Launched in the 2025-26 season, Spring Forwards is BPO’s professional development scheme for exceptional young musicians fresh from music college.
Spring Forwards musicians are supported to play at Brighton Dome alongside our season professionals, gaining transformative orchestral experience, receiving guidance from Joanna MacGregor and our principal players, and building the crucial networks they will need to succeed as freelance musicians.
Six musicians benefitted from the scheme’s first year; this has been expanded to eleven players for 2026-27. This year, players will also be involved in our exciting new chamber ensemble, Brighton Spring, performing ambitious chamber repertoire, developing their skills as educators, and helping us to build a music education network across Sussex.
As a registered charity with no arts council funding, we rely on your help to sustain projects like these. Support the young musicians of the future by sponsoring a Spring Forwards player today.
Spring Forwards: Piano
‘As a young music student, I felt warmly welcomed’
Xiaowen Shang is a London based pianist and harpsichordist from China. She joined the orchestra in 2022 while studying under Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music; she completed her Masters with distinction in 2024 and remains at the Academy as a PhD candidate. Read more
Spring Forwards: Viola
'The BPO scheme has been a wonderful introduction to the professional music world and I feel very lucky to have been involved. It’s also been fantastic to get to know the other young musicians who are on the same professional journey as me, I look forward to playing with them for years to come!' Read more
