A new event is coming to Royal Albert Hall for BBC Proms, which sees Jules Buckley join forces with St. Vincent.
The event will be held as a one-night-only collaboration, taking place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 3. At the show, conductor, arranger and orchestrator Jules Buckley celebrates his 25th Prom, and works with the singer, songwriter and guitarist to reimagine songs in her discography.
It will see songs of hers shared like never before, alongside a full orchestra, and reimagined to work with the classical style.
“The concept here is not just to slap an orchestral wallpaper behind an artist,” Buckley shared. “We’ve worked together to find a new interpretation of St. Vincent’s sound. Annie [Clark, real name of St. Vincent] and her keys player, Rachel, have toured as a duo, so that’s been an inspiration for how to reimagine some of the pieces with a larger ensemble.
“And Annie’s an amazing guitarist. If you hear a track like ‘Now Now’ from her debut record—we’ve kept a lot of that in there, but we’ll be expanding into new realms at the same time, to create something really unique.”
It comes as Clark first launched into the public eye with her 2007 debut ‘Marry Me’, and has won countless fans for her experimental approach to songwriting, and revolutionary style of guitar playing.
“St. Vincent is an artist that I’ve loved and admired for a long time. Annie’s records all have songs that grab you the first time you hear them,” added Buckley. “It would be difficult not to fall in love with a song like ‘Slow Disco’—it’s such a well written, well performed and well produced track. But for me, feeling the mastery and imagination in her work means something deeper. It takes you on a journey. She’s incredibly bold as an artist, and she’s completely uncompromising.”
“We’ve looked at it like I’m creating a theatrical plot, with Annie and Rachel as the two main actors, because the pieces have such strong imagery,” Buckley continued. “It’s going to be pretty dark and shocking at times, and intimate at others. I want people to feel shocked, and to leave the gig wanting to see it again, even though we’ll never do it.”
Since his debut at the Proms in 2008, Jules Buckley has staged 24 concerts and collaborated with the likes of Stormzy, Florence + the Machine, Quincy Jones, Moses Sumney, and Arooj Aftab.
Looking back at the milestones since he first began his relationship with the Proms, the composer said: “When I stepped onto the Proms stage for the first time, my aim was simple: to open the doors wider.
“I wanted to create concerts that reflected the music I loved, the world I lived in, and the people I knew it could reach. 25 Proms later, it is humbling to see how much appetite there is for orchestral music that dares to go beyond its comfort zone. Sharing this milestone with St. Vincent, an artist who thrives on risk and reinvention, feels exactly right.”
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This summer St. Vincent headed out on the UK and European leg of her ‘All Born Screaming’ tour, named after her most recent album which was released in April 2024. She also made a stop at Glastonbury, where she broke out songs from that record including ‘Broken Man’, ‘Flea’ and ‘Big Time Nothing’.
Before then, she released a single that featured in the black comedy Death Of A Unicorn, starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, called ‘DOA’.
