BBC Proms back in the region with tickets now on sale
Nadine Shah, "lah-de-dah"
The BBC Proms season is embracing the North East once again with a fourth residency at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead and concerts in Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
The Gateshead weekend, scheduled for July 23-25, will feature a collaboration between Nadine Shah and Royal Northern Sinfonia (July 24).
“This summer,” said the South Tyneside-born singer-songwriter, “I’ll be making my proms debut with Royal Northern Sinfonia.
“The performance will take place in the North East at our finest establishment, The Glasshouse in Gateshead. It’s high art, it’s fancy, call me ‘Nadine Shah lah-de-dah’. It’s about time, on the Tyne.”
This concert will take place on the concourse at The Glasshouse – not, as you might have expected, in the big Sage One hall because that, we are told, is to be undergoing “a transformational summer refresh”.
Gateshead’s BBC Proms weekend will also include BBC Introducing from The Glasshouse: Live at the Proms, a showcase of emerging and independent artists presented by Teesside rapper Shakk in Sage Two (July 23), and a performance of Crippled Symmetry, a 1983 chamber work by American composer Morton Feldman, performed by Dinis Sousa on piano/celesta, flautist Helena Gourd and percussionist Jude Carlton (also in Sage Two, July 24).
The latter will give regular classical concert-goers the chance to see the music director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in a new light. Dinis is most commonly seen conducting rather than at the keyboard.
The BBC Singers will also join Voices of the River’s Edge, the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia and sax soloist Jess Gillam for a performance of John Tavener’s Song for Athene and selections from Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell (July 25).
That, too, is scheduled for the concourse.
Fraser Anderson, chief executive of The Glasshouse, said: “It’s brilliant to see the BBC Proms in the North East growing year on year.
“What started here in Gateshead has become three days of music that stretches across the region and brings people together for live music of all kinds. Taking centre stage is an exciting and eclectic range of musicians: connecting great artists with audiences is what we’re all about.
“We love working with our colleagues at the BBC to bring one of the world’s greatest music festivals to this most musical region, and are hugely grateful to North East and Tees Valley Combined Authorities for helping to make this possible.”
At Middlesbrough Town Hall (where they might dispute Nadine Shah’s “finest establishment” assertion) on July 23, North East folk group The Unthanks will join the Royal Northern Sinfonia and conductor Ellie Slorach for a concert of songs shaped by the North, reimagined, we are told, with bold, cinematic arrangements.
Additional special guests are to be announced.
Then on July 25 at The Fire Station in Sunderland (ditto on Nadine, although we’re sure they love each other), violinist (and artistic partner of The Glasshouse) Maria Włoszczowska will direct the Royal Northern Sinfonia in a concert featuring Divertimento by her late Polish compatriot Grażyna Bacewicz, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings - with Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland - and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.
Billed as “the world’s greatest classical music festival, this year’s BBC Proms begins on July 17 and runs until the ‘Last Night’ on Saturday, September 12.
Between those dates there will be 86 concerts involving more than 3,000 musicians, 20 international ensembles and 41 orchestras and choirs from across the UK.
As well as The Glasshouse residency in Gateshead, there will be another at the Bristol Beacon and a first ever Prom concert in Mold, North Wales.
All the Proms concerts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds and 24 of them will be shown on BBC television and iPlayer.
If you’re London-bound over the summer, 1,000 promenade – which is to say standing – tickets will be available for every Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The season will feature 20 premieres including 17 BBC commissions and co-commissions.
Notable Proms concerts include the following…
Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man with Robert Ames conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in symphonic tributes to ELP, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance and more (July 18).
Horrible Science: The Big Bang Proms Experiment with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Karen Ní Bhroin joining the Horrible Science team for a science-packed orchestral adventure (July 25).
Under African Skies: The Songs of Graceland, marking the 40th anniversary of Paul Simon’s landmark album and featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra under director Peter Edwards (August 5).
Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul with Edwin Outwater conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in a celebration of Gaye’s legacy (August 14).
Miles Davis Centenary with American jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire joining the BBC Concert Orchestra and Miho Hazama to mark 100 years since Davis’s birth (August 20).
There will also be a series of concerts marking 50 years since the death of composer Benjamin Britten.
One of them will feature Gateshead-born John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London – also artistic partners of The Glasshouse – performing two of Britten’s early works, Les illuminations and Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (September 6)
Tickets for BBC Proms concerts in the North East are on sale now. See details on The Glasshouse website.
General booking for all BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall opens at 9am on May 16.