BBC News broadcast set to music

A live BBC News bulletin is being set to music by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and an orchestra.

The musicians will perform next to a giant screen broadcasting pictures and sound and react accordingly.

Serious items will be reflected by music in a minor key while light reports will be in a major key.

Lloyd Webber said he was not sure how the experiment, at Birmingham Town Hall, would work but said he was "very excited".

The musicians will perform next to a giant screen showing the World News Today on BBC Four on Thursday evening.

'Very excited'

Lloyd Webber said his cello would play the part of the bulletin's presenter, Zeinab Badawi.

He and an orchestra made up of students from the Birmingham Conservatoire have been given a basic musical score to work from.

However, their conductor will divert them from it to reflect the live news stories.

He said: "I've always been interested in the belief that classical music is a living, breathing thing that can be involved in contemporary culture.

"This could not be more contemporary than this - it's the news as it happens.

"It's an experiment - I honestly I don't know how it's going to go but it's something interesting and I'm very excited about it."

The composers of the basic score - Michael Wolters and Marcus Dross - said the performance would be an alternative way to absorb the news.

The event launches the Birmingham New Generation Arts Festival, being run by Birmingham City University.

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