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Attendances at all-time high for
´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms 2007
 272,000 attendances and 5% increase in the total audience
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87% average attendance for main evening Proms
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Promming up by 7% on last year
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34 of the 72 Royal Albert Hall concerts sold out completely
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Attendance to Cadogan Hall Proms up by 24%
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As the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms 2007 closes with the world-famous Last Night Of The
Proms celebrations on Saturday 8 September, Nicholas Kenyon, the out-going Director, announced that attendance figures have broken all
records.
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More than 272,000 people attended ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms events*, a total audience
increase of 5% compared with 2006.
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It is the biggest attendance ever recorded, breaking the all-time high of 265,000 reached in 2001.
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Average attendance for the main evening concerts was 87% compared with
86% last year, and the number of people buying on-the-day £5 promming
tickets has risen by 7% to 72,500, matching the previous high in 2001.
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Total attendance at the Proms Chamber Music and Saturday Matinee Proms at
Cadogan Hall was up by 24% on 2006 and six of the 12 concerts sold out.
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Nicholas Kenyon said: "The 2007 ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms season has exceeded all our expectations, with
thrilling events like the Simón BolÃvar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela,
Wagner's Götterdämmerung, and a galaxy of leading conductors, soloists
and orchestras at the very top of their form. Audiences have responded
with huge enthusiasm.
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"I could not have had a better end to my 12 seasons
at the Proms than the record attendance figures we are announcing today.
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"The Proms are a beacon for the best of classical music, and I wish the
whole team and the new Director, Roger Wright, a flourishing future."
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Whilst marking the 80th anniversary of the partnership between the Proms
and the ´óÏó´«Ã½, the 2007 season looked to creating the music and performers
of the future through concerts and broadcasting.
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There were 12 ´óÏó´«Ã½
commissions, music by 33 living composers, and nearly 100 works new to
the Proms – from Adams, Bach, Carter, Dankworth and Elgar to Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
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There were unparalleled opportunities for talented young performers –
most memorably on Brass Day and with the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of
Venezuela – as well as more ways than ever for a new generation to get
involved, including the first nationwide talent search to find 40
children for a new work by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman and
poet/novelist Owen Sheers about climate change.
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Six thousand young people made use of the half price tickets offered to all those aged 16 and under, and a further 3,750 people participated directly
in Proms Learning events, including Proms Family Orchestras, Music Intro
workshops, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms/Guardian Young Composers Competition and Brass
Day.
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Including the five ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms In The Park events around the country, the
´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms season 2007 included 90 concerts, 30 choirs, 70 conductors, 56
orchestras and ensembles (21 of which came from abroad), 140 composers
(33 living), 48 free pre-concert events, more than 300 hours of
broadcasting in the UK and thousands more abroad through the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World
Service, the European Broadcasting Union, United States National Public Radio and
more.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 broadcast every Prom programme live on air and online with
on-demand listening over seven days.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ Four carried regular weekly
broadcasts for the first time in addition to extensive television
coverage of the season across ´óÏó´«Ã½ One and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two. Digital services
provided in-depth information about each broadcast on-air and online, and
Listen Again remains popular.
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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms website, bbc.co.uk/proms, was
visited by 98% more people than in 2006 around the time of the launch in
April, with an increase of 50% across the whole season.
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Some remarkable events were:
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Wagner's Götterdämmerung receives its first complete Proms
performance, bringing the Proms four-year Ring cycle to its conclusion.
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The first week with the first modern performance of a
rediscovered Renaissance Mass in 40 and 60 parts by Alessandro Striggio
and Sir John Eliot Gardiner with his period instrument forces together
with the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, Dance for All, and Parisian
dance Compagnie Roussat-Lubek.
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Great international visitors including Claudio Abbado/Lucerne
Festival Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim/Vienna Philharmonic; Riccardo
Chailly/Leipzig; James Levine/Boston Symphony Orchestra; Mariss
Jansons/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Michael Tilson
Thomas/San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
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Extraordinary collaborations between the London Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France for Kurt Masur's 80th
birthday, and between the period players from the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment performing with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
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Nitin Sawhney with a spectacular line-up of friends.
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Michael Ball in a much-debated Prom featuring Alfie Boe and Laura
Michelle Kelly.
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Cleo Laine and John Dankworth in an 80th birthday celebration. Ìý
The Last Night Of The Proms takes place in the Royal Albert Hall on
Saturday 8 September and spills out to five ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms In The Park
concerts around the country –
90,000 are expected to enjoy events in Swansea, Glasgow, Belfast,
Middlesbrough and Hyde Park, London.
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Televised highlights of all five Proms
In The Park events will be shown as part of ´óÏó´«Ã½ One and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two's live
coverage of the Last Night Of The Proms.
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Digital TV viewers can press
the red button to access an interactive TV service for the Last Night Of
The Proms on
´óÏó´«Ã½ One and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two.
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Local and national ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio networks will broadcast
events in their area.
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Notes to Editors
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* All concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall, not including
free events and Proms In The Park. Ìý
VB
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