In June 2025, I directed CBSO Sports Day, a co-production between City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and MishMash Productions. It was my first production for full orchestra, and the central challenge was how to create a meaningful connection between the audience and such a large group of performers.

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Working with the CBSO team, we decided to gamify the concert, framing it as a playful orchestral sports day. Each audience member was allocated to a team corresponding to a section of the orchestra, giving them a direct relationship with the players on stage. The music was interspersed with games, competitions and moments of silliness, with each orchestral section given its own chance to compete through a featured piece of music.

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The result was a bold, high-energy orchestral concert in which the audience cheered for the strings, winds, brass and percussion as if they were sports teams — discovering the character and power of each section along the way. Repertoire included the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Aileen Sweeney’s Glisk, Vijay Iyer’s Dig the Say and Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay & Mississippi Delta.