Three of Europe's finest young classical talents make their much-anticipated BBC Proms debuts in the upcoming concert season at the Royal Albert Hall.

French opera star Marianne Crebassa, recently crowned Opera Singer of the Year in France's Victoires de la Musique Classique, makes her long-awaited London as soloist in Ravel's Schéhérazade with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. The young mezzo-soprano first came to international attention at the Salzburg Festival in 2012; Gramophone has already fallen for the charms of her debut album Oh, Boy!, praising her "beautiful and spirited" Mozart.

Italian virtuoso pianist Beatrice Rana, named BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year in this week's award ceremony, also makes her Proms debut this season, playing the Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis. The concert will be televised on BBC Four. Beatrice is a BBC New Generation Artist. Her latest album is Bach's The Goldberg Variations.

The 23-year-old French cellist Edgar Moreau makes his first Proms appearance this summer with his regular orchestral partners, the period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d'oro directed by Maxim Emelyanychev. They play Italian Baroque music from their album Giovincello.

Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, who won the latest Gramophone award for Best Concerto Album with her Korngold and Britten, will perform the Sinfonia concertante from her Mozart album.

Proms favourites the John Wilson Orchestra return for their annual sell-out concerts, this time for the first European performance of the recently re-constructed stage orchestration of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!. And the young, dynamic Aurora Orchestra, which has made a name for itself performing major symphonies from memory at the Proms in recent years, presents their biggest feat yet: Beethoven's Eroica.

Tickets on sale now for a lively and varied 2017 BBC Proms.

Saturday shoppers at the Westfield centre in Stratford were regaled with an unexpected bout of Mozart when Aurora Orchestra's flash mob struck. The young musicians of this unique British band played the final movement of Mozart's last symphony, entitled Jupiter - without a music stand or a score in sight. And that's just how they played the entire symphony the following day on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in front of an audience of thousands for their annual Proms concert. The Independent hailed this year's performance "elegant and joyous."

It was the third time that Aurora tackled a major symphonic work from memory at the Proms, having presented Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Mozart's Symphony No.40 in previous years, with just the intrepid, risk-taking spirit the musicians embrace on their two albums for Warner Classics, Road Trip and Insomnia. 

London's summer feast of classical music, the BBC Proms, has just announced its 2016 line-up, featuring an impressive array of international artists in concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and other venues from 15 July to 10 September.

One of the most hotly anticipated events of the Proms season in the past few years has been the annual concert of the John Wilson Orchestra. This year they return with their signature slick performances of Great American Songbook and Hollywood musical treasures, this time marking the 120th annivesrary of Ira Gershwin's birth. Their forthcoming album, Gershwin in Hollywood, will be available next month, and was recorded during their Royal Albert Hall concert in November 2015.

Meanwhile, French pianist Alexandre Tharaud leads a cabaret-inspired 'Satie Prom' tribute to Erik Satie on the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Another tribute to an iconoclastic French musician: Ensemble Intercontemporain pay homage to their founder, conductor and composer Pierre Boulez, who died in January at the age of 90. Boulez recorded extensively for Erato between 1966 and 1992; these pioneering recordings have been collected in a 14-CD boxed set.

Also returning to the Proms this year is the young British ensemble Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon. They have previously performed Mozart's Symphony No.40 and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony at the Proms from memory - a daring feat. This year, these immensely talented musicians again take up the challenge with Mozart's Symphony No.41 'Jupiter' - and not a single music stand in sight. Always pushing boundaries, the group has recorded two albums for Warner Classics: Road Trip and Insomnia.

Martha Argerich's 75th birthday celebrations this year will continue with the Liszt Piano Concerto: Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for the occasion.

Sir Antonio Pappano is a veteran of large-scale operatic events, as his recent award-winning Aïda recording attests. This year, with his Royal Opera House forces, he presents a concert performance of Mussorgsky's grand opera Boris Godunov, Bryn Terfel taking the title role.

See the full programme of 2016 Proms events here.

