David Bowie to be celebrated with BBC Proms concert
Shakespeare, Strictly Come Dancing and South America will also be showcased at the annual musical celebration
David Bowie's incredible career is to be celebrated at this year's BBC Proms. The performer, who died earlier this year, will be remembered with a dedicated Late Night Prom among this year's annual programme of musical events.
The Bowie Prom has been described as "a celebration and reinterpretation of the music of David Bowie with the Berlin-based, genre-defying musicians’ collective Stargaze and its Artistic Director André de Ridder."
In the year that marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, the Proms will also pay tribute to the Bard. "Music inspired by the Bard, including orchestral works by Berlioz, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky and less familiar pieces by Hans Abrahamsen and Jonathan Dove via Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story" will feature across various nights.
This year's sporting events won't go unnoticed either. The Rio Olympics will heavily influence this summer's Proms season. The "music and musicians of Latin America" will be celebrated "with an array of South American orchestras, soloists and music," including performances from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and the São Paulo Jazz Symphony Orchestra, who will lead a Late Night Prom showcasing popular Brazilian music.
Meanwhile Strictly Come Dancing is following in the footsteps of TV shows Doctor Who, Sherlock and Life Story and being put in the Proms spotlight. BBC Proms presenter Katie Derham, who was a Strictly finalist last year, will appear alongside professional dancers, presenting "an evening of music and dance from Vienna to Latin America and back with the BBC Concert Orchestra and English National Ballet Music Director, Gavin Sutherland."
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2016 will also see the CBeebies Prom return for its third year, featuring presenters from across its most popular shows including Andy's Dinosaur Adventures, Let's Play and Robert the Robot.
BBC Proms 2016 runs from 15th July to 10th September at a number of locations around London and the UK, including four new venues: The Chapel, Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe; Roundhouse, Camden; and Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park, Peckham.
Tickets for the Proms go on sale 7th May. The concerts will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music, BBC2, BBC4 and on iPlayer.
