James Bond and prog rock to feature in 2026 Proms

Music from the James Bond films and a night of prog rock classics will pepper this year's BBC Proms, alongside the usual programme of orchestras, operas and soloists.

The eight-week season will feature 86 concerts in London, Gateshead, Bristol, Middlesborough, Sunderland and Mold, with appearances by percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, soprano Louise Alder and pianist Yuja Wang.

Highlights include a celebration of Miles Davis's centenary and reflections on Benjamin Britten, marking the 50th anniversary of his death.

The season, which begins on 17 July, will also include a tribute to Disney composer Alan Menken, and a journey into space with the team behind the TV show Horrible Histories.

The opening night concert will see Korean piano sensation Yunchan Lim playing Ravel's piano concerto in G Major, and star tenor Thomas Atkins transporting the audience to France, via George Gershwin's An American In Paris.

A celebration of homegrown creativity includes a brass band Prom with Yorkshire's Black Dyke Band, making their sixth appearance at the festival.

There will also be the world premiere of a new concerto by Gwilym Simcock, written especially for Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jess Gillam and Ben Goldscheider - 10 years after they were discovered through the BBC Young Musician competition.

The Met Orchestra, New York will make its Proms debut, with a pair of concerts dedicated to Mahler and Strauss; while South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo will lead a celebration of Paul Simon's Gracelands album on its 40th anniversary.

Every concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds, with 24 Proms programmes on BBC television and iPlayer.

Eight years after the BSO Resound became the first disabled-led ensemble to perform at the Proms, the Paraorchestra will present an "immersive take" on Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians at Bristol's Beacon Hall. It will mark 50 years since the piece premiered.

That performance is one of two concerts highlighting the work of the New York minimalist as he celebrates his 90th birthday.

The same venue will host soloist Alessandro Vazzana, a disabled musician who uses eye movements to play an innovative, software-based instrument called the Clarion.

Back at the Royal Albert Hall, German musician Felix Klieser, who was born without arms, will play Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 using his feet.

As with the wildly successful Northern Soul Prom in 2023, this year's exploration of prog rock will be curated by BBC 6 Music DJ and former NME writer, Stuart Maconie.

In an essay for this year's Proms programme, he admitted that some of the genre's "excesses and follies can seem silly" to a modern eye, while insisting the genre shouldn't be written off.

"Prog is simply great music released from the arid strictures of cool and from the sneers of gatekeepers".

Taking place on 18 July, the Prog Prom will include new orchestral arrangements of hits by Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull, amongst others.

Elsewhere, the Proms will mark the legacy of Motown soul legend Marvin Gaye; Turkish psych-folk band Altın Gün will make their Royal Albert Hall debut in a concert conducted by Jules Buckley; and singer-songwriter Nadine Shah will perform in Gateshead.

Traitors star and Ted Lasso actor Nick Mohammed will host the Bond and Beyond Prom on 25 August, featuring greatest hits from Skyfall and The Spy Who Loved Me, amongst others.

A season of American music will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence - including an American Classics Prom with music by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.

Californian soprano Angel Blue will join the Chineke! Orchestra for a prom that includes music by the Charleston-born composer Edmund Thornton Jenkins, one of the first people to introduce elements of jazz and spirituals into the classical repertoire.

The American repertoire comes at a time when the so-called special relationship between the UK and US is under scrutiny.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Proms director Sam Jackson said the concerts were planned two years ago, before the Presidential election.

"What we didn't know then was the way in which world events - particularly those relating to the USA - would take an, at times, unprecedented course," he said.

However, he added: "I believe strongly that the potency and power of classical music, and the stories of those who compose it, should be shared with a broad audience.

"What's more, we must not allow our current geopolitical climate to stifle culture, or to dissuade us from championing music of both the past and the present. Great art can't be cancelled."

The season will conclude on 12 September with the traditional pageantry of the Last Night.

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo will oversee the celebrations for the seventh time, alongside tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Yuja Wang, who will give the Proms' debut of Samuel Barber's Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto.

The programme will conclude with the traditional medley of sea shanties, Pomp and Circumstance and Auld Lang Syne.

Last year's concert also saw the orchestral debut of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - including a special appearance by two of the band's surviving members, Brian May and Roger Taylor.

The line-up for this year's send-off has not been completely finalised, leaving the door open for a similarly spectacular finale.

More than 300,000 tickets are available across the season, with almost a quarter of those available for just £8.

This year marks the 131st year of the festival, and 99 years since the BBC started organising and broadcasting it.