Music Matters

Tom Service talks to Sir Mark Elder about the legacy that he is leaving behind him after 24 years as Music Director at the Hallé Orchestra. He talks to Tom about Charles Hallé and his mission to set up an orchestra for all the people of Manchester, and how his ethos is still central to the orchestra today. Not only has mark Elder evolved the sound of the orchestra and transformed music-making in Manchester, putting generations of choral singers associated with the Hallé centre stage, but he has forged an identity for Hallé as the orchestra to play British music, and particularly the works of Elgar. Mark Elder also talks to Tom about his tenure at English National Opera, and the current funding crises that face music in the UK. As he prepares to step down from the Hallé, he also reflects on how coincidental it is that he should have been destined for Manchester, once the home of his great Uncle. Norman Cocker, who was a well-known organist at the Cathedral there.

Kate Molleson travels to the Belgais Center for Arts in rural eastern Portugal, to meet pianist Maria Joao Pires, who celebrates her 80th birthday this year. Among the low buildings, olive groves and orange trees of the arts complex, education centre and home which Pires created in 1999, she talks about her lifelong journey with the piano the age of 3; sharing her views on the classical music industry, explaining how she channels her 'aggression' through music, and stressing how important the arts are, as a meeting point for humanity.Sitting at the piano she gives Kate an exclusive lesson, including tips on how to acquire the proper body posture to play, and demonstrating how she developed a technique of her own, to make the most of what she describes as her small hands. And walking around the site, Kate visits the centre's concert hall, and Pires explains why she cares so deeply about her social projects which use music to connect with children.Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Tom Service talks to pianist and writer, Susan Tomes, about her new book Women and the Piano - a History in 50 Lives. Those lives include well-known names today, from Clara Schumann to Nina Simone, but also many women like Marianne Martinez who have been eclipsed from previous histories of pianists. Tom and Susan discuss how women went from being the Queens of the piano in domestic settings to being excluded from public performances and conservatoires during the development of the concert piano. Pianist, Lucy Parham, talks to Tom too about the impact that Susan's book has had on her, and she talks about life today for female pianists.The Afghan Youth Orchestra is embarking on its first UK tour - Breaking the Silence. Currently exiled in Portugal, the young musicians live and study, having escaped the Taliban's censorship of music. The orchestra's founder, Dr Ahmad Sarmast and two of his violinists, Sevinch Majidi and Ali Sina Hotak, talk to Tom about their hopes of keeping Afghanistan's situation on the international radar through their music, which fuses traditional and Western instruments into a bold new sound.Tenor Allan Clayton and Aurora Orchestra join forces in a new and highly imaginative theatrical production of Hans Zender's composed interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise. Tom Service finds out more when he visits them in rehearsal. He talks to Allan alongside Aurora's conductor Nicholas Collon and creative director Jane Mitchell about Zender's interpretation of Schubert's original song-cycle.Tom Service also talks to Kerry Andrew, multi-talented composer, singer, performer and writer. Kerry's third novel, We are Together Because, is out now and Tom talks to them about how music infuses their writing. Tom also talks to Kerry about their last album - Hare - Hunter - Moth - Ghost - recorded as You Are Wolf and in which they turn folk songs and myths inside out.