The BBC Proms' 2015 programme has finally been announced, promising a summer of superb concerts and broadcasts for music lovers.

This star-studded classical line-up includes Proms favourites like British trumpeter Alison Balsom, who returns with a world premiere BBC commission from Guy Barker, The Lanterne of Light. The pair had a hit last year with their collaboration on Balsom's most recent album, Paris.

The John Wilson Orchestra follow the resounding succses of last year's Kiss Me Kate Cole Porter another concert in a smooth mood; this time a tribute to crooner Frank Sinatra starring Seth MacFarlane (the creator and principal vocalist behind the ever-popular animated series Family Guy). One of the most beloved Proms regulars, the orchestra performs for its second program of the year a concert dedicated to Leonard Bernstein.

Another British orchestra of a different bent, the Aurora Orchestra is a young and dynamic group that made a splash at their Proms debut in 2014 when they performed Mozart's Symphony No.40 entirely and collectively from memory. This time they perform Pastoral symphonies by composers as Beethoven and the Australian Brett Dean. The ensemble released their Warner Classics debut, Road Trip, early 2015.

French pianist David Fray, who made his Proms debut in 2011, is the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24, as part of an adventurous program featuring Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin and Shostakovich's rarely performed, incomplete opera Orango. 

A focus on the music of Pierre Boulez in his 90th birthday year, a Sibelius cycle for that composer's 150th anniversary, and a piano-lovers' feast with such distinguished artists as Leif Ove Andsnes, Maria João Pires and the Labèque sisters, there's more to look forward to than ever at this year's BBC Proms.

Full programme here. Booking opens on 16 May. The Proms runs from 17 July to 12 September and will be broadcast on BBC 3. 

Aurora Orchestra's Warner Classics debut Road Trip is out in January. More info here.

Nico, you composed arrangements of three American folksongs for the album Road Trip: The Brown Girl, Reynardine and Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones. How did you choose the songs?

Nico Muhly: My parents aren’t particularly musical in any direction, but they’re huge appreciators of a great and wide variety of musics, including English, Scottish and American folksongs. I knew a lot growing up, and then rekindled my interest in them after I met the singer Sam Amidon, who grew up in an incredibly musical household with two folk musicians for parents.

The Brown Girl is one of the gorgeous folksongs that combines romance, murder, and horticulture — the lovers that are transformed into the briar and the rose entwining around the structure of the church. One of the most delicious things about researching these old ballads is how many different versions there are of each one. The subtle differences between plot details have a huge effect on the emotional impact these songs can have.  

In terms of these old ballads, I like the way they can come from any tradition. Reynardine, the werefox, can be traced to English Victoriana, but then going back through Flemish 12th-century texts, and of course, in Chaucer. He pops up in Stravinsky, he pops up in antisemitic Dutch propaganda — you name it.

These songs were rearranged for a program featuring Copland, Ives and Adams; did that play a part in your approach to the musical settings, in particular the openness of your arrangements?

NM: Yes, openness is something that one learns, as an American, from Copland! The composer David Lang often points out that there is an irony to the fact that the composer whose music seems the most American was a gay Jewish socialist New Yorker, and as a gay half-jewish New Yorker with leftward leanings, I feel an especial kinship!

What do you admire about this tradition of songwriting and storytelling that speaks to you as a composer?

NM: What I like about these old folksongs is that if you have a German grandmother and an Irish grandmother, you’ll have a strange grafted version of very similar stories. Other songs — particularly from the Georgia Sea Islands — bear the traces of West Africa, England, and the West Indies — there are infinite combinations with various political and emotional ramifications.

You’ll find, also, that one of the songs on this album is by Paul Simon [of Simon & Garfunkel], who is one of the world’s great composers. Hearts and Bones is, itself, a little triumph — a personal, intimate song that speaks to many, many people in a million possible ways.

Did you conceive of the arrangements specifically for the two singers Dawn Landes and Sam Amidon? What special something do they bring to these songs?

