News
Oxford at the 2009 Proms
Past and present members of the Music Faculty, as well as of the wider University community, are well represented at this year’s season of BBC Promenade Concerts. The Proms begin this Friday (17 July) and continue daily until 12 September. Billed as the world’s biggest music festival, the Proms are widely recognised as the showcase for today’s leading international musicians. Each Prom is broadcast live on BBC Radio and on the web, while many are also shown on BBC Television. A range of supporting documentation can be found at the extensive BBC Proms website.
Ryan Wigglesworth (former New College organ scholar) makes his debut at the Proms not only as a conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but also as the composer of The Genesis of Secrecy, which receives its world premiere. Also making his conducting debut is Harry Bicket (former Christ Church organ scholar) with the English Concert. Old Proms hands include Andrew Carwood with The Cardinall’s Musick, a group founded while Carwood was a lay clerk at Christ Church, Harry Christophers (former academical clerk and Honorary Fellow of Magdalen) with The Sixteen, and Charles Hazlewood (former Keble organ scholar) with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Former Christ Church Organist and Sub Organist, respectively Simon Preston and David Goode, make appearances, while David Titterington (former Pembroke organ scholar) has his own solo recital on the mighty Albert Hall beast. A number of singers are also to be heard in various soloistic guises: John Mark Ainsley (former Magdalen academical clerk and Christ Church lay clerk), Christine Rice (Balliol Physics graduate) and Toby Spence (former New College academical clerk). Howard Goodall (Christ Church graduate) makes an appearance in his role as National Singing Ambassador at the Proms Singing Day. And of the many outstanding instrumentalists at the Proms, pianist Llyr Williams (Queen’s graduate) and violinist Jennifer Pike (about to enter her first year at LMH) are former and present Radio 3 New Generation Artists. Many of our current and incoming undergraduates will be playing with the National Youth Orchestra for their annual Proms appearance.
Musicology, too, is represented by a number of our resident scholars speaking at pre-Prom events, writing in the programme books, and broadcasting on BBC Radio and TV: these include Suzanne Aspden (Jesus) and Berta Joncus (St Anne’s/St Hilda’s) on Handel; Jonathan Cross (Christ Church) on Birtwistle; and Philip Bullock (Wadham) on Shostakovich.
... And not forgetting Sir Hubert Parry, the first Heather Professor of the twentieth century, whose Jerusalem will be assured a place at the Last Night of the Proms for quite a few years yet!