Presented by Tom Service. This week, Tom talks to the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato about her life in music, and her creative mission to challenge the status quo. From her work in refugee camps, to her long relationship with the maximum security prison SingSing in New York State, as well as in concert halls and opera stages, DiDonato confounds expectations of an international classical artist. She talks about the joy of engaging differently with young audiences, and of recording and touring projects like Eden, which makes real connections with the natural world and includes the publishing of new music for anyone to sing.Conductor Edward Gardner and artist Ben Cullen Wiliams talk about their reimagining of Szymanowski's ballet Harnasie: a story of love, bandits, and how the robbers of the Tatra mountains in Poland win out over the civilisation below. Also featuring filmed choreography by Wayne MacGregor, the production has received its premiere in Katowice and comes to London this month, and uses human and digital intelligence to form a kinetic, sculptural video installation opening a portal to new worlds of dance.And Caroline Potter reveals the mission behind her new book, 'Pierre Boulez: Organised Delirium', which aims to change perceptions about the French composer. A leading figure of the musical avant-garde in the mid-20th century, Boulez is known for the mathematical and structural elements of his music, but Caroline Potter places just as much importance on the influences in his early career from the worlds of literature, magic, surrealism and the music of other cultures.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to renowned American pianist, Jeremy Denk, ahead of his Wigmore Hall recital of Bach Partitas. He discusses his passion for Bach and the profound impact and connection he has when he plays his music.Sara talks to Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli ahead of the day-long immersion into her work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Together they explore what it means for Missy Mazzoli to be a composer today and the stories that she likes to tell through her work. Writer Gillian Dooley discusses her new discoveries when researching her new book, “She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and music”. She tells Sara more about the role music held in Jane Austen's life and highlights the importance of it on the characters in her novels. With the help of film critic, Lillian Crawford, we are also taken on a journey through the pastiche film scores that have accompanied adaptations of Austen's novels over the last 30 years.Plus Donne foundation founder Gabriella di Laccio talks to Sara ahead of her record-breaking acoustic concert, 24 hours of continuous music by female and non-binary composers.

Tom Service talks to composer Anna Meredith as her soundtrack to the poetic British film The End We Start From, and starring Jodie Comer, is featuring in cinemas across the UK. She talks in detail about the compositional process; from the very beginning as she hums a tune and records it onto her phone, to the workings required to produce music that is full of irresistible energy. Pianist Igor Levit talks to Tom about his new album featuring Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. He talks about his admiration for Busoni and the deep emotion and connection he feels when he plays music by Mahler.

Kate Molleson talks to pianist Tamara Stefanovich. A champion of 20th and 21st century music, Tamara explains her deep connection with the music of now, how global politics have shaped her life in music, and her insatiable appetite for learning which meant she skipped seven years of school.Kate meets Irish fiddler Martin Hayes who shares his thoughts on the meaning of tradition, putting traditional music on the concert platform, and how the musicians who played and ate around the kitchen table of his childhood home in County Clare continue to inspire his musical life. Chief Executive of the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM) Deborah Annetts reflects on the new House of Commons committee report on misogyny in music and whether it can bring about lasting change in the music industry. Plus we hear from choir members in Hackney as they take part in Sing East - a showcase for talented choirs from across East London in which the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus joined over 200 local performers for a celebration of song.

Tom Service meets French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet during his recital tour where he performs both books of Debussy's Préludes. His 1996 recording of the pieces has just been re-released on vinyl with artwork created by his friend Vivienne Westwood, shortly before she died. Jean-Yves talks to Tom about the need to collaborate, his love of Debussy, Gershwin and Bill Evans, and why challenging conventions and being yourself as an artist are the keys to success and happiness. He also shares his excitement about an upcoming multisensory performance of Alexander Scriabin's 1910 tone poem 'Prometheus, The Poem of Fire' - a collaboration with Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and San Francisco Symphony which involves not only light and colour in addition to the music, but scent too.Tom talks to pianist Alice Sara Ott and composer Bryce Dessner about a new piano concerto he's written for her, which receives its UK premiere in February. Inspired by Alice's playing, the piece is also dedicated to Bryce's sister Jessica, a dancer and choreographer who has shaped his musical life. Alice talks about her love of Bryce's music and the challenges of getting inside a new piece. Bryce discusses his approach to the concerto, the power of acoustic music and how his work as a composer for the concert hall relates to his life as guitarist and writer in the band The National.

