5 h. ago ‘I just wish my mum could see it’: Bill Bailey on making his Proms debut

The musical comic will perform Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter at the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday.

Politics

51 h. ago James McAvoy allegedly assaulted in Toronto bar after promoting directorial debut

Actor was in city for its annual film festival when he was reportedly attacked

Events

52 h. ago James McAvoy assaulted in Toronto bar after promoting directorial debut

Actor was in city for its annual film festival when he was reportedly attacked

Events

5 d. ago England player ratings vs Andorra: Elliot Anderson shows promise on debut as Noni Madueke impresses again

Three Lions ease to victory over the minnows at Villa Park as a couple of players catch the eye

Sport

2 w. ago ‘It’s a symbol of hope and defiance for Ume Sámi and its speakers’: singer Katarina Barruk on her Proms debut

Joiking comes to the Proms this weekend in a collaboration between Katarina Barruk and violinist Pekka Kuusisto. The two tell us how they have enriched each other’s musical worlds‘When I was growing up, I couldn’t listen to any bands or artists in my language,” says Katarina Barruk. She is one of only a handful of remaining speakers – and the only one of whom is an internationally celebrated singer – of Ume Sámi, one of the nine living Sámi languages that today is on Unesco’s critically endangered list. It’s spoken by a handful of Sámi communities living across the part of Sápmi (the territory of the Sámi peoples across northern Scandinavia) that’s now in north-east Sweden. “We have been working so hard to get to the point where you can hear the language at the Royal Albert Hall,” says Barruk. “It’s amazing.”And not only to hear the language, but experience it sung by Barruk in her own music, recomposed and remade with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. They’ll be led by the violinist...

Politics

4 w. ago Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Hisaishi review – frothing strings and quacking brass as Studio Ghibli’s composer debuts

Royal Albert Hall, LondonSwitching between podium and piano, Joe Hisaishi’s suite from The Boy and the Heron sparked joy, but Reich’s demanding Desert Music was vibrant and hypnoticOne of the pleasures of the BBC Proms is that they bring some of classical music’s biggest names from around the world to the Royal Albert Hall. But celebrity is always relative – and, for better or worse, most Proms artists don’t also headline stadium gigs.But Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi does and, at 74, is a Proms debut artist like no other. He came on stage to waves of screaming and phones brandished to capture the moment. Never heard of him? You’re probably not part of the vast fanbase of the “cultural phenomenon” Studio Ghibli. Hisaishi is the John Williams of anime, responsible for the music in global hits from My Neighbour Totoro to The Boy and the Heron. Continue reading...

Politics