Dani Howard is the inaugural Celebrated Composer with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for the 2025/26 season, marking the start of a new initiative by the orchestra to support living British composers. The forthcoming season sees her works presented across 15 performances.

Howard’s piece The Butterfly Effect opens the season and is conducted by Mark Wigglesworth in Poole (1 Oct), Bristol (2 Oct) and Basingstoke (3 Oct). BSO’s performance of Howard’s The Butterfly Effect is supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation initiative in partnership with Association of British Orchestras and BBC Radio 3.

In November, the orchestra perform the UK premiere of Howard’s Saxophone Concerto — a BSO co-commission with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra — with Jess Gillam making her BSO debut (5 Nov & 6 Nov).

Coalescence receives two performances under Mark Wigglesworth (15 Apr & 16 Apr), and Howard’s music also features in eight BSO ​‘Explore the Orchestra’ Schools’ Concerts, in Bristol, Exeter, Poole and Portsmouth throughout the year.

Dani Howard says ​“It’s a privilege to become the BSO’s first Celebrated Composer, and I’m thrilled that audiences in the South West will experience my music under the baton of Mark Wigglesworth. The season opens with The Butterfly Effect, a work that explores the consequences of seemingly small actions, before the brilliant Jess Gillam gives the UK premiere of my Saxophone Concerto in early November. Coalescence is a work that explores the interplay between humanity and nature, and I’m eager for audiences in Exeter and Poole to hear it next spring.”

Read the full press release here.