Bristol Proms

Bristol Old Vic in collaboration with
Universal Music Arts and Entertainment
and Watershed presents

OVER 2,000 TICKETS AT £12 OR LESS

PROMENADE PIT TICKETS (STANDING) JUST £5
(these tickets are currently only available by calling box office on
0117 987 7877)

BOOK NOW:
SINGING IN THE DARK by The Fitzhardinge Consort
A VIEW FROM ALL ANGLES by Jan Lisiecki
HAUSCHKA WITH ROD MACLACHLAN
DANCEFLOOR BACH WORKSHOP with Peter Gregson + choreographer Jane Gibson
DANCEFLOOR BACH with Peter Gregson
WOOD & STONE by VOCES8
THE JULIET LETTERS by Elvis Costello, performed by Jon Boden and the Sacconi Quartet
MAX RICHTER: THE FOUR SEASONS RECOMPOSED by Daniel Hope and The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
THE BULLET AND THE DAMAGE DONE by Sleepdogs
SCHUBERT'S SECRETS: AN APPRECIATION OF HIS FINAL MASTERPIECE by Jonathan James
FACE THE MUSIC by The Sacconi Quartet and Guy Johnston perform Schubert's String Quintet
NICOLA BENEDETTI: SOLO VIRTUOSO
IN A TOWN by The Beautiful Machine, directed by Jennifer Bell
HANDEL'S MESSIAH directed by Tom Morris with Southbank Sinfonia

Since its opening in 1766, the beautiful Bristol Old Vic (the oldest working theatre in the country) was both playhouse and concert hall.

Inspired by the hugely popular promenade concerts staged in the 1840s - which drew people from all corners to listen to the music of Mozart, Weber and Rossini, performed by eminent talents such as Niccolò Paganini - we are delighted to launch Bristol Proms in collaboration with Universal Music Arts and Entertainment and Watershed.

You won't be surprised to know that we'll be doing away with any haughty formalities as we deliver a world class programme that is as informal and interactive as it is accessible and dramatic; and all performed in the crackling ferment of a theatrical environment.

And, for the first time since last year's redevelopment, we will be using our recovered standing pit at the front of the stage so you can stand on the very same spot as you might have during the 18th century for just £5.

During Bristol Proms, quartets, choirs, orchestras, ensembles, violinists, virtuosos and more will help us recover the interactive spontaneity of classical music and bend it into fantastical new shapes with the help of our digital/research partners Watershed. But more on that soon...

SINGING IN THE DARK
The Fitzhardinge Consort

One of Bristol's premier ensemble choirs and purveyors of exquisite, a cappella choral music, perform in an inky cloak of darkness in our Studio. A repertoire comprising music by Gesualdo, Whitacre, Palestrina and Arcadelt, The Fitzhardinge Consort will also perform a lit rendition of Bristol Old Vic's Anthem, composed by Adrian Sutton (Coram Boy, War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time).

Mon 29 Jul
Studio
6pm (Running Time: 55mins)
£10

A VIEW FROM ALL ANGLES
Jan Lisiecki

Signed to Deutsche Grammophon, decorated 17-year-old concert pianist Jan Lisiecki is something of a singular talent, whose renditions of Mozart and Chopin have earned the Canada-born wunderkind legions of fans and armfuls of awards throughout the world. Here, filmed literally from every angle, dive even deeper into the heart of this extraordinary performance comprised of selections from Chopin's groundbreaking Études.

Mon 29 Jul
Theatre
7.30pm (Running Time: 110mins)
£5-£30

HAUSCHKA WITH ROD MACLACHLAN

Last seen conjuring up all manner of sounds from his "prepared piano" during 2012's Bristol Jam, the extraordinary German pianist/composer Hauschka debuts a new collaboration with Bristol-based visual sculptor Rod Maclachlan for this one-off Bristol Proms highlight.

Co-presented with Qu Junktions. Watch the video from Hauschka's Radar above.

Mon 29 Jul
Theatre
10pm
£5-£15

DANCEFLOOR BACH WORKSHOP
Peter Gregson + choreographer Jane Gibson

Join cellist Peter Gregson and Jane Gibson who'll be teaching you to move in ways you never thought possible to the surprisingly modern sounds of Bach's famous cello sonatas. Workshop participants will then perform for the public in Dancefloor Bach (see below) at 6pm the same evening.

Tue 30 Jul
Studio
2pm
£12 (includes entry fee to perform in Dancefloor Bach at 6pm the same evening - see below)

DANCEFLOOR BACH
Peter Gregson

Cellist, composer and rule-breaker Peter Gregson has premiered work by composers including Gabriel Prokofiev, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Steve Reich, Howard Goodall and many more; often collaborating with some of the world's leading technologists, including Microsoft Labs, UnitedVisualArtists, Reactify and the MIT Media Lab. Here, Gregson reshapes Bach squarely for today's dancefloor, performing alongside 30 members of the public (see workshop above).

"...at the forefront of the new music scene..."
The New Yorker

See a clip of Peter Gregson's previous work above.

Tue 30 Jul
Studio
6pm
£10

WOOD & STONE
A multi-site ambulatory performance by VOCES8

The international, award-winning outfit VOCES8 present a two-part a cappella performance, precision engineered for traditionally wooden (Bristol Old Vic Theatre) and stone (St Mary Redcliffe) spaces. Capable of criss-crossing choral, classical, pop, jazz and Renaissance polyphony, the youthful octet come armed with vast vocal artillery, and here, at Bristol Proms, they'll offload the lot.

