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Audiences will have the chance to experience the spirit of Latin America first-hand this summer when the first Brazilian orchestra to perform at the BBC Proms will be raising the roof of the Royal Albert Hall. Flying the flag as the next host nation of the Olympic Games, Brazil’s Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor, Marin Alsop, will be bringing the essence of South America to Europe with programmes featuring Villa-Lobos, Guarnieri  and Ginastera.

Demand has been high for the BBC Prom on 15 August with many seated tickets now sold, though audiences will still be able to benefit from: up to 1400 standing ‘Promming’ tickets made available on the day; the live broadcast on BBC Radio 3; and the television broadcast on BBC TWO on 18 August. The BBC Prom forms part of the Orchestra’s high profile European tour this summer taking in the Snape Proms, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Concertgebouw. Soloists for the tour are the Brazilians, pianist Nelson Freire and cellist Antonio Meneses.

Marin Alsop comments:

“To bring the Sao Paulo Symphony – the first Brazilian orchestra - to the BBC Proms at this time is an honour as well as being hugely exciting. Given Brazil will be the next Olympic host nation, we will be taking up the Olympic baton in true Latin American style; with vigour, brio and zest. It’s going to be a blast.”

Alsop’s five-year tenure as Chief Conductor began in March 2012 with a series of concerts in the orchestra’s magnificent home, the Sala São Paulo, to international critical acclaim: “The Shostakovich had a maverick quality.”[Times] During her time as Chief Conductor, Alsop will work closely with the Orchestra in all facets of its output, from performance, programming and recording, to education and outreach work. A major recording deal with Naxos begins immediately with the complete Prokofiev symphonies cycle, with the first release featuring Symphony No.5 and the symphonic suite ‘The Year 1941’ set for UK release in June 2012.

Founded in 1954, the São Paolo Symphony Orchestra is the largest and most esteemed professional orchestra in South America, regarded as a pinnacle of excellence in the continent’s cultural landscape. A flagship institution of Brazil’s most populous and economically important city – and the largest metropolis in the southern hemisphere – the Orchestra plays over 90 concerts each season in its 1500-seat hall, the Sala São Paulo, situated in a former railway station re-opened as a cultural centre in 1999. In December 2008 was named one of the world’s three most exciting up-and-coming orchestras by Gramophone magazine.