Tom Service meets Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila as she prepares for her role as Klytämnestra in Strauss's Elektra at the Royal Opera House in London. She talks to him about the roles her voice now allows her to sing 40 years after winning the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Tom drops in on rehearsals at Song in Sign, the latest project from FormidAbility, the opera company founded to put accessibility at the centre of creativity. Tom talks to director, Caroline Parker and to founder and soprano, Joanne Roughton-Arnold ahead of the company's forthcoming tour.Musicians, Mary Dullea and Darragh Morgan and composer, Matthew Shlomowitz join Tom in studio to pay tribute to composer, John White who died earlier this month. And finally, Tom talks to double-bassist, Edgar Meyer as he prepares for his visit to Glasgow to perform his Concertino with the Scottish Ensemble at this year's Celtic Connections. He talks to Tom about his collaborations, his sound and how he is influencing the next generation.

Tom Service speaks to the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director of the Montreal Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is one of the starriest and most sought-after conductors in the world. also one of the most loved by the musicians who work with him. Nézet-Séguin is guest conductor to some of the world's top orchestras, like the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Berlin Philharmonic, and he has recorded cycles of symphonies by Brahms, Beethoven and Bruckner, plus operas by Mozart, Gounod and Wagner. Alongside the core repertoire, he's on a mission to perform new works that represent all of society and thereby draw new audiences to the orchestras that he leads and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He tells Tom about the richly fulfilling experiences of putting on Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut up in My bones and Kevin Puts' The Hours, and how these two new operas are both bringing in audiences who have never been to the MET before, whilst also refreshing the cherished classics traditionally staged there. 2024: what does the new year hold for the musical scene? What's the impact of cuts across classical music, from education in schools to opera companies, and what are the opportunities of the moment for those who run our orchestras and lead music education? Tom Service convenes a Music Matters counsel of musical sages to discuss their thoughts of the state of music as we step into 2024: Sophie Lewis, Chief Executive of the National Children's Orchestras and Chair of the Association of British Orchestras; Gillian Moore, Artistic Associate of the South Bank Centre in London, writer and consultant; and Phil Castang, Chief Executive of Music for Youth.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to one of the 21st-century's leading creative artists – the American composer and interdisciplinary artist, Meredith Monk.Celebrating her 80th birthday the year before last, Meredith's creativity spans decades and traverses site-specific works and happenings in the 60s, through films during the 70s and 80s, to an impressive catalogue of recordings - many of which involved the acclaimed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble. She tells Sara about her journey towards Buddhism, about approaching music as a ritual, and how her meditation practice has had a profound impact on her creative life. She shares, too, the process by which she found her own voice and describes how she traces her bloodline back from the cantors, through the popular ballads of her mother, to the folk music she sang.

Kate Molleson travels to Budapest to meet Hungary's greatest living composer, György Kurtág, now 97 years old. Kurtag talks to Kate about the musical homages that he has made to friends, his early focus on the clarity of single notes at the time he wrote his Op.1 String Quartet, the influence of languages on his compositional style, and his new opera, a work based on the life of the German mathematician, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Above all, he talks about his Marta, his wife of over 70 years, with whom he performed piano duets, and he reveals to Kate why he stayed in Hungary in 1956.Kurtag once said that his mother tongue is Bartok, and Kate visits the Bela Bartok Memorial House where she talks to the curator, Zoltán Farkas, about the composer's relationship with Hungary and the folk traditions that he collected both at home and in neighbouring countries. During a break in a busy rehearsal schedule, the conductor Ivan Fischer also shares his views on Bartok and the distinctive sound of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.Kate joins the director of the Hungarian Radio Choir, Zoltán Pad, and the composer Daniel Dinyes, to learn how the Hungarian language is expressed in music, and hear more about the unique sound of the choir. Kate also meets Hungary's queen of song, Márta Sebestyén, who is at the very heart of Hungary's folk music. Márta Sebestyén talks with pride about her mother, a celebrated student of Zoltan Kodaly, about her own travels in search of pure folk music. She treats Kate, too, to a traditional Christmas carol.

