The BBC TV decision to leave out contemporary works from Proms broadcasts, or isolate them in special programmes, like musical quarantine, implies a belief that the general music-loving audience won’t like the new. This runs counter to our experience at Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, where audiences with wide musical interests have not only been coming to hear new works, but also digging into their pockets to pay for them, for over two decades.

Later this season we unveil the 75^th premiere from our Sound Investment scheme; since long before ‘crowd-funding’ entered the lexicon, hundreds of BCMG audience members have helped commission new works, with contributions now edging £300,000. They do it for all kinds of reasons, and it’s interesting that the vast majority are not ‘new music aficionados’ when they join the scheme. But once in, invariably they stay, finding the excitement of what composers are doing now every bit as addictive as listening to great works of the past.

Our last premiere, Crowd Out by US composer David Lang, launched earlier this summer in Birmingham, at London’s Spitalfields Festival and in Berlin, relied for its amazing success not only on the public’s generosity as commissioners, but also on the willingness of many hundreds more to give their time and energy as performers. This 40-minute piece for 1,000 voices drew its ‘all-comer’ participants from diverse backgrounds and all ages, including many with no musical experience at all. They came together to shout, sing, whisper and chant in Lang’s thrilling and moving work.

We also find curiosity and openness from new audiences at the smaller end of the scale. For over a decade BCMG has been touring rural village halls, schools, libraries and community centres in Shropshire and Herefordshire and these concerts of wide-ranging contemporary music have produced some of the most engaged and attentive audiences I’ve encountered. In Birmingham, our regular workshops for children and young people are packed, and many of the young participants are amongst our keenest listeners at evening concerts, seemingly unaware of the ‘fear factor’ that is meant to stalk the contemporary music world.

All these experiences have taught me that interested audiences for the new are everywhere and anywhere, if only we can find ways to reach them. And here the BBC is in prime position. Having just returned from our own contribution to the BBC Proms, celebrating the marvellous Harrison Birtwistle, what seems bizarre about the BBC TV position is that it flies in the face of what other parts of the corporation are doing so brilliantly – the whole glory of the Proms is its breadth of programming, and the BBC is by far the single biggest commissioner of new works in the land. So, I would challenge TV programmers to be bold and adventurous, and pay us the compliment of having the highest expectations of us, the audience.

BCMG launches its 2014-15 season with the world premiere of Param Vir’s sarod concerto, Raga Fields, at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Saturday, October 4. Visit www.bcmg.org.uk for details.