The Bristol Proms – Exciting and Affordable

By Chris Billingham 

No matter how far you have to travel, incredible live performances and new musical experiences are always worth journeying too. However, it has to be said that it is a particular thrill when they are on your doorstep (even more so if they come in at an affordable price!). You can therefore imagine our excitement when Alison Balsom signalled the launch of this year's Bristol Proms with a fanfare performance at Paddington Station.

Taking place just up the road from us in Bristol, The Bristol Proms aims to invite  “world-class artists to exploit the classical repertoire in an informal, accessible atmosphere” (quote taken from the Bristol Old Vic website). Now in its third year, the festival has previously delivered some fantastic evenings and this year it looks set to do the same when it takes place at Bristol's Old Vic Theatre from July 27th - August 1st 2015.

Looking through the line up (which can be found here) there are a number of performances to get excited about. Daniel Hope headlines the opening night with an evening that looks at the rivalry between Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Milos Karadaglic, who The Sunday Times described as “probably the biggest classical-guitar phenomenon since John Williams in the 1960s and Julian Bream a decade below” combines artists in an evening entitled ‘From Bach To The Beatles’. Particularly exciting to me personally is the ‘The Night Shift Pub Crawl’ which will see the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment lead its audience on a pub crawl around Bristol (locations currently unconfirmed). As well as musical performances there will also be discussions; six talks take place with Jonathan James (subjects include ‘Beethoven Unwrapped’ and ‘A History Of Classical In 60 mins’) and John Suchet will interview John Rutter. It really is worth visiting the website and taking a look at all events.

The reason we are so excited about The Bristol Proms is their commitment to not only putting on interesting shows but shows that are affordable to everyone. Tickets are available from £5 and events such as the pub-crawl with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will hopefully entice younger people and new audiences to the event. I’m not suggesting that young people need pubs to be involved to find something appealing! But it’s undeniably that a social event and something that could be considered informal is no doubt appealing. The barriers that have been put in place from high ticket prices and particularly formal atmospheres begin to come down, making classical music accessible to all. The importance of this can never be overstated.

As well as finding out more about The Bristol Proms we would also encourage everyone to attend our upcoming concerts! Two-time Tony Award nominee Jason Carr will be joined by Dame Felicity Lott and Melvin Whitfield for our next café concert ‘Jason Carr andFriends’ which takes place on March 27^th at 1.00pm in the Corn Exchange Newbury. Later than evening in St. Nicolas Church, Newbury at 7.30 we will present ‘Classical Celebration II’, a concert that will see us perform Elgar, de Souza and Mozart.

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