Last week, our Composer-in-Association Joe Hisaishi made his debut at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, conducting Steve Reich's The Desert Music and two of his own pieces, a suite from Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron, and his apocalyptic yet tender The End of the World. We were joined on stage by counter-tenor John Holiday, the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Chorus and the National Youth Voices.
“It’s one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen. I smiled the whole time, and it’s the happiest I’ve seen them. Patients and staff have been talking about it, it’s created a buzz because it’s something to look forward to. It’s great to see it fulfil Occupational Therapy goals and make everyone so happy in the process.” – UCLH Allied Health Professional
Legendary Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi will make his Proms debut on Thursday this week, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) in two large-scale works exploring themes of destruction and loss. The cinematic soundscapes of The End of the World which Hisasihi composed after visiting Ground Zero in New York will be set against the restless electric pulse and shimmer of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music – a scorched-earth vision of a post-nuclear wasteland. The concert will open with European premiere of the Symphonic Suite from Hisaishi’s The Boy and the Heron.
GCSE, A Level and undergraduate exams may well be over, but as millions of students nervously wait for their results in the coming weeks, new research from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra reveals that orchestral music has already won honours with students. Looking back on the music that helped get people through revision season, 2025 saw a huge upturn in the percentage of students that chose orchestral music as part of their revision soundtrack – 82%, up from 69% last summer.