Tom Service learns about adaptive instruments, and celebrates Maria Callas's centenary.

Tom Service talks to Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinettist with the New York Philharmonic, as he commences his tenure as Artist-in-Residence at Milton Court in London. They discuss his recent performances of Anthony Davis powerful and operatic work for clarinet and orchestra, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, and his Grammy nominated album, American Stories, on which he collaborated with the Pacific Quartet. On the 400th anniversary of the death of the composer Thomas Weelkes, Music Matters visits Chichester Cathedral - the scene of some of his greatest music and noted misdemeanours. BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker, Dr. Ellie Chan, and Organist and Master of the Choristers at Chichester Cathedral, Charles Harrison, discuss how he advanced the English choral tradition. Following the recent news that the Music Department at Oxford Brookes University it set to close, Professor of music at Oxford University, Jonathan Cross, shares his thoughts about the place of music education in our society. And, Sara Mohr Pietsch sits down with the pianist Imogen Cooper to talk about her life in music, studying with Alfred Brendel, her love of Schubert, and how she's curating darkness and light into her forthcoming concert programmes.

Ahead of the release of Maestro, Bradley Cooper's long-awaited film about Leonard Bernstein, Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to the conductor and composer's daughters - Jamie and Nina - about their parents' relationship, listening to music with their father as children, and how it feels to see their lives recreated on screen. Sara is joined by critics Jessica Duchen and Lillian Crawford who share their thoughts, among other things, about Bradley Cooper's conducting of Mahler's Second Symphony in Ely Cathedral - a central scene in the film. Sara talks to American/Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith about a new recording of her chamber works by long-time collaborators Thin Edge New Music Collective. Linda has become a leading voice in Canadian musical culture and she tells Sara about her love of spacious and sparse music, and how stepping away from her composition to weed or wash-up can inspire new ideas. Tomorrow's Warriors is an organisation which has supported and nurtured young musicians in jazz for over 30 years, including artists such as Soweto Kinch, Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, Shabaka Hutchings and recent Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective. Sara meets its co-founders, Gary Crosby and Janine Irons, to talk about how Tomorrow's Warriors began, how they've gone on to have such a big impact on the UK jazz scene, and the vital need for young people to have access to musical experiences.

As his new album Letter(s) to Erik Satie is set to be released, the French pianist Bertrand Chamayou talks to presenter Tom Service about the connections he sees between the visionary composers it features, including John Cage, James Tenney and Erik Satie, and how the project took him to places he'd never been before. He tells Tom how collaborating with the soprano Barbara Hannigan opened the door for this Satie project, about the unpredictability of the recording process, and how he'd like classical music performance to become more like visual art. Tom travels to Bristol's The Galleries shopping centre, home of Bristol's Eye Hospital Assessment centre, to visit a new installation featuring the testimony of 100 voices from across 12 NHS hospitals - including doctors, porters, nurses, consultants, and patients - which have been curated into an hour-long immersive experience. Providing a therapeutic space for contributors to express themselves, and an opportunity for audiences to contemplate the lived experience of hospital communities, Tom learns how the project's composer, Hannah Conway, and librettist, Hazel Gould, created four arias around common themes they encountered, and hears how they've become creatively projected into a bespoke structure that will tour Bristol, London, Preston and Addenbrooke over the coming weeks. With contributions, too, from Manager at NHS Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Dipa Dave, and Head of Arts at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Natalie Ellis. Also today, as the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble prepares to perform a concert including Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Carter at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London this weekend, the violinist Michael Barenboim tells Music Matters how, despite the situation in the Middle-East, the collaborative principles behind his father's and Edward Said's orchestra – which seek to bring together Arab, Palestinian and Israeli musicians – are more important than ever. And the composer Jack van Zandt - author of a new book, Alexander Goehr, Composing a Life - speaks to Tom about the ongoing teacher-pupil relationship he's developed under the tutelage of Alexander - Sandy - Goehr, and how Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, and among others, Richard Hall, have in turn provided tuition and inspiration across Sandy's musical life.

