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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Charlotte McLaughlin

BBC Proms 2025: Full line-up revealed, including first-time Traitors Prom

Claudia Winkleman, presenter of the hit BBC show The Traitors, is set to host a Prom concert as part of the 2025 season.

The eight-week festival, running from July to September, will feature 86 Proms showcasing orchestras and musicians from across the globe at the Royal Albert Hall and other UK venues.

Winkleman's Prom, scheduled for both a matinee and evening performance, will delve into the intriguing world of "treachery and betrayal in classical music".

The concert will feature a blend of renowned classical pieces and new arrangements of music from The Traitors, scored by British-Canadian composer Sam Watts.

The 2025 Proms season also boasts a lineup of international artists, including British singer-songwriter Angeline Morrison, Beninese artist and songwriter Angelique Kidjo, US musician St Vincent, and British conductor Sir Simon Rattle.

There will also be guest appearances from contestants, and it will feature the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers, conducted by Karen Ni Bhroin.

Claudia Winkleman at the launch of season three of BBC’s The Traitors (PA Wire)

The BBC has not named The Traitors stars coming along. The latest third series featured retired opera singer Linda Rands and former diplomat Alexander Dragonetti, who since the show has, for a stint, become a Classic FM presenter.

As the Shipping Forecast celebrates its centenary on the BBC this year, it will be celebrated with an event with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast.

It will feature music inspired by the sea, with a new work composed and performed by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, his band LYR, and appearances from BBC Radio 4 voices.

Five-time Grammy Award-winner Kidjo will also return, following her 2019 Proms debut, as she heads to the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture festival.

Kidjo will pay tribute to her “African heritage” by performing tracks from Miriam Makeba, Fela Kuti, Hugh Masekela and Youssou N’Dour, and will have a “UK premiere” of African Symphony, which she collaborated on with arranger Derrick Hodge.

Kidjo will return to the Proms (AP)

Sam Jackson, controller, Radio 3 and BBC Proms, said: “Our summer of live music will see us host the greatest international orchestras and the best of British talent, in repertoire that ranges from the much-loved to the entirely new.

“World-famous soloists such as Hilary Hahn and Sir Andras Schiff sit alongside some of today’s brightest young classical stars, from Yunchan Lim, to Aigul Akhmetshina, to Louise Alder, who performs at the Last Night of the Proms.”

There will also be a new BBC commission from Sir John Rutter, who created pieces for the late Queen’s platinum jubilee and the coronation of the King, written for the BBC Singers.

Three-time Grammy-winning singer St Vincent will make her Proms debut as she takes to the stage with Jules Buckley and the English conductor’s orchestra, while Sir Simon is among those who are marking the 50 years since the death of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Sir Simon will bring to life Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 as he conducts the Chineke! Orchestra for the first time in their 10th anniversary year.

They will also perform works by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor,  and US composer George Walker.

US musician St Vincent will make her Proms debut (PA Archive)

Sir Simon also returns to the Proms with the wind, brass and percussion of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for a concert including folk-song  arrangements by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sir Malcolm Arnold and Australian composer Percy Grainger.

Sir Simon concluded his time as the London Symphony Orchestra’s (LSO) music director in 2023, after more than five years at the helm.

The First Night of the Proms is conducted by chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, while Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan oversees the Last Night of the Proms.

Last year, their roles were reversed with Oramo ending the Proms, while Chan began it.

Other highlights include a commission for Rachel Portman, the first female composer to win an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Jane Austen 1996 adaptation Emma; a celebration of Alfred Hitchcock collaborator and conductor Bernard Herrmann; and Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi’s debut conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in his symphony inspired by Hiroshima.

The Proms take place from July 18 to September 13.

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