Historic BBC Proms concert at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall in September

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, Sunday, September 8, 4pm.

The venue is to make musical history this September when it hosts its first BBC Prom, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Nottinghamshire’s legendary hero, Robin Hood, provides the concert’s opener via the overture to Doreen Carwithen’s colourful score to the 1954 movie The Men of Sherwood Forest, and Erich Korngold’s Oscar-winning music to The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Nottingham’s industrial past is the focus of Lace Machine Music, a new Proms commission from Dr Elizabeth Kelly, associate professor in music composition at the University of Nottingham, while Nottingham pianist Clare Hammond is the soloist in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.Completing this line-up is Sibelius’s atmospheric Third Symphony.

The matinee performance builds on the orchestra’s residency in Nottingham, which began in the autumn of 2022, in partnership with the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University and in association with the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall.

Neil Bennison, music programmer at the Royal Concert Hall, said: “We are really thrilled to be hosting our first BBC Prom in Nottingham with the BBC Concert Orchestra, which has added an exciting new dimension to the orchestra programme at our venue.

"Those who have been attending concerts here over the Royal Concert Hall’s 40-year history will know that it’s a really special place to hear live orchestras and we’re delighted to have the opportunity to showcase its exceptional sound to hundreds of new concert-goers here and millions more worldwide on the radio and online.”

On Saturday, September 7, at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, audiences will be the first to hear pieces composed by the most recent winners of the BBC Young Composer competition, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and presented by saxophonist extraordinaire and BBC Radio Three presenter Jess Gillam.

Mentored by composers Gavin Higgins and Helen Grime, the young composers have been inspired by Luke Jerram’s artwork Gaia, a seven-metre-tall replica of the Earth, and by soundscapes created through a biodiversity project run by University College London’s People and Nature Lab.

Details: See www.trch.co.uk for more.

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