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Welcome to the Slumdog Proms
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent8 Apr 2009
THE Proms are going to Bollywood. This year's concerts will include one day dedicated entirely to Indian music culminating in a Bollywood song and dance extravaganza.
The first Bollywood Prom on 16 August was planned long before Slumdog Millionaire brought Mumbai mainstream.
Although previous concerts have featured the traditional Indian instrument the sitar, this will focus on the voice,with singers including popular Indian TV host Shaan.
The day will also include free performances of folk music from Rajasthan in Kensington Gardens. It is one of the highlights unveiled today of the festival of music that opens at the Royal Albert Hall on 17 July and runs until 12 September. There will be 100 concerts for the first time, up from 88 last year.
Other surprises are the first appearance of the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain and commissions from Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and Goldie, the drum '*' bass music star and former graffiti artist known for the gold caps on his teeth. Goldie, who proved a surprise star of the Maestro conducting challenge on television last year, has been coached by classical composer Anna Meredith to produce his short piece.
It will be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Charles Hazlewood in Evolution! - a Darwin-inspired Prom for children on 1 August. Star performers include pianists Lang Lang and Martha Argerich, violinists Joshua Bell and Gideon Kramer, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and trumpeter Alison Balsom, one of 70 musicians Radio 3 has sponsored in its New Generation Artists scheme. All 11 of Stravinsky's ballets will be performed.
Goldie's involvement follows a long tradition of the Proms embracing world music, jazz and musicals.
Announcing the 115th season, Roger Wright, director of the BBC Proms, said it would provide two months of "outstanding and inspiring music-making". He said of Goldie: "He's a great creative musician but the idea was to ask him to learn to write for acoustic instruments which was a real challenge for him. Six minutes of Goldie is a fraction of the time we will be spending on Harrison Birtwistle."
There will be 75th birthday celebrations for composer Birtwistle and also for Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Last year more than 280,000 tickets were sold and the Proms reached 16 million people across TV, radio and online.
From Wizard of Oz to Handel's Messiah
1 August, repeated 2 August: Special concert for children inspired by Charles Darwin with CBBC presenters Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt as well as special guest Sir David Attenborough - and the Goldie commission
1 August: A 75th birthday celebration of classic MGM film musicals such as Meet Me In St Louis and The Wizard Of Oz with singers including Kim Criswell and Sir Thomas Allen
22 August: Beethoven's opera Fidelio conducted by Daniel Barenboim with the West-Eastern Divan orchestra of Israeli and Palestinian musicians
31 August and 1 September: Mariss Jansons conducting two concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw including Sibelius Symphony No 1 and Shostakovich Symphony No 10
6 September: A large-scale performance of Handel's Messiah with massed youth choirs
10 September: Nikolaus Harnoncourt makes his first Proms appearance with a modern symphony orchestra conducting the Vienna Philharmonic
Reader views (1)
Love it - looking forward to it already.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 08/04/2009 15:39
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