RCM Alumni take centre stage at 2023 BBC Proms

Royal College of Music alumni feature throughout this year’s BBC Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall.

On 9 August, renowned mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly performs music by Alma Mahler-Werfel and Dora Pejačević. Acclaimed pianist Pavel Kolesnikov also takes the stage with Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no 2, while John Wilson returns to the Proms once again to conduct the Sinfonia of London in Walton’s arresting Symphony no 1.

On 7 September, Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers Sofi Jeannin leads the choir in a latenight performance. Laurence Cummings, Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, conducts a performance of Handel’s Samson on 23 August, with another RCM alumnus Jonathan Lemalu and RCM Visiting Professor of Vocal Studies Brindley Sherratt both singing.

The season also spotlights RCM composition alumni with the UK premiere of Meditations on Joy by Helen Grime, while Ola Gjeilo performs his own works in a late-night Prom of contemporary music. Scattered throughout the season are alumni from the Vocal and Opera department including previous RCM Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar, Nardus Williams, and Andrew Staples, who was the first recipient of the Peter Pears Scholarship.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performance on 5 August features several rising stars from the RCM Junior Department, while Jon Hopkins, an alumnus of the RCM Junior Department, makes his BBC Proms debut with a world premiere and reinterpretations of music from his three albums on 29 August.

Image: Alumna Nardus Williams, who was the inaugural Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar at the RCM, appears at this year’s BBC Proms (Photo: Bertie Watson)