BBC Proms
The BBC Proms is an annual festival of music, usually focusing on classical music, that culminates in the "Last Night of the Proms" with its traditional pomp and flag-waving. It began in 1895, initially just as one concert, conducted by the legendary Henry Wood. In 2011 it runs from the 15th July to the 10th September. Since 1941, the Proms have been held at London's wonderful Albert Hall. However, in recent years, there has been attempt to broaden the musical scope of the proms, with music from a number of different genres being included, and concerts at a wide range of venues, rather than just at Royal Albert Hall (specifically a number of parks around the country).
Kathryn Tickell
Kathryn Tickell is England's best-known player of the Northumbrian smallpipes, although she also plays fiddle and sings. At the Royal Albert Hall on 2 August 2011, Kathryn hosts an evening celebrating the work of Percy Grainger. Grainger is one of those composers, like Ralph Vaughan-Williams, who clearly brings the classical and folk worlds together, and was instrumental in the folk revival. Tickell is not the first folk musician to play the Albert Hall. Show of Hands, for example, have sold it out on several occasions. Nor is Tickell the first traditional musician at the Proms; for example, the "Folkworks" sessions, which Tickell herself directed, took their "Folkestra" to the Proms in 2008.
Kathryn will be joined on the prestigious Proms stage by other folk performers, June Tabor and the Wilson Family, as well as Northern Sinfonia and the BBC Singers. Folk music is particularly strong in the North-East of England, and it is therefore fitting that performers from that region of the British Isles should be bringing folk music to the capital and to the nation.
Traditional tunes have, for a long time, made up part of the programme at the Proms, but usually through the arrangements of the great classical composers, like Vaughan-Williams or Bartok, and performed as orchestral pieces. This will be a great opportunity to hear the music in the hands of traditional musicians.
Folk Music to a Wider Audience
Although the BBC Proms can be seen as quite an elitist event and not one which would popularise an artist (indeed, Kathryn Tickell could be said to be popularising the Proms!) the event's prestige and importance to the BBC's calendar has certainly brought Tickell and the Northumbrian smallpipes to a wider audience, with appearances on the BBC Breakfast Show and on BBC Women's Hour.
It should prove to be an evening of great music, superbly arranged and interpreted.
Duncan Hall - Duncan Hall is a semi-professional acoustic musician and lecturer in Government & Politics
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