Which English city is home to the Hallé Orchestra?

The Hallé Orchestra is based in the Northern English city of Manchester. Since 1996, its headquarters have been at the Bridgewater Hall.

The orchestra was founded in 1857 by the Anglo-German pianist and conductor Charles Hallé (1819-1895), after whom it was named, and was originally based in the Free Trade Hall. It ran into early financial difficulties, but weathered the storm and became recognised as one of the country's leading orchestras. Its director from 1899-1911 was the Austro-Hungarian conductor Hans Richter, who came with extremely illustrious credentials - he was the first ever conductor of Wagner's "Ring" cycle at the 1876 Bayreuth festival!

Although it subsequently experienced further difficult spells, the orchestra survived, and saw the premieres of many important musical works, including Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" and Elgar's First Symphony.