122 years since it was founded and 90 years since the BBC took over the running, financing and broadcasting of the world’s largest classical music festival, the BBC Proms today announces its 2017 season. Presenting over eight weeks of events and more than 90 concerts the festival continues its founder-conductor Henry Wood’s aim of bringing the best classical music to the widest audience.

The festival marks major composer anniversaries in 2017, including Monteverdi at 450, Handel’s Water Music at 300 and John Williams at 85.  The birthdays of two pioneers of American Minimalism are also celebrated – John Adams’ 70^th birthday is marked throughout the festival including the First and Last nights, and Philip Glass’ 80^th birthday is celebrated with the first complete live performance of Passages, the 1990 studio album he created with Ravi Shankar, performed by the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Karen Kamensek with sitar soloist Anoushka Shankar. 

Following its launch last year, the ‘Proms at…’ series returns, matching music to five different venues and for the first time in recent history travels outside of London to Stage@TheDock in Hull, the UK’s 2017 City of Culture, for a concert inspired by the 300^thanniversary of the first performance of Handel’s Water Music. As well as eight Proms Chamber Music concerts at Cadogan Hall, the series presents choral music at Southwark Cathedral, music theatre at Wilton’s Music Hall, new and experimental music at the Tanks at Tate Modern, and returns to Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park in Peckham for a wide-reaching programme featuring The Multi-Story Orchestra and Youth Choir. 

The Proms explores the ways in which politics has inspired and influenced composers across the ages through two big historical anniversaries in 2017 – one hundred years since the Russian Revolution, featuring the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, and the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which is marked with a special day of concerts curated by Bach specialist John Butt.

Engaging new audiences remains a vital part of the BBC Proms mission as the festival opens its doors through special initiativesincluding the first ever Relaxed Prom. Presented in collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) and the Royal Albert Hall Education & Outreach team, the concert offers an informal environment for people with autism, sensory and communication impairments and learning disabilities as well as individuals who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted. The Prom, which follows BBC NOW’s first ever Relaxed concert in Cardiff on 2 July, is led by conductor Grant Llewellyn and musician Andy Pidcock. Other concerts designed especially to present classical music to new audiences include Gerard McBurney’s Beyond the Score, which combines actors, projections and live musical examples who explore the history of Dvo?ák’s ‘New World’ Symphony, and Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, deconstructed live on stage by Tom Service and conductor Nicholas Collon, before a performance from memory by the Aurora Orchestra. A series of weekend matinees also offer engaging concerts that present the perfect introduction to classical music at a time of day that is convenient for those who may not be able to attend evening events.

As always the Proms presents a wide range of the very best music, with jazz and soul music a focus in the 2017 season. The festival marks 100 years since the births of Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie with a concert starring vocalist Dianne Reeves and trumpeterJames Morrison.  The music of jazz giant Charles Mingus is celebrated by conductor Jules Buckley and his Metropole Orkest, BBC Radio 2 presenter Clare Teal returns with bandleaders Guy Barker and Winston Rollins for a concert celebrating big band legends including Duke Ellington, and Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra pay tribute to the legendary Stax/Volt Revue, credited for its championing of Southern and Memphis soul music.

The refreshed Proms website – bbc.co.uk/proms – reflects the entire festival offering. The ‘Proms Unplucked’ Podcast, presented by comedian and composer Vicki Stone, offers a unique backstage view of the whole festival.

Tickets are available via bbc.co.uk/proms or 0845 401 5040 and in person at the Royal Albert Hall as follows:

• General booking opens at 9.00am on Saturday 13 May
• Season and Weekend Promming Passes are available to purchase from 9.00am on Thursday 11 May.
• Proms Chamber Music Series Passes are available to purchase from 9.00am on Thursday 11 May.
• Tickets for the Ten Pieces Presents…Proms (Proms 11 and 12) are available to purchase from 9.00am on Friday 12 May.
• Tickets for the Relaxed Prom (Prom 19), including a limited number of Promming tickets, are available to purchase from 9.00am on Friday 12 May.

Following Garsington Opera for All’s successful second year of free public screenings on beaches, river banks and parks in isolated coastal and rural communities, Handel’s sparkling masterpiece Semele will be screened in four areas across the UK in 2017. Free events are programmed for Skegness (1 July),  Ramsgate (22 July), Bridgwater (29 July) and Grimsby (11 October).  In each location a large-scale programme of education and outreach work is firmly integrated with the free public screenings and will provide ground-breaking opportunities for communities to be involved in creating, learning about, and performing opera.  Semele will also have a free public screening as part of Oxford Festival of the Arts (1 July) and  Garsington Opera’s 2016 production of Tchaikovsky’sEugene Onegin will be screened this year at the Buckingham Film Place community cinema (17 June).

Opera for All is a programme which challenges expectation by uncovering the ingredients and foundation of opera – drama, music, story-telling and expressive emotion.  In 2016 Opera for All worked with 25 schools, reached 1,000 young people, working directly with artists in residencies, and provided skills development for 50 teachers. Over 2,500 people attended the opera screenings. For the students in each location, the experience of working alongside a team of professional artists to create and perform their own pieces in response to the opera was transformative.  For many it was their first experience of live professional singing and evaluation of the project has shown significant positive impact on confidence and social cohesion

Opera for All is a three-year partnership project between Garsington Opera, the charitable trust Magna Vitae, and the Coastal Communities Alliance, and is supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund.  As a result of this partnership an online network – the Coastal Culture Network – has been formed.

Semele – a love story in which the god Jupiter (performed by British tenor Robert Murray) is captivated by the beauty of the all-too-human Semele (sung by  Heidi Stober making her UK debut).  It features some of Handel’s most exquisitely beautiful music, with soaring choruses and splendid orchestral writing.

SCREENING DATES FOR SEMELE   

SKEGNESS        Saturday 1 July                                SO Festival

OXFORD            Saturday 1 July                              Oxford Festival of the Arts

RAMSGATE       Saturday 22 July                              Ramsgate Festival

BRIDGWATER   Saturday 29 July                            Bridgwater Quayside Festival,

GRIMSBY           Wednesday 11 October                 Grimsby Auditorium

SCREENING DATE FOR EUGENE ONEGIN

BUCKINGHAM   Saturday 17 June                           The Film Place