Sir Mark Elder joins TV presenter line-up for world’s largest broadcast classical music festival.

Conductor Sir Mark Elder curates BBC Four Sunday symphony series with Katie Derham as part of regular Proms broadcasts on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays on BBC Four

Every Prom broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and online in HD sound

Six of the BBC’s national radio stations – Radio 1, 1Xtra, 2, 4, 6 Music and the Asian Network – also broadcast Proms

All Proms from the Royal Albert Hall available to listen online in surround sound

120 years since the very first Proms season and in the spirit if its founding mission to make the best music available to everyone, the 2015 Proms will reach millions of music lovers beyond the concert hall, whenever and wherever they are, via BBC Radio, Television and Online.

The world’s largest broadcast classical music festival, every Prom is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and in HD Sound online. This year, BBC Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 4, Radio 6 Music and the Asian Network will all broadcast Proms, and on BBC Television selected Proms performances will be broadcast on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four in HD and surround sound. This year, CBBC will also broadcast a Prom. All Proms recorded for Radio and Television will be available on-demand for 30 days after broadcast on BBC iPlayer via the BBC Proms website, bbc.co.uk/proms, including additional performances from across the season.

Also in 2015, all Proms from the Royal Albert Hall will be available to listen online in surround sound.

Proms on Radio

As the home of the BBC Proms and classical music, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast every Prom live from the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall. Each Prom will be available on-demand for 30 days in HD Sound via the Proms website, and each week five concerts will be repeated on Afternoon on 3 and the Proms Chamber Music concerts will be repeated on Sundays at 1.00pm. Throughout the Proms season, Radio 3 also provides extensive context around the festival’s concerts and accompanying events at the Royal College of Music in a wide range of Proms-related programming.

A series of Late Night Proms curated in collaboration with five of the BBC’s national radio stations – which along with the BBC Proms are part of BBC Music – will showcase a coming-together of musical genres: Radio 1’s dance ambassador Pete Tong celebrates 20 years of Radio 1 broadcasting and hosting live events from Europe’s dance music capital Ibiza, joining forces with the Metropole Orchestra to reimagine some of the most enduring dance music tracks in the history of the genre (Prom 16); BBC Radio 1Xtra presents a grime symphony with artists including Wretch 32, Stormzy and Krept & Konan (Prom 37); Jarvis Cocker leads a BBC Radio 4 Prom based on his popular Wireless Nights series (Prom 74); BBC Radio 6 Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs presents a reimagining of classical music by pianist Nils Frahm and due A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Prom 27); and the BBC Asian Network brings a new wave of contemporary Asian and Bollywood artists collaborating with the BBC Philharmonic (Prom 8).

BBC Radio 2 returns to the Proms for an evening concert which tells the Story of Swing presented by Clare Teal featuring two big bands led by trumpeter Guy Barker and trombonist Winston Rollins (Prom 35).

In 2015, the Proms will also reach international radio audiences through BBC World Service broadcasts of selected Proms and the festival will be broadcast in up to 50 territories via the European Broadcasting Union.

Proms on Television and Online

Selected Proms are broadcast on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, CBBC and online via the Proms website throughout the 2015 season.

The First Night of the Proms will be broadcast live on BBC Two and the Last Night of the Proms will be broadcast live on BBC Two (first half) and BBC One (second half) presented by Katie Derham. Proms Extra will return to Saturday nights at 7pm on BBC Two for seven episodes covering performances from the previous week’s Proms, interviewing artists, looking forward to the musical week ahead and featuring studio performance.

BBC Four will present a curated series of Proms broadcasts on Thursday, Friday and Sunday evenings throughout the festival: Thursday Proms will focus on soloists in both concerto and recital repertoire presented by Samira Ahmed, Tom Service and Kirsty Wark; Friday Proms will offer hot tickets to some of the absolute highlight Proms of the season with presenters including Angel Blue, Clemency Burton-Hill, Razia Iqbal, Suzy Klein and Petroc Trelawny; and Sunday Proms will focus on the symphony, with leading British conductor Sir Mark Elder introducing a different symphony each week and presenter Katie Derham hosting from the Royal Albert Hall.

BBC Music’s classical music initiative Ten Pieces culminates in a celebration of children’s creative responses to 10 pieces of music in two BBC Proms concerts which will be recorded for future broadcast on CBBC.

Viewers will be able to watch performances of all the works from any Prom filmed for TV, available for 30 days on BBC iPlayer via the Proms website, bbc.co.uk/proms.

