Orchestra manager, BBC Concert Orchestra

Closing date for applications: 24 November 2025

Salary: £50,000 - £60,000 (+ London Weighting of £5,441) depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights

Location: Broadcasting House, London

Department: BBC Concert Orchestra

Contract type: Permanent, full-time

Job band: D

Step into this leadership role, supporting the musicians and teams of the BBC Concert Orchestra and helping to deliver exceptional musical performances.

The BBC Concert Orchestra brings inspiring musical experiences to everyone, everywhere, with the Orchestra’s versatility to the fore. For BBC Radio 3 the Orchestra explores a wide selection of music, ranging from classical to contemporary, and broadcasts weekly in its long running live music programme, Friday Night is Music Night. It has performed on many soundtracks, including Blue Planet, Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing and Wild Isles for BBC One. It performs in BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room Month for BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, which has featured over 16 collaborations with pop artists so far in 2025, including Gary Barlow and Myles Smith, and reaches tens of millions of viewers across social media.

The Orchestra appears annually at the BBC Proms and regularly at London's Southbank Centre and venues across the UK. Earlier this year, it became the first Associate Orchestra at Alexandra Palace, it has a long-term studio space relationship with the Watford Colosseum, and is in the third year of its successful partnership with the Universities for Nottingham. The BBC CO offers enjoyable and innovative education and community activities and is involved in BBC Ten Pieces, the BBC Young Composer competition, and the BBC Open Music programme. The BBC CO is also looking ahead to its 75th anniversary year in 2027 and is in the initial stages of planning a series of events celebrating the Orchestra across its full range of activity.

We are looking for someone who will be responsible for the day to day operation of the Orchestra across rehearsal, recording, broadcast and performance, achieving this through the BBC Values and building trusting, close and respectful relationships with our musicians, the artists we work with, our wider management team, and colleagues across our partners and the BBC.


Responsibilities

• Embody and demonstrate the BBC Values – Audiences, Creativity, Trust, Respect, Accountability and One BBC – across the role
• Be the immediate line manager of members of the Orchestra, looking for development opportunities and resolving all personnel matters
• Develop the Orchestral management team and leadership of our operations and production teams
• Bring a passion and drive for inclusivity, building on our successful adoption of the Ten Point Inclusive Recruitment Plan, and grow opportunities for freelance musicians from all backgrounds in the Orchestra
• Overseeing the contribution of relevant data to BBC Ensembles inclusivity reporting
• Ensure that the Orchestra works within the rules and regulations governing the employment of orchestral musicians as agreed with the Musicians’ Union and the BBC
• Work closely with the Orchestra’s MU Representatives and Players Committee on all appropriate matters, including the interpretation of Union agreements
• Lead on all aspects of Health and Safety for the Orchestra, oversee the completion of risk assessments for all Orchestra activity with particular attention to Noise in the Workplace regulations
• Monitor orchestral and production costs against budget, working alongside the director, head of artistic planning and finance colleagues as part of the annual budgeting process

Due to the nature of the role, the orchestra manager is required to travel across the UK internationally and to work on evenings and weekends as dictated by the Orchestra’s performance schedule.


Knowledge, skills & experience

• Substantial experience working with orchestral musicians and managing musical events
• Personable manner with the ability to build warm, trustful relationships with colleagues, partners and creative collaborators
• Substantial management experience, especially the ability to resolve interpersonal situations amicably, with tact, sensitivity, and diplomacy
• A knowledge of, interest in and understanding of how orchestras engage in a wide range of musical repertoire
• A clear understanding of budgets, and the ability to monitor and maintain departmental budgets
• A commitment to and passion for equality, diversity and inclusion principles and action
• Excellent planning and project management skills
• An understanding of risk and safety, including managing Noise at Work in live music settings

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity. We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.