Proms 2025 Pekka Kuusisto and Katarina Barruk

Pekka Kuusisto brings the strings of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra to the Proms for a programme that reflects on human injustice. Shostakovich wrote his String Quartet No. 8 in Dresden, contemplating the Allied bombing of the city during the Second World War. For some, the work also speaks of the oppression of the Russian people under Stalin’s rule. In a different time and place, singer and composer Katarina Barruk – one of only a handful of remaining speakers of the Ume Sámi language – is a living beacon for her native tongue and culture, performing songs that combine the traditional and the modern.

In the first half of the concert, the ensemble will perform songs by Katarina Barruk (based on the joik indigenous song-type from Sábmie) – interspersed with music by J. S. Bach, Philip Glass, Hannah Kendall (UK premiere), Caroline Shaw and Tippett c50’

Pekka Kuusisto © Bård Gundersen