The Last Night of the Proms at St Jude's is always special, and this year is no exception. Come hear Tchaikovsky's popular, evergreen 'Serenade.' It is a heartfelt piece, now considered one of the late Romantic era's definitive compositions. Mendelssohn's String symphony no 10 was composed when he was only 13 years old. An example of his genius, it has entranced concert goers for decades. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante is arguably his geatest violin concerto. Written when he was 23 years old, it is a masterpiece and one of his most beautiful works.

The London Mozart Players, one of the world’s finest chamber ensembles, is dedicated to harnessing the passions and talents of its musicians so that audiences can revel in the joy of world-class performance. Its pioneering approach to music-making marks the orchestra as a leader in terms of outreach, education and diversity, dedicated to reaching new audiences with classical music.

Featuring tonight are Aki Blendis, who was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician 2022 competition, and Jaren Ziegler who won the 2022 string final - the first violist to do so.

Link to artist's own website: https://www.londonmozartplayers.com

Tom Fetherstonhaugh, who BBC Radio 3 described as a 'spark to watch' conducts the highly acclaimed Fantasia Orchestra with soloist Jennifer Pike (violin) in a programme comprising Beethoven’s tragic Coriolan Overture, which depicts the ultimate conflict between war and peace; Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, the piece that launched Pike’s career when she became the youngest-ever winner of the Young Musician of the Year competition; Ukrainian composer, Valentin Silvestrov’s heart-wrenching Hymn-2001; and the utterly compelling Beethoven Symphony no 8, one of the shortest and most experimental symphonies that he composed.

Link to artist's own website:https://www.fantasiaorchestra.com

Peter Long, musical director at Ronnie Scott’s, leads a 16 piece orchestra in Jazz Planets as well as Ellington's greatest hits. 

Peter was inspired to create this innovative piece in which he marries Holst's dramatic musical portraits of the heavens with the style and conventions of big band jazz. He formed his band from London-based musicians with individual sounds similar to the original Ellington sidemen, like Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Joe Nanton, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney, creating an authentic yet original virtuosic style. The results are amazingly truthful to the original Duke Ellington Orchestra sound.

Recording from attist's previous work: https://youtu.be/biiGUylPim8

Link to artist's website: https://www.plong.co.uk/the-jazz-planets/

Set in a futuristic urban dystopia, Fritz Lang's German Expressionist silent film Metropolis is widely regarded as one of the most entertaining and influential sci-fi movies of all time. Made with an extraordinary budget of five million Reichsmarks, the film was shot over 310 days, with 36,000 extras and 200,000 costumes. Ephraim Katz in The Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia called Metropolis ‘A futuristic, visually completing allegorical look at relations between capital and labor in a Big Brother society ruled by robots, antagonism and fear’. This performance will be the UK première of a new edition of Gottfried Huppertz's richly romantic original 1927 score, arranged and conducted by Ben Palmer, one of the world's leading silent film conductors.

Recording from artist's previous work: https://youtu.be/2i9T-A_gJ94

Tonight’s programme features Giovanni Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Pergolesi’s Stabat mater is a transcendently beautiful and deeply personal musical meditation on suffering and redemption, written by the 26-year-old composer as he himself lay dying. Dido and Aeneas, performed at St Jude's with minimal staging, is a Baroque operatic treat populated by witches, drunken sailors and spurned lovers. The aria known as Dido's Lament is arguably the saddest piece of music ever written. It is an outpouring of melancholic beauty possibly unsurpassed in all opera. It is played annually at the Cenotaph during the National Service of Rememberance and inspired Annie Lennox to record a version.

Link to the artist's own website: https://www.armonico.org.uk

Come hear Shostakovich’s haunting Piano Trio no 2, inspired by the tragedies of the Second World War. According to eye-witness accounts, the audience was stunned by the power and daring of the work.‘The music left a devastating impression. People cried openly.’ 

Contemporary composer Sam Perkin's Freakshow, was inspired by the 1916 camp that became known as the ‘University of Revolution’ because leading figures such as Irish revolutionary Michael Collins were imprisoned there.

Beethoven's Allegretto for Piano Trio was composed in 1812 for a ten-year-old and the beautiful, lyrical Mendelssohn Piano Trio embodies all the finest qualities of Mendelssohn's immaculate art, full of bountiful melodies, finesse and easy virtuosity.

Chambers Award Winners of the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Awards 2022, the Sitkovetsky Trio’s thoughtful and committed approach has brought the ensemble critical acclaim.

Recording from artist's previous work:https://youtu.be/Ex5lPOGSMVs

Link to the artist's own website: http://sitkovetskytrio.com

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Madeleine Melling, our Proms colleague and previous chair of the Music Planning Committee. We warmly welcome members of Madeleine's family who will be in attendance at this evening's concert. 

Elgar described the Serenade for Strings as one of his personal favourites. Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, is a glorious setting of six English poems that Britten completed in 1943. It is meditative and melancholic, with the songs framed by a solo horn. Mahler’s Adagietto is love song to his wife Alma - its enduring popularity owes much to Visconti’s film Death in Venice. Beethoven’s second symphony was composed when the fear of Napoleon loomed over Europe but still generates and maintains a cheerful enthusiasm – it is full of energy and musical jokes.

James Gilchrist's extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world. 

The Purcell School holds the UNESCO Mozart Gold Medal, which recognises its unique contribution to music, education and international culture.

Recording from artist's previous work: http://YouTube.be/RxVLGfdRq0U

Link to artist's own website: https://www.purcell-school.org

Die Fledermaus is an utterly farcical operetta whose accessibility made it a sure-fire hit, beginning with its overture that is packed full of tunes from start to finish. The Blue Danube Waltz is probably the most famous waltz ever written; Strauss’s publisher is said to have received so many orders for the score that he supposedly had over a million copies printed.  Summer Evening is an affectional folk-style pastoral sound-scape and the Romanian Rhapsody provides tunes with a spontaneous air and a frenzied finale.

The Times described Leo Geyer's music as 'imaginative and beautifully shaped'. Founded in 2014, the Pico Players is a dynamic and exciting orchestra that has performed numerous sell-out concerts. 

Recording from artist's previous work: https://www.thepicoplayers.org/video

Tap your feet to an hour’s rendition of traditional Irish music, led by Eilish Byrne-Whelehan, Musical Director of Feith an Cheoil School of Irish Traditional Music in London and musical director of The London Celtic Youth Orchestra. 

Link to artist's information: https://youtu.be/YEnODJ_AeAU

Broadway and All That Jazz is a celebration of iconic showstopping Broadway hits, some with a fresh jazz twist. This uplifting celebration features two West End stars Emma Kershaw and Katie Birtill singing everyone’s favourites, including All That Jazz, Cabaret, Wouldn’t it be Loverly, Don’t Rain on my Parade, I Feel Pretty, Too Darn Hot, Send in the Clowns and many more.

Recording from artist's previous work: Emma Kershaw - https://youtu.be/OC6E1o1Kha4

Recording from artist's previous work: Katie Birtill - https://youtu.be/5jjuW2pNmCA

Link to artist's own website:  Emma Kershaw - https://www.emmakershaw.com

Link to artist's own website:  Katie Birtill - https://www.katiebirtill.com