Proms 2019 line-up announced as chief says BBC event should be Brexit-free

'I want it to be not a political occasion but a musical occasion'

The programme for this year’s Last Night Of The Proms has been announced.

The chief of the music festival confirmed that this year’s event, inspired by the success of musical Hamilton, will include the first ever Prom dedicated to hip-hop inspired by the success of musical Hamilton.

Proms director David Pickard stated his hope that this year’s event won’t be politically-charged despite the country's turmoil over Brexit.

Since the referendum, some concert-goers at the Last Night Of The Proms have shown their solidarity with the European Union by waving EU flags.

Asked whether this year’s finale, a traditionally patriotic occasion that takes place at the Royal Albert Hall, will be a political hot potato, Proms director Pickard said: “I hope not.

“I want the Last Night not to be a political occasion but a musical occasion. It’s a time for letting your hair down, it’s a time to celebrate the end of this great festival and I don’t want it to be a political platform."

Other highlights in the programme include an evening dedicated to Nina Simone, and a concert to mark the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon.

The event will also see Queen Victoria’s piano come out of the Royal Collection to be played outside Buckingham Palace for the first time.

“It’s the piano that she owned, that she played,” Pickard said.

“We are thrilled that they allowed it out of Buckingham Palace... so we can see it and hear it in action.”

A Mendelssohn piano concerto will be performed on the instrument, featuring a composer “who would have been writing for exactly that kind of piano.”

This year, there are 12 new commissions by men and 11 by women.

And for the first time, there will be a woman, Karina Canellakis, conducting the First Night.

Marin Alsop previously became the first woman to conduct the Last Night Of The Proms.

Pickard said that “we still inherit the past of a male-dominated compositional world” and “sadly conducting has been seen as a male preserve in the past”.

But he added: “We have seven women conductors this summer.... It’s more women conductors than we’ve had at the Proms.”

The Proms, which last year sparked controversy over the casting of Maria in West Side Story, will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of its founder, conductor Sir Henry Wood.

“We still stand for what he wanted to be, the best of classical music for the widest possible audience...,” Pickard said.

“So much has changed in the breadth of music that people listen to, and I hope he’d be pleased that we’re reflecting that in the Proms today.”

The event will also include the premiere of Radiohead star Jonny Greenwood’s new piece "Horror Vacui", while three new works will reflect “the changing world around us” and climate change.

The TV coverage of BBC Proms is to be produced by an independent production company for the first time after BBC Studios lost the bid.

The Proms run from 19 July to 14 September. More info can be found at BBC.co.uk/proms.

Additional reporting by Agencies