14 Facts About The Proms

1.

BBC The Proms or The Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London.

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2.

The Proms were founded in 1895, and are now organised and broadcast by the BBC.

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3.

The Proms decided to disband the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, which played for the last time at a Symphony concert on 19 March 1927.

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4.

The Proms found it more expedient to let the Queen's Hall to the broadcasting powers, rather than to continue the Promenade concerts and other big series independently in an unequal competition with what was effectively the Government itself.

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5.

The Proms continue today, and still present newly commissioned music alongside pieces more central to the repertoire and early music.

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6.

In 2010, the Proms Archive was introduced on the BBC Proms webpage, to allow for a systematic searching of all works that have been performed and all artists who have appeared at the Proms since their inception.

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7.

Between 1986 and 2014, the post of Director, BBC The Proms had mostly been combined with the role of Controller, BBC Radio 3.

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8.

Just over a month before the announcement of the season, Margaret Hodge, a Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport suggested "that the Proms was one of several big cultural events that many people did not feel comfortable attending" and advocated an increase in multicultural works and an effort to broaden the audience.

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9.

The 2009 The Proms featured Bollywood music for the first time, as part of a day-long series of concerts and events covering Indian classical music.

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10.

The 2011 The Proms season featured new works by Sally Beamish, Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Pascal Dusapin, Graham Fitkin, Thomas Larcher, Kevin Volans, Judith Weir, and Stevie Wishart.

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11.

Late Night The Proms included collaborations with BBC Asian Network, Radio 1, Radio 6 Music and Radio 1Xtra .

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12.

The 2017 The Proms season featured 7 female conductors, the greatest number of female conductors in a single The Proms season to that point.

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13.

Many people's perception of the Proms is based on the Last Night, although this is very different from the other concerts.

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14.

However, some more traditional elements of the Last Night of the Proms have been removed on some years depending on local politics.

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