As his new recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra of the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner - all eleven of them - hit the record stores, Tom Service speaks to the German conductor Christian Thielemann. He tells Tom about what had, for him, been a burning desire to embark on the journey to record all of the composer's symphonies, as well as the consolations of working with one of the world's greatest orchestras. Thielemann shares his vision, too, for audiences in the German capital following the recent news he'll succeed Daniel Barenboim as the General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera. With preparations well underway for this year's London Jazz Festival, Tom catches-up with the ‘Queen of African Music' - Angélique Kidjo. She describes her first encounter with Beethoven among the vinyl records of classical music her father had collected before the disruption of Benin's dictatorships, and speaks about her escape to Paris in the 1980s, as well as the joyous spirit of defiance and power of music in the conflicts she's witnessed in Sudan and Uganda. And as ensembles around the country gear up for the finals of this year's National Brass Band Championships, Music Matters eavesdrops on the preparatory rehearsals of last year's winner's, Foden's Brass Band. With contributions from principal cornet, Mark Wilkinson, principal trombone and Chairman, John Barber, flugel horn player, Melanie Whyle, and conductor, Russell Gray, Tom also speaks to the composer of this year's test piece, Edward Gregson, about his ‘Of Men and Mountains', which will be performed by twenty bands at this year's championships.

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to one of the most treasured and celebrated British mezzo-sopranos, Dame Janet Baker. Following the recent celebrations of her 90th birthday, she reflects on her life in music, the physical and mental toll of performance, and a singer's responsibility to always serve both the composer and the musical score. Serving the score of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, the much-lauded conductor John Wilson joins Sara to discuss his sumptuous new album - the first ever complete recording of the musical's original Broadway manuscript. He explains the painstaking research behind the restoration of Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations, how he approaches the task of preparing repertoire for the stage, and how to create the magical sound of musical theatre during its ‘golden age' in the 1940s. Recently returned from filming concerts performed for soldiers fighting on the frontline, the BBC correspondent Mark Urban tells Music Matters about the current situation inside Ukraine. Sara speaks to composer and performer Ihor Zavhorodnii, and violinist Vera Lytovschenko, about their efforts to bring musical relief to residents in schools, hospitals and bomb shelters, and hears how they're trying to reach and serve audiences inside their war-torn country. She hears, too, from the Chief Music Editor of Ukrainian Public Radio's cultural station, Oleksandr Piriyev, who describes how he's promoting Ukrainian music through the European Broadcasting Union.

Kate Molleson is joined by South African cellist, singer and composer Abel Selaocoe with his cello in tow, as he prepares to tour this autumn with The Bantu Ensemble. Abel talks about the "swirling cultures" from which he takes his inspiration, whether it's the different church traditions in South Africa or the music of JS Bach, and he treats us to a live improvisation. Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes joins Kate for a walk on the windy slopes of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. With a new boxset featuring Leif Ove's recordings from 1990-2010 due out in October, he reflects on how his approach to music has changed over the years, why there are certain composers whose music he preserves for listening not performing, and how the natural world is at the heart of how he plays. And as the new school year gets underway, we visit Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London, where three years ago the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment moved in. The orchestra's Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead gives us a tour of the school and explains how students, teachers, orchestral musicians and the wider community benefit from the collaboration and how he believes this model answers many of the problems faced by the arts and by education right now.

