Which anniversary composers are the BBC Proms focusing on this year?

From the 150th anniversary of the births of Maurice Ravel and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, to the great Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday, to the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Dmitry Shostakovich and Bernard Herrmann, a wealth of major moments in classical music history will be reflected. It’s also important to me that we use these anniversaries as an excuse to programme rarely heard repertoire. This is perhaps best demonstrated by Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which this year receives only its second ever performance at the Proms.

The RAH is a dramatic setting for large-scale choral works – what does 2025 offer?

It’s a year of rich pickings: from Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard oratorio Sancta Civitas on the First Night, to Sir Mark Elder conducting Delius’s Mass of Life, to Arthur Bliss’s Morning Heroes – a work programmed only once before at the Proms, all the way back in 1968. I’m also looking forward to welcoming Le Concert Spirituel to the festival, to perform a glorious work: Alessandro Striggio’s 40-part Mass.

Is there a concert you’re particularly proud of having made happen this season?

Without question, Samara Joy’s Prom. In 2023, she came out of nowhere to be named Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards – an extraordinary jazz vocalist, she’s now added four more to her name. Her voice is simply extraordinary, and I’m thrilled that Samara will perform with an orchestra for the first time.

New music is always a key thread: can you share some commissioning highlights?

I’ll focus on two British composers whose music bookends the Proms. On the First Night, we’ll hear the world premiere of The Elements by the Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen. And on the Last Night, a piece by Rachel Portman – the first woman ever to win an Oscar for Best Original Score. Rachel’s piece, The Gathering Tree, is inspired by music’s role in bringing people together: a fitting theme, as the Proms comes to a close for another year.

If you can’t make the RAH – or the Proms in Sunderland, Bristol, Belfast, Gateshead and Bradford – how can you listen?

Every Prom is on BBC Radio 3, and on BBC Sounds until 30 days after the Last Night. In addition, 25 Proms feature on BBC TV and iPlayer, and followers of Radio 3 on Instagram will see a host of behind-the-scenes content.