00:00This is the BBC Proms coming out of the Royal Albert Hall. We've been working with the BBC
00:08for a long time to bring the BBC Proms to Bristol as a residency and there's six different
00:14proms going on over the bank holiday weekend and they're really varied, they're very inclusive
00:20and accessible, they're very welcoming but it is the proms experience in Bristol Beacon.
00:25Okay so we are in the Beacon Hall at Bristol Beacon, to me one of the greatest concert
00:30halls in the country. So Bristol Beacon obviously used to be called the Colston Hall and it
00:34is now Bristol Beacon and even the name is steeped in inclusivity, so tell me how is
00:41BBC Proms going to embody this? So I think the BBC Proms will be embodying this in terms
00:47of their residency here, it's going to be quite special so one of the things we're doing
00:51as an example is that we'll be representing the Power Orchestra and promoting Power Orchestra
00:55who will be performing on the first night of the residency. The proms experience is
01:01really when you think of proming, we're thinking about the standing in front of the stage so
01:06if you've ever seen the Royal Albert Hall proms on television, in the great big arena
01:11are people standing watching the show and it's a very accessible ticket, it's only £8
01:16plus booking fee here and the joy of proming is that you could stand right at the front,
01:22you can stand at the back, you can move around, you can sit on the floor, so it's informal
01:28but you're still really engaged with the concert. Lots of people are really talented but do
01:33not get the opportunities that others have had in the past and what I love about Bristol
01:38Beacon now is it's allowing stories from everyone to get through. So Power Orchestra is all
01:43about breaking down the barriers that disabled musicians have had in the industry. These
01:49are musicians that are absolutely professional, talented, at the top of their game but wouldn't
01:55be seen as being part of an orchestra so for the orchestra that's obviously very important.
02:00We'll also be doing a young composers workshop as well for young people and that's actually
02:05going to be focused around inclusion and how do you compose in an inclusive way so that
02:09anyone can take part in the piece that you might be writing as well so that's going to
02:13be one of the focus for us as well. But also over the next, you know, hopefully this residency
02:17is going to be carrying on year on year and we've already made a commitment that actually
02:20inclusion is going to be at the heart of it and actually going to be a real focus and
02:24a real point of celebration across the years that we do this.
02:27For the audience it's about visibility, you know, if you're not seeing yourself on a stage
02:33you don't consider that to be something that you can do and for us it's like a lot, it's
02:37a long journey, you know, we've been around since 2011, we'll be around for a lot longer
02:41and this is a part of that journey where, to be quite honest, we've broken through the
02:45glass ceiling, you know, BBC Proms is the biggest classical music festival in the world,
02:48we've never played it before and for an orchestra that's integrated like we are to be able to
02:54perform on that kind of platform is really important.
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