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Tune into our first free Times Proms Podcast of the season, where presenter Nicola Christie talks to Wayne Marshall, the organist playing the first notes of the season, chats to James Harding, the Editor of The Times, and guides you through the first week of the festival.

This year the organ kicks the season off for only the second time. The Albert Hall organ will play the first notes of the Proms, the Festival Prelude by Richard Strauss. Marshall admits he'll be very excited: "it's a great honour to be taking part". The organist talks about how he fell in love with the instrument, explains why Strauss makes a powerful Proms opening and reveals the secrets of this most complicated of instruments.

Next James Harding talks about The Times's long association with the Proms (we first reviewed the event in 1895).

"The Proms is a very special event," says The Editor. "It plays to a certain part of you that is familiar, and at the same time brings you into contact with music that is entirely new and entirely unexpected."

Later you'll hear from the offical Proms photographer, and our classical editor Neil Fisher picks his highlights from the first week, including punk wild child Nigel Kennedy.

Finally you can listen to the first of a series of Promcasts, new compositions reinventing the classics. This week we hear Sophie Solomon's Rachmaninov tribute Waltz of the Dead. Go to promcast.co.uk to tell us what you think

You can listen either way. Sign-up in iTunes and you will receive every episode direct to your computer as we release them. Alternatively visit timesonline.co.uk/proms every Friday to listen to the latest podcast as an MP3.

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