First Night of the Proms 2026

Live at the BBC Proms: piano superstar Yunchan Lim joins the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, the BBC Singers and conductor Dalia Stasevska in a concert of Copland, Gershwin and Ravel.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny and Georgia Mann, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
George Gershwin: An American in Paris
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

c.7.40pm
Interval: Georgia and Petroc chat to the some of the artists in tonight's opening concert.

c.8.00pm
Josephine Stephenson: That the sunrise not leave us unmoved - BBC commission: world premiere
Gerald Finzi: For St Cecilia

Yunchan Lim, piano
Thomas Atkins, tenor
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Dalia Stasevska, conductor

Dalia Stasevska and massed BBC forces launch the 2026 season with an American accent. The widescreen vision of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man zooms in to teeming city streets in Gershwin’s ‘rhapsodic ballet’ An American in Paris, before piano superstar Yunchan Lim performs Ravel’s bluesy Concerto in G major, a musical postcard inspired by the composer’s time in the States. The second half sees a world premiere from French-British composer Josephine Stephenson and finishes with Finzi’s ode to the patron saint of music, premiered in this same hall nearly 80 years ago.