Dubai Opera has announced what must be the jewel in its first-year season – the BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical music festival, is coming to Dubai for four days next Spring.
Taking place from 21 to 24 March at Dubai Opera, BBC Proms Dubai will give audiences the opportunity to experience some of the excellent programming, talented music-making and undeniable tradition that the Proms can offer.
Following the inaugural BBC Proms Australia in April 2016, this will be only the second time the Proms has been abroad. It will also be the first visit to the UAE for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers.
The programme runs to six concerts in total – see below – and as well as the core classical repertoire we are promised world premieres by Dubai-based British composer Joanna Marsh and the Australian-Egyptian oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros.
Joe Tawadros will play a late-night prom with his quartet, which we assume will include the sublime pianist Matt McMahon, and brother James Tawadros on percussion, and either Dimitri Vouros (clarinet) or Karl Dunnicliff (double bass). The music is genre defying but if you need a label you could probably call it ‘jazz fusion’ or even ‘world music’.
There will also be a performance of Pax universalis, the 2015 tone-poem composition from the young Arab-American star Mohammed Fairouz (“a post-millennial Schubert” enthused Gramophone). Fairouz is quoted as saying “It is deeply gratifying to me on a personal level to see the establishment, growth and quick success of Dubai Opera. I once described Pax universalis as ‘my most consistently joyful work’; it is an appropriate sentiment for the joy that I feel seeing dynamic new cultural institutions like Dubai Opera take hold in the UAE, and the foundations for a long legacy of humane arts being built in my home country”.
Conductor Edward Gardner and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, both Proms favourites, will join the BBC Symphony Orchestra on stage; James Burton, another regular, leads the BBC Singers in two a cappella programmes of British choral music.
And of course it all culminates in the traditional and wildly popular Last Night of the Proms, where Edward Gardner will lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers performing the traditional favourites including Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea-Songs, Rule, Britannia! and the Pomp and Circumstance March.
Even better, there will be a comprehensive programme of workshops, masterclasses and open rehearsals across the four-day festival, run in collaboration with the UK/UAE 2017 Year of Cultural Collaboration led by the British Council. Activities include a workshop for the Arabian Youth Orchestra with players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a series of workshops for local adult and children’s choirs with the BBC Singers and a masterclass for chamber musicians at the Centre for Musical Arts in Dubai.
Now in its 122nd year, the Proms reaches more than 300,000 people live and many millions more across the world via radio, television and the internet.
All the Dubai concerts will be recorded for BBC Radio 3.
David Pickard, BBC Proms director, said he was delighted that audiences in the UAE would get an opportunity to sample the Proms experience. “Through this series of concerts and learning events we hope to give the audience an idea of what the Proms are all about, making classical music accessible through quality music-making, outreach work, affordable ticket prices and broadcasts.”
Jasper Hope, Dubai Opera’s Chief Executive, obviously knows the Proms well from his previous job at the Albert Hall in London. He said was the “thrilled” to welcome “the world’s greatest classical music festival” to his current establishment, calling it “the definitive destination in the GCC for the very best music and entertainment from the whole world, as well as being a stage on which we can celebrate the best in local and regional talent to the broadest possible audience”.
Seats are available already at prices from AED 350 to 950 for the BBC Symphony gigs, from AED 150 up for the BBC Singers and the Tawadros Quartet.
And in the spirit of the founding principle of the Proms – “to bring the best of classical music to the widest possible audience” – nearly 600 standing tickets will be made available each day for each concert, priced from just AED 50. ‘Promming’ (standing) tickets for the Last Night of the Proms will be available only to customers who have bought tickets to at least one of the five other Proms concerts at Dubai Opera.
BBC Proms Dubai concerts:
| 21 Mar 8pm | |
|
Gary Carpenter |
Dadaville |
| BBC Symphony Orchestra; Edward Gardner (conductor), Benjamin Grosvenor (piano) | |
| 22 Mar 8pm | |
|
Gerald Finzi |
My spirit sang all day (from Seven Partsongs, Op. 17) |
|
BBC Symphony Orchestra; Edward Gardner (conductor), Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)
|
|
| 23 Mar 7.30pm | |
|
Joanna Marsh |
Flare (World Premiere) |
|
BBC Symphony Orchestra; Edward Gardner (conductor), Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)
|
|
| 23 Mar 11pm | |
|
Late Night Prom: Tawadros Quartet
|
|
| 24 Mar 2pm | |
|
CV Stanford |
Three Motets, Op. 38 |
|
BBC Singers; James Burton (conductor)
|
|
| 24 Mar 8pm | |
|
Shostakovich |
Festive Overture |
| BBC Symphony Orchestra; Edward Gardner (conductor), Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Joseph Tawadros (oud), James Tawadros percussion | |
Be the first to comment