As a new collaborative production of Britten's one-act opera Noye's Fludde hits the stage in Leeds and Manchester this week, Tom Service speaks to staff and children from the Ingram Road Primary School during rehearsals in Holbeck to learn about the resonances of this Biblical story in today's world and why it's important for their community to be doing a project of such scale. He talks to Slung Low theatre company's Artistic Director, Alan Lane, and the conductor Nicholas Chalmers, to learn how they've put community of 180 children at the heart of this show. Tom joins Kitty Ross, curator at Leeds Museums, to hear about the venue's role at the heart of the city's former Triennial Music Festival, and how it played host to the premieres of ambitious works including oratorios as famous as Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, as well as a work which has since fallen into obscurity - Samuel Coleridge Taylor's The Blind Girl of Castél-Cuillé. She reflects on the relative health of Leeds' musical ecosystem and a recently rediscovered trove of forgotten works by the city's female composers. Tom talks to the editors of a new book ‘Popular Music in Leeds: histories, heritage, people and place', Paul Thompson and Brett Lashua. He drops by the city's Sela Bar, the current incarnation of the ‘Studio 20' jazz club where Sarah Vaughan sang and George Melly signed his name, to discuss Leeds' place in, and contribution to, the UK's popular music scene. And with a new production of the folk opera Anoush about to open at Marylebone Theatre, in London, conductor Aris Nadirian and director Seta White tell Tom why Armen Tigranian's opera is rarely heard outside Armenia. The scholar Knar Abrahamyan explores how the work's music has percolated into popular culture, how the piece was viewed in Soviet times, and why it still enjoys such popularity in its home country.

As Radio 3 marks the 400th anniversary of William Byrd's death, Tom Service visits Lincoln Cathedral, the centre of musical activity where the composer held positions as organist and master of the basilica's choristers early in his career. He talks to the scholar Magnus Williamson about how the building's acoustics shaped Byrd's compositional voice, and speaks to both the cathedral's current Director of Music, Aric Prentice, and Lay Vicar, Thomas Wilson. He's also joined by four leading British composers and musicians who have worked with Byrd's music: Cheryl Frances-Hoad, James Weeks, Gabriel Jackson and Laura Cannell. They each discuss how they have worked Byrd into their own compositional voices. Ahead of her Prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra later this month, Tom also hears from the conductor Elim Chan. Winner of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition in 2014, she tells Tom about her journey at the helm of several of the world's leading orchestras and why being on stage feels like being a rockstar.

As the Royal Northern College of Music celebrates its 50th anniversary, Tom Service talks to current students at the college and former alumni - including the pianist Alexandra Dariescu and conductor Alpesh Chauhan. He meets the RNCM's Principal, Linda Merrick, as well as the college's archivist, Geoff Thomason, to learn more about the college's past, the role it currently plays in the city's musical life, and its aspirations for the future. Formed of present and former students of the college, Tom catches-up with three members of an all-female genre-defying string quartet, Vulva Voce, to hear how their approach to repertoire and performance is winning over audiences. With Manchester's leading classical ensembles descending on Bridgewater Hall for a weekend-long festival celebrating the city's rich musical heritage, Tom Service meets the Director of the BBC Philharmonic, Beth Wells; Chief Executive of the Hallé Orchestra, David Butcher; Creative Director of the Manchester Camerata, Samantha McShane; and Artistic Director & Chief Executive of the Manchester Collective, Adam Szabo. And, Music Matters hears from the composer John Luther Adams, whose new work 'Prophecies of Stone' is set to premiere next month at the Manchester International Festival. We chat too to the biennial festival's Director of Music, Jane Beese, about the ambitions for Manchester's new cultural venue - Aviva Studios.

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the musical legacy of the Windrush generation, as part of the BBC's coverage of the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush's arrival at Tilbury Docks on 22nd June 1948. The composer Shirley J. Thompson joins Sara to discuss a new piano version of her one-singer opera with film, Women of the Windrush, and we hear specially recorded excerpts from the work by soprano Nadine Benjamin and pianist Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. The composers Errollyn Wallen and Des Oliver talk, too, about their own family connections and musical influences, and we hear the story of Belizean folk singer Nadia Cattouse as told by her son, Level 42 keyboardist Mike Lindup. The French-Canadian conductor Nicole Paiement, Founder and Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle in San Francisco, speaks to Sara from her home over-looking the bay while preparing to give the UK premiere of Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer's opera Everest - a work which tells the harrowing story of climbers caught in a blizzard in 1996 - in what will be a semi-staged version with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Plus the conductor, composer and arranger Nigel Brooks discusses his life in music, from his first job during a Proms performance of music by Vaughan Williams with the BBC Singers in 1950, to his own group the Nigel Brooks Singers, and what drives him to continue writing music - including an orchestral piece inspired by that first Proms appearance - at the age of 96.

