BBC PROMS AT SAGE GATESHEAD 2022
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FOLKLORE BRIDGES SYMPHONIES CENTURIES AND CONTINENTS APART
- The BBC Proms are moving beyond London to Sage Gateshead this summer
- Conductor Dinis Sousa and the Royal Northern Sinfonia will collaborate with Voices of the River’s Edge and the folk ensemble Spell Songs.
- Voices of the River’s Edge is a brand-new choir formed by 100 young people.
- World Premiere of a new work by Judith Weir, a setting of Julia Darling’s Indelible Miraculous.
- BBC Proms at Sage Gateshead will be held at 7:30 pm on July 23rd at Sage One.
Get ready to immerse yourselves in a musical journey like no other! Outside of its usual London residence, experience the magic of the BBC Proms at Sage Gateshead at 7:30 pm on July 23rd at Sage One.
Folklore is the common thread that connects symphonies born in new worlds and yet deeply rooted in the old, from John Adams‘ music, that combines his vision of the musical future with the idealism of America’s frontier past, to Dvořák‘s Ninth Symphony, which shines with celebration for his American hosts and longing for his far away home in rural Bohemia.
Conductor Dinis Sousa and the Royal Northern Sinfonia collaborate with Voices of the River’s Edge – a brand new choir formed by 100 young people – and Karine Polwart, Rachel Newton and Jim Molyneux from the folk ensemble Spell Songs as they bridge centuries and continents, with the shared joy of grassroots music-making.
The programme also includes the world premiere of Indelible Miraculous, a poem by Julia Darling set to music by the Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir. Darling is dear to many, particularly in the North East which she made her home for many years. Indelible Miraculous plays on the tension between celebration and pathos.
BBC Proms is the world’s biggest classical music festival. Across eight weeks and over 80 concerts from leading orchestras, conductors, and soloists from the UK and around the world, the BBC Proms aims to offer a summer of music that allows for the most diverse and exciting musical journeys. In its 127th edition running from July 15th to September 10th, the BBC Proms expands outside of London continuing its founder Henry Wood’s original ambition of bringing the best classical music to the widest possible audience.
ENDS
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Sage Gateshead
- Sage Gateshead is an international music centre for the North East and wider North. Through music, creative learning and artist development, the organisation demonstrates what music can achieve for communities.
- Since opening in 2004, Sage Gateshead has worked side by side with partners and the wider community to help address the complex blend of social and economic challenges the region faces.
- Sage Gateshead continues to be a major employer bringing investment and tourism into the region. We’ve generated a c. £500 million contribution to the local economy, a sum six times greater than its combined capital cost.
- Sage Gateshead has brought social, cultural and educational value to over 10 million people and millions more via digital and broadcast activity. The scale of its artistic, learning and artist development activity places Sage Gateshead amongst the UK’s largest cultural organisations, while reaching a substantially more socially and economically diverse audience.
- Pre-pandemic Sage Gateshead attracted 2 million visitors; 5,000 people took part in weekly music classes; 17,854 school children experienced live orchestral music and we worked with a further 2,418 vulnerable young people; more than 2,000 adults a week took part in music making designed to tackle social isolation.
- The North East region is one of the worst affected by Covid-19. The region will be one where the recovery is slow and hard. Arts and culture have a pivotal role to play in regional and nation-wide recovery.
- Covid-19 presents a major financial challenge to Sage Gateshead, the iconic Foster + Partners designed NE landmark. 80% of its income has been affected, and in 2020/21 £10 million in revenue was lost. The organisation has taken swift action to overcome this crisis. 90% of the workforce was placed on furlough, significant cost savings have been sought and found, and it launched a fundraising campaign to raise £3 million to help secure the organisation during the next three years. Further challenges lie ahead; in 2021/22, Sage Gateshead estimates box office and trading income to be less than half of what would be expected in a normal year.
- Sage Gateshead temporarily closed to the public on 17 March 2020, five days ahead of the announcement of the national lockdown. Sage Gateshead recommenced performances in October 2020 with a season of socially distanced concerts featuring Royal Northern Sinfonia and artists across genres, made available by live stream; audiences were able to be present in the hall for two weekends of those performances.
- In 2020 Sage Gateshead received a grant of £2.8 million from the Culture Recovery Fund Round One to help it through the pandemic and associated financial crisis. In 2021 the charity received a loan of £3m from the Culture Recovery Fund Round Two to support recovery. It has thanked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Arts Council England for this vital support.
About the BBC Proms
As the world’s biggest classical music festival, the BBC Proms offers eight weeks of world-class music-making from a vast array of leading orchestras, conductors and soloists from the UK and around the world. Across more than 80 concerts, the festival aims to offer a summer of music that allows for the most diverse and exciting musical journeys. More than 125 years since it was founded, the driving factor in building a festival of this scale is to offer exceptional music-making at the lowest possible prices, continuing founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original ambition of bringing the best classical music to the widest possible audience. With every Prom broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, available across multiplatform and many televised on the BBC, the Proms reaches far beyond the Royal Albert Hall. The 2022 BBC Proms runs from Friday 15 July to Saturday 10 September. https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms