Lars Vogt To Headline First Night of The BBC Proms, Quay Voices Youth Choir to Sing with the Vienna Philharmonic, Amongst Hat-Trick of Proms Announcements for Sage Gateshead

Royal Northern Sinfonia’s Music Director Lars Vogt is piano soloist on the First Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. And the youth choir Quay Voices will partner the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle on the Proms’ penultimate night. The two extremely prestigious dates bookend the Proms season, and are joined by a chamber music concert by the Royal Northern Sinfonia. The announcement came at the 2015 BBC Proms launch in London on 23rd April. Kicking off the world’s largest classical music festival, German virtuoso pianist and conductor Lars Vogt will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo. For Sage audiences, this will be a preview of the Mozart journey that Lars and Royal Northern Sinfonia will embark upon in the 2015-16 season, and Lars will also perform this same piece with RNS at Sage Gateshead on 30th October following the opening BBC Prom. Royal Northern Sinfonia will then perform in the BBC Proms Chamber Programme at Cadogan Hall, playing Nielsen Wind Quintet and Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds with the renowned pianist Christian Blackshaw. Finally to complete the hat-trick, Quay Voices, Sage Gateshead’s regional mixed voice youth choir for singers aged 14–19 is one of four choirs together making up the BBC Proms Youth Choir. Widely recognised as one of the top youth choirs in the UK, Quay Voices will perform alongside Hallé Youth Chorus, Royal Welsh College of Music Chorus and Ulster Youth Chorus. This is the fourth time Quay Voices have taken part in the BBC Proms, offering a truly unique experience for the young singers. This year they will perform The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle on the penultimate night of the Proms and three days before in Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Welcoming the news, General Director Anthony Sargent said: “I’m delighted that three of this year BBC Proms, now with a global audience via Radio 3 online, feature Sage Gateshead artists. After Royal Northern Sinfonia playing several past orchestral Proms we’re thrilled that the virtuoso quality of our musicians is recognised this year by a chamber Prom, while for our young Quay Voices to sing two concerts with the peerless Vienna Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle will be an unforgettably exciting experience for them – and for Royal Northern Sinfonia’s music director Lars Vogt also to be the soloist on the televised First Night of the Proms really is the icing on the cake!”