As the CBSO prepares for a summer of tours to Aldeburgh, Japan, and the BBC Proms, the orchestra's new Chief Conductor Kazuki Yamada speaks to presenter Tom Service about the joy of music and the goosebumps he experiences while conducting. Tom travels to the South Downs to speak to Australian director Barrie Kosky about a new production, opening this weekend at Glyndebourne, of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. He's joined by sopranos Golda Schultz and Sally Matthews, as well as conductor Robin Ticciati, to talk about the story of sixteen nuns who meet their death at the hands of the French Revolution. Amid rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, Music Matters hears about the World Premiere of a new ballet, Untitled 2023 – a collaboration between the Royal Ballet's resident choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. They discuss the somatic relationship between body, dance and music, and why listening to Thorvaldsdottir's compositions is not a passive experience. And one hundred years after its premiere at the Aeolian Hall in June 1923, Tom speaks to the writer and broadcaster William Sitwell about his great-aunt Edith Sitwell's creative relationship with the composer William Walton – a collaboration which resulted in the entertainment, Façade. He's also joined by writer and researcher Lucy Walker. Together they discuss the work's nonsensical parody of popular music, jazz, and poetry and knotty issues it presents to contemporary audiences.

With his new memoir ‘Formation - Building a Personal Canon, Part I' hitting bookshops, and a new collaborative album with the tenor Ian Bostridge released this week, the American Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau joins Kate Molleson to discuss his childhood in small town New England, his forays into the New York Jazz scene of the 1990s, his encounters with kind musical heroes and future collaborators, and what it means to be a musician. Telling the story the 18th-century “Irish giant” Charles Byrne, whose corpse was stolen to order and put on public display, Kate speaks to composer Sarah Angliss about the World Premiere of her new opera Giant at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. She explains how she's treating this surprisingly tender tale of grave robbing and dissection. As Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month gets under way, Music Matters learns about a new project to highlight the invaluable recorded collection of gypsy and traveller voices archived within the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. We speak to the University of East Anglia's Dr. Hazel Marsh about the impetus to make collections, housed at the English Folk Dance and Song Society, more accessible to Gypsy and Traveller people seeking engagement with their cultural heritage, and hear from the Scottish Traveller Ian McGregor. Celebrating two decades of music making with Les Siècles, Kate hears from conductor François-Xavier Roth as he prepares to tour with the orchestra to the Barbican, Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms. With new albums of works by Ravel and Ligeti about to be released this month, too, he tells Kate about the energy of discovery which drives the ensemble's prolific recording activity, and why performance needs to be dangerous.

Marking the centenary of Hungarian composer György Ligeti, Tom Service talks to musicians who knew him and who love his music. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and composer and conductor Thomas Adès explore the musical universe of the Violin Concerto; pianist Tamara Stefanovich describes meeting the composer and the intensity and fragility required to perform his music; Tom joins composer Anna Meredith in her studio to listen to one of his last works, the Hamburg Concerto; and György Ligeti's son, the composer and instrumentalist Lukas Ligeti reveals the passion he shared with his father for creating imaginary worlds, both musical and non-musical. Tom also talks to conductor Iván Fischer - the founder of the acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra - ahead of his appearances at the BBC Proms and at Edinburgh International Festival this summer. They discuss the difficulties of changing how symphony orchestras work, how his orchestra's mission to bring music to the communities of Budapest translates when they're on tour, and why mistakes are a very good thing. Plus musicians and noise. With recent stories about noise complaints against both musicians rehearsing at home and long-established music venues, we talk to Clara Cullen from the Music Venues Trust, Stuart Darke from the Independent Society of Musicians and Lisa Lavia from the Noise Abatement Society about the law, the psychology and how to balance the needs of musicians with the rights of communities for peace and quiet.