NM: I’ve worked with both of them before, actually, and I’ve known Dawn for years; she was, in fact, an intern at the recording studio I used to work at! They are both what I would call deadpan interpreters, with no pretense. They are musicians who trust the material to make its own sauce.

A US roadtrip-themed album is perhaps not the most obvious choice for a British ensemble, but you’ve called The Aurora Orchestra “the youngest and coolest orchestra around” according to Dawn Landes! What makes them so cool and what’s it been like working with them?

NM: Far be it from me to define what is and what isn’t “cool”, but what I will say is that all the members of Aurora — as well as their conductor Nick Collon and the CEO John Harte — are dedicated and serious musicians. They are building on a foundation of excellent musicianship and collaborative music-making. With that foundation being so solid, they are able to have fun with what they do. I’ve worked with them for years, and it’s always a great combination of dedication and enjoyment. It’s orchestral in scope but chamber in feeling; it’s a group but it’s a collection of wonderful individuals.   

What’s the best road trip you ever found yourself on?

NM: I have a yearly tradition with two of my best friends to take a long one, although actually as adults we’ve been doing them on planes so that doesn’t count. But a few years ago we drove from New York down to Tennessee in the middle of December. This was during the transition from CDs to iPods, so there was a great deal of soundtrack improvisation. It was all to do with Nyman, Reich, Cam’ron, early Kanye, and a long, brutal rainstorm in West Virginia.

Another memorable road trip for me was after my grandmother died, I met my mother in Tucson, Arizona, and drove across the country from there to New York with a car loaded to the brim with my grandmother’s copper pots (she was French, you see, and had a pot for each function), and my mother and I drove as fast as possible listening to public radio and Spanish radio and whatever else there was. We’d eat at taquerias and drink my grandmother’s calvados out of polystyrene motel cups. It was the perfect road trip.

Aurora Orchestra and Warner Classics announce a new recording contract which will see the orchestra record three albums for international release on the label.

Building on the combination of creative programming and electrifying performance which have become the hallmarks of Aurora’s concert season, the recordings will take audiences on a series of thematically-inspired musical journeys roaming across widely varying repertoire. The first disc, due for release January 2015, will be entitled Road Trip, and features the music of John Adams, Charles Ives and Aaron Copland alongside newly-commissioned folk song arrangements by Nico Muhly. American singer-songwriters Sam Amidon and Dawn Landes feature as guest soloists.

Since its launch in 2005, Aurora Orchestra has rapidly established itself as the most significant new British chamber orchestra in a generation. Under the artistic direction of Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon, Aurora has developed flourishing London series at LSO St Luke’s and Kings Place, and also enjoys an increasingly busy touring calendar both in the UK and internationally.

It has worked with a roster of world-class artists including Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley, Angelika Kirchschlager, Anthony Marwood, Kate Royal, Maxim Rysanov and Robin Ticciati. The orchestra is the youngest-ever recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious Ensemble Award. Aurora has developed a particular reputation for creative programming incorporating a wide variety of musical styles and art forms, focused around its New Moves series at LSO St Luke’s.

Jean Philippe-Rolland, Head of A&R at Warner Classics, said, “As a record label we are always looking for the great talents of tomorrow. Aurora Orchestra are undoubtedly one of the most creative and innovative ensembles in the music industry today. We are confident that with this new partnership we can work together to share their invigorating energy and love for music-making with an even wider audience. We are very proud to welcome them to the Warner Classics family.

Speaking of the new partnership with Warner Classics, John Harte (Chief Executive, Aurora Orchestra) said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Warner Classics in what is a hugely important opportunity for the orchestra to bring its performances to a worldwide audience and build a recorded legacy. Aurora has had a long-held ambition to release discs that truly reflect the orchestra’s personality and programming style, and we are thrilled that the team at Warner Classics has embraced the idea with such enthusiasm. It’s exciting to be making what we hope will feel to listeners like a genuinely new kind of orchestral recording in which constraints of musical genre disappear and there’s an exhilarating sense of unfettered musical adventure.”