FOR many in the audience of 1,600 excited Dorset schoolchildren, this was their very first experience of an orchestra and a concert hall.

This schools’ concert at Lighthouse, Poole also marked a first for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – it was a pioneering live broadcast over satellite to 130 schools in the south west.

Head of marketing, Anthony Brown said, “It’s very exciting. It’s the brave new world. It’s bringing us into the realm of what the BBC do.

It’s allowing us to do it ourselves for the very first time.”

A large screen above the orchestra on the stage showed what was being broadcast to schools in places such as the Scilly Isles, Isle of Wight, Cornwall and Devon, whose youngsters did not have the chance to travel to Poole for one of four concerts.

Over two days 5,500 key stage 2 pupils from schools across Dorset, plus a few from Hampshire, had the chance to take part in the special Fairytale and Fantasy concerts.

Put together by conductor and composer James Redwood, he had specially written two pieces, a song which the seven to 11-year-olds had learnt and an orchestral piece in which they formed part of the percussion, clapping and stamping their feet.

The BSO also performed pieces including Baba Yaga by Mussorgsky, Ravel’s Beauty and the Beast, Stomp by James Macmillan and part of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, conducted by Frank Zielhorst.

“They have been so good,” said James, who presented the concerts.

“It has been terrific.”

The whole of St Mary’s Primary School in Poole had turned out for the final concert, all 240 children in years three to six.

“They have been practising very hard and they are all looking forward to it,” said teacher Harriet Ward, as they settled down and warmed up.

Clementine Tattle, aged nine, who had been to a previous concert, said: “It was the best couple of hours of my life.”

Dougie Scarfe, chief executive of the BSO, said: “For the vast majority of them this is the first time they have seen an orchestra and the first time they have been in a big hall like this.

“If we can share our love of music and perhaps encourage some to take up an instrument that’s fantastic.

"This is how we all start.”