First night of the Proms

A long week reading, discussing and grading 50 applications against five sets of competency criteria. Just another 13 to go and then it's report writing time. I have a very good panel who are contributing to the reports,  which will ease next week's workload. I had to interrupt the day to take my daughter's car down to the village garage to get her wing mirror put back in place (see Wednesday's blip). After a bit of cussing and false starts, they managed to get it back, which was just as well as Jen had to drive to Guildford for an appointment. So, it was nice to wind down this evening watching the first night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elim Chan. I'd not heard of her before but she had a great rostrum presence and was very expressive. I didn't see much of the first half but the second half, a first performance of a new commission, alleluia Sim, was amusing and very clever. That was followed by a brilliant performance of Beethoven's 5th - the photo is of Elim Chan responding to the applause of the Royal Albert Hall audience at the close of the performance. The BBC Proms is, quite rightly I think, described as the world's greatest music festival - 8 weeks with a real mix of old favourites, new works, neglected works and some concerts that stretch the definition of classical music. I haven't tried for tickets yet and I doubt there are many left, but I usually go to one or two concerts so we'll see.