As someone accustomed to facing audiences from concert platforms, taking this particular stage comes as a new experience and a great honour. I’m delighted to have been asked, for two reasons. Gramophone has been in my life for years, one of the first music magazines that I came to know and love, and it is truly fascinating for me to be involved with it from the inside of the process. And the Proms is similarly an institution that has been, and continues to be, very important to me.

This year is particularly exciting for me as I make the leap from admiring observer to make my very first appearance at the Proms, performing Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. I couldn’t have chosen a more wonderful year, it seems, to be making my debut. There are so many incredible musicians and events, many of them unique and fascinating – even to the extent of having two Last Nights!

When James Inverne asked me to take the editor’s chair for this issue, he also invited me to interview an artist from this year’s Proms line-up whom I especially admire. I chose Antonio Pappano – and not only because we share an Anglo-Italian heritage. There is surely no wiser conductor working today. I learnt a great deal from our conversation and realised how many things there are to gain from that kind of in-depth encounter with a great musician. It’s something I plan to do again.

I’ve commissioned an interview with Andrew Litton, who will be giving surely one of this year’s most original Proms – a concert of Bach, transcribed by other composers. Andrew’s thoughts are fascinating, as I’m sure the concert itself will be (I definitely plan to attend!).

In my interview with Pappano we talk a lot about the state of Italian classical music and I feel proud that the Italian influence is, as ever, so great in this year’s Proms. We chart the ways one can understand Venice’s eventful history through its music. My other home, Scotland, is represented, too, as we catch up with the returning Donald Runnicles, and there’s much, much more. However you hear the Proms, in the hall or on air, it should be a special season!

Nicola Benedetti