14 July – 9 September 2006

With a record 90 concerts packed into 58 days, the 2006 BBC Proms season opens on Friday at London's Royal Albert Hall with a concert featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra's new Chief Conductor, Jirí Belohlávek, and singing legends Barbara Frittoli and Sir John Tomlinson.

Broadcast live on BBC TWO and BBC Radio 3, the First Night is heralded by a day of live music in Trafalgar Square culminating in a big screen showing of the Royal Albert Hall concert.

For the first time, music lovers can watch the First Night again for up to seven days after the broadcast, via BBC TWO's new broadband site at bbc.co.uk/bbctwo.

The 2006 BBC Proms season features the traditional mixture of great music, artists and events, including birthday celebrations for Mozart and Shostakovich, an 80th birthday concert for Her Majesty the Queen, a day devoted to The Voice and the world premiere of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No.6.

Many of the world's outstanding orchestras make an appearance including the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle, the Philadelphia Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis and Kirov Opera with Valery Gergiev joined by the world's leading soloists, among them Bryn Terfel, Angela Georghiou, Joshua Bell, Evgeny Kissin and Maxim Vengerov.

Since 1895 the Proms has been about making the best music available to all; informing, educating and entertaining the widest possible audience, and championing new music, composers and artists.

It is widely regarded as the world's greatest music festival, and more than 320,000 are expected to attend a Proms event with millions more watching and listening on BBC TV, radio and online.

More performances and comprehensive information services are available across multiple media platforms.

BBC ONE and TWO broadcast ten Proms between them, and – for the first time – BBC TWO makes the First Night available to watch again for seven days after the broadcast.

BBC FOUR shows the final three weeks of the season with live concerts each evening from Sunday to Friday.

Each Prom is live on Radio 3 and available to Listen Again for seven days after broadcast at bbc.co.uk/radio3.

bbc.co.uk/proms continues to offer the best source of news and up-to-date information about the season.

The price of a Promming ticket – the on-the-day standing tickets which have given the BBC Proms their name - is just £5.

VB