Brantford Community Symphony Orchestra (BCSO) is gearing up for its winter concert at the Fairview United Church on Sunday, January 25, 2026.
The BCSO is part of a larger non-profit organization called the Brantford School of Instrumental Music (BSIM) and was created back in 2012 by the late Karl Langton.
“He was president of the BSIM and a member of that organization for many years and it [the BCSO] was started because of a wish that his mother had,” said Deb McLoughlin, conductor of the Brantford Community Symphony Orchestra. “She always wanted there to be a community symphony orchestra in Brantford for people who would like to play orchestral repertoire, but did not necessarily have the experience to play in the Brantford Symphony Orchestra, which is a professional organization.”
Since its inception, McLoughlin, who is also an instrumental teacher with the BSIM, has conducted the group of musicians.
What started off as just 22 members, has since grown over the years and the BCSO now boasts around 45 members who perform two major concerts a year, the winter concert in January, and the spring concert in May.
McLoughlin said the group has been preparing for this particular concert since September of 2025, and that attendees are in for a treat.
“We always try to do a combination of what you would call ‘classical repertoire,’ and so in this case we’ll be performing ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ by 19th-century Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It’s a big orchestral piece and it really has a bit of a story to tell,” she said. “We’ll also be playing a movement from [Johannes] Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. So, those are sort of our orchestral repertoire for people who come out and like to hear those traditional composers.”
“We also have people who really like to hear Broadway pieces and movie scores, so we’ll have music from Titanic, which is great because the score from that is just fantastic, and then the Sound of Music as well,” continued McLoughlin. “We are also doing a piece called ‘Summon the Heroes’ by John Williams. Given the Olympics that are coming up, this is music that was actually composed for the 1996 Olympic Games; it’s got lots of brass and lots of fanfares and it’s just this very athletic kind of music designed to inspire the athletes.”
The BCSO will also be performing something more contemporary, specifically Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City.”
“It’s an interesting piece because it’s got these solos with two different instruments,” said McLoughlin. “One is the English horn, which is a sort of different instrument and we’re fortunate to have someone who plays it and who owns one. The other is the trumpet. So those two instruments are put together, with the string section in the background, and it’s just really lovely.”
The conductor said that overall, she and the rest of the musicians are looking forward to the concert, in part because of the location.
“We’re looking forward to it… we’re always excited because the acoustics in that room are so cooperative. Where you play has as much significance in terms of the outcome of the sound, as what you play,” she said. “When we’re working in a room like that, with the combination of the acoustics and the nice curving roof, and when we pack in a whole bunch of people to absorb and take away the sort of loudness that can occur, it just works really well for us. We love playing there.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
