Cherry Blossom Concert 2025

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s (BCMG) annual Cherry Blossom Concert was held on Sunday 23 March 2025 at 3.00 pm in Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham. This was the fourth instalment of the series, presented in partnership with Ikon Gallery and Brindleyplace.

Cherry Blossom Concert was free and open to all ages. It took place outdoors beneath the Oozells Square cherry trees (in peak bloom). The programme was explicitly inspired by nature. The music performed followed the life cycle of a tree and featured many works incorporating wood and plants as instruments.

485 free tickets were booked on our website, with hundreds more people walking up on the day. Cherry Blossom Concert consistently draws our biggest, most diverse audiences year on year. 2025 was no exception.

The Cherry Blossom Concert is designed to bring contemporary music to a broad public audience and highlight environmental themes in share community spaces.

Programme and highlights

The hour long contemporary programme traced the life-cycle of a tree through sound. Works performed included:

• John Cage – Branches (1976), for amplified plant material (including cactus) and percussion.
• John Cage – Waltz (from Trio, 1934), for percussion ensemble.
• Pierre Boulez – Anthèmes II (excerpt, 1997), for solo violin and electronics.
• Carola Bauckholt – Woodpecker [Specht] (2007), for percussion ensemble.
• David Hindley – Corn Bunting Fanfare (1994), for brass sextet (celebrating composer David Hindley’s tireless work recording and transcribing British birdsong).
• Steve Reich – Music for Pieces of Wood (1973), scored for ‘tuned’ wooden blocks.

These selections incorporate nature, literally: Cage’s Branches is written for living plant materials as percussion, and Reich’s work uses ‘tuned’ sticks, or bits of wood, as instruments.

Community and outreach

BCMG’s Learn & Take Part programme supported the concert with related workshops which took place at CBSO Centre the weekend before the concert. These workshops included Music Maze for young people aged 7-11 and BCMG Young Composers for 11-14 year olds. Participants composed original pieces for BCMG musicians under the guidance of professional composers, culminating in a performance for friends and family.

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