See a clip of VOCES8's previous work above.

Tue 30 Jul
Bristol Old Vic Theatre (part 1) and St Mary Redcliffe Church (part 2), Colston Parade, Redcliffe, BS1 6RA
7.30pm (Running Time: 110mins)
£5-£30

THE JULIET LETTERS
By Elvis Costello
Performed by Jon Boden and the Sacconi Quartet

Jon Boden (pictured) - lead singer of turbo folk heroes Bellowhead - joins Bristol Old Vic Associate Artists, The Sacconi Quartet, to reprise Elvis Costello's rich, beautiful and genre-blurring album, The Juliet Letters, originally recorded with The Brodsky Quartet, based on a series of imaginary letters being sent to Shakespeare's fated lover, Juliet Capulet.

Tue 30 Jul
Theatre
10pm
£5-£15

MAX RICHTER: THE FOUR SEASONS RECOMPOSED
Performed by Daniel Hope and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra

Virtuoso violinist Daniel Hope and the mighty Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra breathe warm swathes of new life into Max Richter's take on Vivaldi's timeless Four Seasons; a glorious journey through a quartet of seasonal music.

"The original Four Seasons is a phenomenally innovative and creative piece of work... so dynamic, so full of amazing images... my aim was to fall in love with the original again - and I have."
Max Richter

Please note: Max Richter will not appear in this performance of his work, The Four Seasons Recomposed.

Wed 31 Jul
Theatre
7.30pm (Running Time: 100mins)
£5-£30

THE BULLET AND THE DAMAGE DONE
by Sleepdogs
Composed and performed by Timothy X Atack
Directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya

Sleepdogs present a special late-night remix of their theatre show The Bullet And The Bass Trombone, responding directly to the presence of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra on stage moments before. A fractured narrative comes together piece by piece around a haunting soundtrack, part electronic, part orchestral - a portrait of a city in chaos, an orchestra caught up in a military coup, and new music being made of the voices, stories and sounds that emerge.

"Harrowing, intelligent, beautifully crafted... and ultimately incredibly uplifting in an impossible-to-describe kind of way."
Andrew Haydon of The Guardian on The Bullet and The Bass Trombone

Sleepdogs are Tanuja Amarasuriya and Timothy X Atack. They make stories and prompts to the imagination for theatre, film, sound and online www.sleepdogs.org

Produced by MAYK.

Wed 31 Jul
Theatre
10pm (Running Time: 55mins)
£5-£15

SCHUBERT'S SECRETS: AN APPRECIATION OF HIS FINAL MASTERPIECE
Presented by Bristol Proms and Jon James



The late string quintet is one of the most moving pieces in Schubert's repertoire. Using illustrations from the piano and recorded excerpts, Jonathan James will explore what lies behind the quintet's powerful writing and what it tells us about the composer's complex personality and his particular creative genius. Suitable for the lay listener and expert alike, this will be an excellent way of opening your ears to the deeper message of the music when listening to Sacconi Quartet and Guy Johnston.

Thu 1 Aug
Studio
6pm (Running Time: 45mins + Q&A)
£5

FACE THE MUSIC
The Sacconi Quartet and Guy Johnston perform Schubert's String Quintet

Bristol Old Vic Associate Artists The Sacconi Quartet (pictured) join cellist and former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Guy Johnston, to perform what is considered one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music, Franz Schubert's dazzling String Quintet in C major. As part of this performance, Bristol's Icon Films will be experimeting with the capture of facial expressions.

Thu 1 Aug
Theatre
7.30pm (Running Time: 120mins)
£5-£30

NICOLA BENEDETTI: SOLO VIRTUOSO

The prodigiously talented Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti MBE, another of Proms' former BBC Young Musicians of the Year (and a Classic Brit Award-winner last year), plays a special Bristol Proms set, solo and unaccompanied.

Fri 2 Aug
Theatre
7.30pm (Running Time: 105mins)
£5-£30

IN A TOWN
The Beautiful Machine, directed by Jennifer Bell

A "townscape" of unadorned song, In a Town sees choir director Jennifer Bell further exploring what we first saw during 2011's Ferment Fortnight, delivered here in soaring a cappella by an ensemble choir. "We get a sense of people going about their daily lives, connecting with each other or longing to connect... the whole piece is full of moods and fragments of personal stories..." said Venue magazine last time out.

Fri 2 Aug
Theatre
10pm
£5-£15

HANDEL'S MESSIAH
Directed by Tom Morris with Southbank Sinfonia

Our very own spectacular Last Night of the Proms, concludes with Bristol Old Vic Artistic Director Tom Morris's rousing, semi-staged performance of Handel's inimitable Messiah, alongside Southbank Sinfonia (pictured above performing in the Tom Morris-directed Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at The National Theatre), soloists Neal Davies, Catherine Wyn Rogers, Andrew Tortise and Caroline MacPhie, an accompanying choir and performers from our Young Company and beyond.

Photography: Simon Annand

Sat 3 Aug
Theatre
7.30pm
£5-£30

Tom Morris's exciting vision for Bristol Proms shows that classical music is not a sleepy, stuffy genre, but a force to be reckoned with..."

Max Hole, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group International

Bristol Proms
29 July-3 Aug
Prices, places and times listed above
Bristol Proms' media partner is Classic FM