P&O Ferries Choir will perform to audience topping 40,000 at Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park, London
Published: 00:00, 17 July 2014
Updated: 10:58, 17 July 2014
The sky is the limit for P&O’s Ferries Choir as they have secured yet another performance in London, to an audience topping 40,000 people.
The choir will take to the stage at Proms in the Park, part of the BBC Proms season on September 13 at Hyde Park.
During the afternoon the P&O Ferries Choir will rehearse the Hyde Park audience in singing the traditional Proms grand finale numbers including Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and Rule Britannia.
Then they’ll return to the stage in the evening to help close the show, joining the BBC Concert Orchestra and The Royal Choral Society to lead the final sing-along, linked live by big screens to the Last Night performances at the Royal Albert Hall.
Proms stalwart Sir Terry Wogan will host the proceedings that will also be broadcast to two million listeners on BBC Radio 2.
“This is an incredible opportunity and will be an experience to treasure for the rest of our lives,” said Nik Wickham, who sings in the tenor section of the choir.
“We got a flavour of the Proms atmosphere when we performed at the Leeds Castle summer concert recently. Looking out from that stage at thousands of people waving their Union
“Jacks and joining us in song was a fantastic experience. We never imagined that we’d perform for an even larger audience so soon. Joining the grand finale of the BBC Proms season is a huge honour.”
The P&O Ferries Choir has 27 members drawn from the company’s cross-Channel ships and shore locations in Dover and Calais. Its musical director is Hilary Campbell, a multiple award winning choral conductor, composer and soprano.
Just last weekend, the choir performed at the Leeds Castle open air concert.
Read the full report in this week's Mercury, out now.
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Victoria Chessum