BBC Proms will make a second sojourn to Dubai in March 2019. It follows the inaugural BBC Proms Dubai in 2017, which featured pianist Benjamin Grosvenor and conductor Edward Gardner.
The 2019 event will run from 19-22 March at Dubai Opera, with BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers as the core performers. Other confirmed artists are accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, violinist Karen Gomyo, conductor Ben Gernon, cellist Nicholas Alstaedt and soprano Elizabeth Atherton.
As for the music, BBC Proms Dubai 2019 has a world premiere of Tmesis by British-Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk; Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto; Thomas Arne’s Rule, Britannia!; and Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1.
Commented Bushra El-Turk: “Throughout my career I have hoped for my music to be a meeting point between cultures and I feel honoured, as a composer of British and Middle Eastern heritage, that I have been selected to represent these cultures through my piece Tmesis.”
BBC Proms has also continued its commitment to cheap tickets – almost 600 standing (also known as promming) tickets are available for each concert, which cost AED 50 (£11.65). Further, BBC Proms will bring its usual retinue of educators, with workshops for local ensembles, vocal coaching for members of the Dubai Opera Festival Chorus and pre-concert talks.
“In 2017, the inaugural BBC Proms Dubai gave audiences in the UAE an opportunity to sample a taste of the BBC Proms experience and we look forward to thrilling audiences again with this wonderful series of concerts and learning events,” remarked BBC Proms director David Pickard. “The Proms is truly about making classical music accessible through quality music-making, outreach work, affordable ticket prices and broadcasts, and BBC Proms Dubai encompasses this.”