About the program

The BBC Proms is one of classical music's most celebrated events. The Proms is now in its 116th season, one of the longest-running musical festivals in the world. It is the largest in scope, with over 70 concerts performed between mid-July and mid-September. Virtually all of the world's great orchestras have performed at the Proms, and the festival also attracts the most famous of classical music stars to perform. The Proms takes its name from the "promenade" on the floor of London's Royal Albert Hall, where all of the concerts take place. Music-lovers queue up every day of the festival hoping to get tickets that allow them to become one of the "prommers," members of the audience who stand throughout the concert on the promenade.

Although its scope has increased enormously since 1895, the original concept remains largely unaltered: to present the widest possible range of music, performed to the highest standards, to large audiences. The partnership between American Public Media and the BBC Proms will provide audiences across the nation the best of the festival during its culminating week, a week that ends with a concert unlike any other: the sometimes raucous, sometimes stirring, steadfastly iconic Last Night of the Proms.

Brian Newhouse, Host
Peabody Award-winner Brian Newhouse was the producer and host for the Minnesota Orchestra broadcasts from 1986-91, heard live regionally on Minnesota Public Radio, and nationally from American Public Media. In 1992 he moved to Germany and served as a journalist with Radio Deutsche Welle in Cologne, covering topics from the Balkan War to European summer music festivals. He returned to the States and American Public Media, and is happily back in the host's chair for the Minnesota Orchestra broadcasts. He holds degrees in voice and English literature, has been a soloist with the Dale Warland Singers and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and an Artist-in-Residence at the Oregon Bach Festival. He won a Peabody Award, broadcasting's equivalent to the Pulitzer, in 2000 for writing the seven-part music documentary The Mississippi: River of Song. Simon and Schuster published his memoir, A Crossing, in 1998.