By Mark Savage, BBC music reporter
Chic’s Nile Rodgers will compose a “pop anthem” to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall.
The musician joins an all-star line-up, including Eric Clapton, Patti Smith and Matthew Bourne, who will honour the iconic venue next year.
A birthday concert on 29 March will see the unveiling of a new work by Bond and Sherlock composer David Arnold.
The celebration comes at one of the most precarious times in the venue’s history, due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The independent venue in Kensington, London, reported a loss of £18m, plus £6.5m in refunded ticket sales, earlier this year.
Chief executive Craig Hassall told MPs the concert hall was in an “extremely perilous position, with no way of replacing our lost income”.
However, announcing the 2021 programme, Mr Hassal said: “We are determined to host a full celebration of our 150th anniversary.”
Opened in 1871 by Queen Victoria, and named after her late husband, the venue has become a global stage for live performances. As well as the BBC Proms, the Hall has hosted everything from the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest to film premieres, the Mobo Awards and tennis tournaments.
It has also played a part in political and social change in the UK, hosting suffrage meetings, memorials for the armed forces and rallies for nuclear disarmament. Sir Winston Churchill, the Dalai Lama, Emmeline Pankhurst, Nelson Mandela and the royal family have all graced the historical hall.
This year, the hall has largely remained closed, for the first time since it was bombed during World War II. However, two weeks of Proms concerts were able to take place in the late summer, while pop stars including Niall Horan and Dua Lipa have staged livestreamed performances from the venue.
The anniversary celebrations will run throughout 2021, with events including:
- A birthday concert on 29 March, featuring David Arnold’s A Circle of Sound – billed as “a multi-media spectacular” performed by a full orchestra, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and a “cavalcade of guest stars from the worlds of stage and screen”.
- Headline shows by Patti Smith, John Legend, Brian Wilson, Alfie Boe, Eric Clapton and Tinie Tempah.
- A new staging of Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man – a smouldering dance show telling the tale of a mysterious small-town mechanic and his illicit affairs.
- A new work for the hall’s famous Henry Willis Organ, composed by Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino, whose credits include Jurassic Park, Star Trek, Up and Star Wars: Rogue One.
- A week-long festival, called Journeys, celebrating the lives and contributions of immigrants over the last 150 years, curated by Nitin Sawhney.
- A series of celebratory concerts by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which is celebrating its own 75th anniversary.
The anniversary will also be marked with a commemorative £5 coin from the Royal Mint, and a book on the hall’s history with a foreword by Her Majesty The Queen.
In an excerpt released on Thursday, the Queen pays tribute to her great-great-grandfather, and his vision for the arts.
“Albert was a man of extraordinary vision and ingenuity, and, together with Queen Victoria, he shared his passion for the global arts, education and culture with the nation,” she writes.
“I have been Patron of the Royal Albert Hall since 1953, and my family and I have enjoyed many events including the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, the Centenary of the Women’s Institute, and even my 92nd birthday celebration.
“As it embarks on its next 150 years, I hope that the Royal Albert Hall will continue to thrive, and that many more people will have the opportunity to make their own memories of this wonderful building.”
