Bristol Proms

The Bristol Proms are in their second year, running from 28 July to 2 August 2014 at the Bristol Old Vic which, with its 18th century theatre, makes for a rather different experience to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. There's quite a varied programme with Bach in the dark, Bryn Terfel, Daniel Hope, Lisa Batiashvili, the English Concert as well as Will Gregory (from GoldFrapp) and his Moog Ensemble. Tom Williams and his choir, the Erebus Ensemble are in residence for the week.

The atmosphere is relaxed, you can clap when you like, take drinks into the auditorium, tweet and take photos.

The events open with an all day marathon on Monday 28 July. In the afternoon Bryn Terfel in conversation with John Suchet and performing pieces which have been important in his career, including some Handel. The remainder of the day has the music of Bach running through it, in a variety of forms. Tom Williams and the Erebus Ensemble, are performing Bach in complete darkness! Then violinist Lisa Batiashvili presents a programme of Bach and Piazolla, whilst the late night programme is Will Gregory's Moog Ensemble in a very different take on the music of Bach.

Other events include Ji Liu performing Bach's Goldberg Variations and pieces by John Cage, the Erebus Ensemble perform Howells' Requiem, the Sacconi Quartet perform Beethoven's Op132, Sinfonia Cymru will be collaborating with the Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris on Towards a Staged Concert, whilst Daniel Hope returns with Air, A Baroque Journey. The Bristol Proms finish with a semi-staged performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza as Dido

Full details from the Bristol Proms web page.