Expanding on the growing audience for digital content which last year saw 56% of all unique browsers coming from mobile and tablet, this year more Proms content will be available online than ever before across PC, mobile and tablet. All music performed during filmed Proms and not broadcast on television will be available to watch on special online BBC iPlayer collections via the BBC Proms website,bbc.co.uk/proms. See television broadcast below for more information.

The new Proms website, bbc.co.uk/proms, is the digital home of the Proms with everything audiences need to know about the 2015 BBC Proms season, including on-demand listening, highlights videos and an online Proms Archive detailing every Proms concert since they began in 1895. A brand-new BBC Proms Guide app provides a digital version of the printed Proms Guide, available for mobile and tablet devices on iOS and Android, and BBC Playlister will also provide recommendations of works from the season in its playlists and audiences can tag any piece of music performed at the 2015 Proms and it to their own playlist. In 2015 all Proms from the Royal Albert Hall will also be available online in surround sound. For more information about the Proms 2015 digital offering go to bbc.co.uk/proms.

Sensational mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte makes her debut in the title role of Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen, conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong.

Opens Wednesday 20 May at 7.30pm at the London Coliseum (14 performances)
Broadcast live in cinemas across UK and Ireland, and selected cinemas worldwide, as part of ENO Screen on 1 July 2015 at 7.30pm

Winner of the Young Singer Award in the 2015 International Opera Awards, mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte makes her debut in the title role of this passionate tale of lust, seduction and betrayal. Set during the dying days of Franco’s Spain, Calixto Bieito’s “cogent, gripping” (The Guardian) production of Carmen returns to the London Coliseum for its first revival.

Calixto Bieito remains one of the most sought after opera and theatre directors of his generation and is particularly well known for his radical reinterpretations of classic operas and plays. He has previously directed ENO productions of Don Giovanni (2001) A Masked Ball (2002), and Fidelio (2013). Bieito will return to the London Coliseum in November 2015 to direct a new production of Verdi’s The Force of Destiny, conducted by incoming ENO Music Director Mark Wigglesworth. The Force of Destiny is a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and will be performed in their 2017/18 season, marking Bieito’s directorial debut with the House.

Sensational mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House from 2011-13. She made her ENO debut as an “exceptionally fine” Maddalena (The Independent) in Christopher Alden’s production ofRigoletto (February 2014), and also performed the role at the Royal Opera House later in the year. Accompanied by pianist Iain Burnside she performed a series of Rachmaninoff songs at the Wigmore Hall last season, which were also recorded for the Delphian label.

Internationally acclaimed tenor Eric Cutler will made his ENO debut in the role of Don José. He has performed in many of the world’s leading opera houses, including Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; La Monnaie, Brussels; Opera Australia and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In 2012 he performed the role of Nadir in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers with Santa Fe Opera, for which the Wall Street Journalpraised his “focused, ringing tenor and blazing high notes”.

ENO Harewood Artist Rhian Lois returns as Frasquita. She has frequently performed with ENO and has, this season, ‘sparkled’ (Daily Telegraph) as Atalanta in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Xerxes and also created the role of the Younger Woman in the world premiere of Between Worlds, the debut opera from composer Tansy Davies and librettist Nick Drake, Between Worlds.

Former Opera Works singer Clare Presland will play Mércèdes. She made her 2012 ENO debut as the Palestinian Woman in John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer and has since appeared in numerous productions with the Company, including Between Worlds(alongside Rhian Lois) and as Wowkle in Richard Jones’s Olivier Award-winning The Girl of the Golden West.

ENO Harewood Artist Eleanor Dennis sings her first Micaëla, José’s ever-loyal ex-girlfriend. She most recently appeared at the London Coliseum as First Lady in Simon McBurney’s audience hit The Magic Flute. Company favourite Leigh Melrose will play the toreador Escamillo. He performed an ‘outstanding’ (The Daily Telegraph) Sonora in Richard Jones’s production of The Girl of the Golden West.

Returning to the London Coliseum to conduct this production is British conductor Sir Richard Armstrong. Formerly Music Director of Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera, his recent appearances at the London Coliseum include five star productions of both The Passenger (2011) and The Makropulos Case (2010). He will return to ENO in May 2016 to conduct 17 performances of Anthony Minghella’s production of Madam Butterfly.

Carmen opens at the London Coliseum on 20 May 2015 for 14 performances – May 20, 22, 28, 30 & June 3, 10, 12, 16, 18, 24, 29 & July 1, 3 at 7.30pm
June 14 at 3pm