'Exciting talent lies in both these institutions' - The Academy at the BBC Proms
The Academy perform with The Juilliard School at the BBC Proms, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen
© 2026 BBC, Chris Christodoulou
News Story
The reviews are in for our collaboration with The Juilliard School at the BBC Proms.
Over the past week, an orchestra comprising 46 students from each conservatoire came together to perform a programme of 20th century classics. Students travelled to the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York for a performance on 7 August, before heading to the Royal Albert Hall on 10 August for the BBC Proms. The orchestra were led by world-renowned conductor and composer, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Act one of this programme saw Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements followed by Berg’s Violin Concerto, in which leading violinist Vilde Frang (who was recently award Honorary Membership to the Academy) was a soloist. The orchestra performed Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra in the second act, with an encore of Stravinsky’s Galop, originally written for piano duet.
The Academy perform with The Juilliard School at the BBC Proms, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen
© 2026 BBC, Chris Christodoulou
That constellation [of the joint Academy and Juilliard orchestra] creates energy when you have very excellent young musicians meeting for the first time. It’s very inspiring and a lot of fun. The joy they bring when they play this repertoire – it’s palpable and it’s contagious
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts violinist Vilde Frang and students from the Academy and The Juilliard School
© BBC / Chris Christodoulou
You can listen back to the Academy’s performance at the BBC Proms via BBC Sounds here.
These are musicians on the cusp, at least potentially, of professional careers: no allowances need to be made.
The group reassembled to attack three fiddly 20th-century works with an assurance and dexterity that belied their youth
The wonderful combination of the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Juilliard School Orchestra showed just what exciting talent lies in both these institutions.