Global to produce five classical music programmes for Sky Arts

Sky has commissioned Global, the media & entertainment group, to produce five shows for its dedicated creative arts channel, Sky Arts, as part of a multi-year production agreement.

Following the success of its first TV performance, Global will produce two further episodes of Classic FM’s Rising Stars with Julian Lloyd Webber, a show that champions and gives a stage to exciting, up and coming musicians. The first of its two 60-minute specials will air on Sky Arts and Freeview at 8pm on 17 November 2022 with another coming in 2023.

Global will also deliver three recordings of its sell-out show at the Royal Albert Hall – Classic FM Live. The live event, which has been running since 2000, will be broadcast on TV for the very first time when it airs on Sky Arts at 8pm on 19 December. It features music from iconic films Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Chariots of Fire and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, all performed by a line-up of world-class musicians.

Philip Noyce, Classic FM’s Managing Editor:

“This year has been a significant one for Classic FM as we’ve celebrated the station’s 30th birthday. So, it’s really exciting that, together with Sky Arts, we’ve been able to mastermind some new classical music programmes for TV. This partnership allows us to take our popular events featuring world-class musicians, to an even larger audience and I hope viewers enjoy them as much as we’ve enjoyed creating them.”

Classic FM’s Rising Stars with Julian Lloyd Webber was created by Classic FM to showcase classical music on television in a fresh and accessible format. Is it recorded ‘as live’ with an intimate audience and soloists accompanied by an un-conducted string orchestra. Presented by Julian Lloyd Webber, it brings viewers up close with some of classical music’s brightest new talent.

This year’s rising stars are, multi award-winning French oboist Armand Djikoloum, singer and pianist Chelsea Guo who made her piano debut with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine, Freddie De Tommaso, a phenomenal tenor who has performed at multiple world-famous music venues, Iyad Sughayer, a pianist and alumnus of the Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, Laura van der Heijden, a cellist and Cambridge graduate who performs with leading orchestras across the globe, and Plínio Fernandes, a Brazilian guitarist who recently completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music and is signed to Decca Classics.