. Parents feel this most sharply: 44% of all residents want more children to learn music at school and experience being in a band or orchestra (among parents of pre-school age children, that rises to 72%). The CBSO’s partnership with Shireland CBSO Academy, where every child has the chance to play an instrument, is a direct answer to that demand.

The orchestra is already engaging with the city’s other top priorities – grassroots venues (48%) and free-to-access services (43%) – too, through performances at grassroots venues and offering £1 tickets that put the concert hall within reach.

At a time when cities across England are navigating questions of identity and cohesion, the new research suggests the arts are key to positive change. When asked what greater arts investment would do for the city, 43% of residents said the city would become more united, with the arts helping people learn about other faiths and traditions, while 39% said the city would be happier and more tolerant. The survey predicted economic benefits too, with 51% of respondents saying arts investment would be good for business and tourism.

The classical audience isn’t ageing – Birmingham has the data to prove it

The Listening Report also takes aim at one of classical music’s most repeated assumptions; that the audience is old – and getting older. In Birmingham it is neither. Orchestral and classical music forms part of the everyday soundtrack for around one in six residents, and is as popular among Birmingham’s 25–34-year-olds as its 55–64-year-olds:

The biggest gap in the whole study is not between age groups or genres. It is between what people expect from a concert and what they actually feel once they’re in the room. A separate strand of research followed Birmingham residents attending a CBSO concert for the first time. Most arrived expecting the opposite of what they found, and 84% loved or enjoyed the experience. As one first-time attender put it: “I thought classical concerts were just for posh older people. Not people like me. Now I’ve done it once, I wouldn’t feel so nervous next time.”