sound:

Chief Conductor - Ilan Volkov
Chief Conductor-elect - Donald Runnicles
Associate Guest Conductor - Stefan Solyom
Conductor Laureate - Jerzy Maksymiuk
Leader - Elizabeth Layton

Formed in 1935, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is recognised as one of the UK's leading orchestras. The winner of several awards, including a Royal Philharmonic Society Award (the only Scottish orchestra to do so) and two Gramophone Awards, its wide repertory and flexible approach to format means it can perform a complex contemporary piece as a specialist ensemble alongside a major symphonic work. It has a busy broadcasting schedule on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Television and also records commercially.

Based at City Halls at the heart of Glasgow's Merchant City, the orchestra takes live music to towns and cities across Scotland every season, is in demand at major UK festivals and plays every summer at the BBC Proms. It has appeared in many of the great musical centres of Europe and has toured the USA, South America and been twice to China, most recently in May this year. In Scotland, as well as being the leading supporter of living composers and new music, the orchestra is extremely active in the community with an innovative learning programme dedicated to bringing the inspiration of great music to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Next year Ilan Volkov will step down after seven years as the orchestra's Chief Conductor. His numerous projects with the BBC SSO, including the first UK residency by IRCAM Paris - in Glasgow earlier this year - have helped define the partnership between conductor and orchestra as one of the most exciting in British music today. He will be succeeded by the eminent Scottish-born conductor Donald Runnicles, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Opera.

• website link for BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/bbcsso/index.shtml
• events with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in previous sound festivals
• other artists and composers involved in sound 2008