Bristol Beacon will once again host the BBC Proms for a weekend of concerts in August as part of the Proms Across the UK, following a successful inaugural year in 2024. This year Bristol Beacon will host four concerts, with an additional afternoon concert taking place at St George’s Bristol. All four concerts at Bristol Beacon will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and the Prom at St George’s Bristol will be recorded for broadcast. £8 Promming tickets will be available for all concerts, encouraging audiences all across the South West to come and experience live music in the hall.
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Simon Wales, Chief Executive of Bristol Beacon, said “We are enormously pleased to be working with the BBC Proms once more as a host venue and to be part of the Proms Across the UK series. We strive to offer world-class classical music to our audience as part of our wider artistic programme and we are proud to be working with the BBC Proms to continue to offer music that is open to all. We look forward to inviting both existing and new audiences into Bristol Beacon this summer.”
Sam Jackson, Controller, Radio 3 and BBC Proms, said “I’m thrilled the BBC Proms is returning to Bristol for our second residency at Bristol Beacon. This weekend-long series of Proms in the West of England features an exciting array of local and international musicians, from the highly-anticipated return of Paraorchestra in collaboration with folk duo The Breath, to a concert with the Danish National Vocal Ensemble. The Proms was founded in 1895 on the belief that everyone should have access to the very best of classical music, so I am delighted that our concerts across the UK reach audiences on their own doorstep, as well as being broadcast on Radio 3."
Paraorchestra and Charles Hazlewood, who were named Best Ensemble at this year’s RPS Awards, made their BBC Proms debut last year at Bristol Beacon. They return this summer for a unique artistic collaboration with folk duo The Breath, working with composer Oliver Vibrans to arrange The Breath’s folk inspired sound-world for orchestra.
Paraorchestra’s Artistic Director Charles Hazlewood says: “We’re beyond excited to be bringing another world premiere to the BBC Proms, from our home at Bristol Beacon. This is a new collaboration, and we have fallen in love. The Breath are in a lane of their own, as storytellers, as powerful music makers, and with the glorious Oliver Vibrans working as a conduit between them and us, the signs are already of something new, unusual, thrilling and life-affirming. I can say, hand on heart, that this will be so much more than the standard orchestra-meets-band. I guarantee you will hear things - and instrumental combinations - that you have never heard before."
Inspired by the BBC Proms’ late-night shows at the Royal Albert Hall, Verity Sharp will present a special live edition of BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction at Bristol Beacon’s Lantern Hall, inviting special guests including DJ Sarahsson and audio-visual artist Wojciech Rusin to the stage.
Britten Sinfonia and conductor Tess Jackson perform Gavin Higgins’ Rough Voices, a work that was commissioned by the BBC Proms in 2020 and written as a musical protest to the pandemic, giving a voice to the most vulnerable. Britten Sinfonia pair this with Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, Sibelius’ Rakastava and Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa, with violinists Zoë Beyers and Miranda Dale.
Carlo Rizzi conducts the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera in an Italian programme of works by Rossini, Puccini, Berio, Verdi and Respighi, paired with Elgar’s In the South (Alassio) which he composed during a holiday to Italy. They are joined on stage by mezzo-soprano Avery Amereau.
As part of Bristol Beacon’s weekend hosting the BBC Proms, an afternoon concert will take place up the road from the Beacon at St George’s, Bristol. The Danish National Vocal Ensemble will present a choral programme from across the centuries, including Palestrina, Ethel Smyth, Mahler and Bach. This concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Tickets for the BBC Proms concerts at Bristol Beacon are on sale now. For more information and to book tickets please visit: bristolbeacon.org/bbc-proms-2025
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