On the verge of receiving the coveted George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America, the trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard joins Sara Mohr-Pietsch. He discusses his ventures into the operatic world, the success of The Met's recent production of his opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and returning to the New York opera company's hallowed stage for their current run of his first opera, Champion, which is based on the life of boxer Emile Griffith. Sara travels to the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, in Chelsea, to hear from a modern von Trapp family lineage of singers – the Bevan Family Consort. We hear from sisters Sophie and Mary Bevan about their new album, following in the musical footsteps of their parents' generation, and singing together as a family. David Price, Director of Analysis at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, gives Music Matters the latest news about how listeners access and engage with classical music recordings. And, as his new collection of lyrics – Never Good with Horses – hits the bookshelves, the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage discusses the art of writing words that can be set to music. We hear too about a special speed-dating project, as part of the Leeds Lieder festival, which paired-up 12 poets from the city with 12 young composers to create a songbook. Sara talked to composers Georgia Barnes and Daniel Saleeb, and the poet Dalton Harrison.

Tom Services talks to German baritone Christian Gerhaher during rehearsals for Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House. Having recently recorded all the songs of Robert Schumann as well as Mahler, Brahms and Schubert, Christian reveals how he sees the differing role of the singer when performing lieder and opera, and why he believes celebrating the complexity of classical music will secure its future. Tom also meets singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Rhiannon Giddens whose opera 'Omar' has just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The opera tells the story of Omar Ibn Said, a scholar who was one of tens of thousands of enslaved Muslims who were taken to the United States in the 19th century. Rhiannon discusses the power of collaboration, the future of opera and her ongoing mission to reclaim the history of the banjo as an instrument created by black communities. For Mental Health Awareness Week, we explore the world of gong baths to find out how sound therapy can be used to help reduce levels of anxiety and stress. Tom goes for a gong bath with sound therapist and musician Simone Salvatici and talks to British Academy of Sound Therapy Director Lyz Cooper. Plus, Chris West, author of 'Eurovision! A History of Modern Europe Through the World's Greatest Song Contest', explores how the songs of Eurovision have reflected the traditional music and cultural identity of the countries taking part, as well as telling stories of peace, conflict and resolution since it was established in 1956.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to violinist Nicola Benedetti as she prepares for her inaugural programme as Edinburgh International Festival director, becoming the first Scot to hold the position in the festival's 75-year history. Nicola discusses the challenges of balancing the festival job with life as a performer and sets out her vision for opening up music to a wider audience and deepening the culture of listening. We visit English National Opera to find out about a new staging of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, 30 years after the first commercial recording of the piece shot to fame reaching number six in the UK pop album charts. Sara talks to Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya and director/designer Isabella Bywater about their new production of the piece and how the operatic setting changes our experience of the music. Baritone Lucia Lucas and composer Tom W Green discuss The World's Wife - a chamber opera from 2017 for string quartet and singer which uses text from the poetry collection by Carol Ann Duffy, who presents world history through the eyes of the wives and partners of the men in the history books. They talk to Sara about the use of material by historic women composers, the power of the poetry, and what it means to rework the piece with a transgender opera singer in 2023. And with stories in the media of a sector in decline, we look at what the numbers tell us about the state of classical music in the UK, with contributions from Anne Torreggiani at The Audience Agency on concert-going, Janis Susskind at Boosey and Hawkes on commissioning and audiences, and Dr Adam Whittaker at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on uptake of A-levels and grade exams.

Tom Service talks to conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner at his home in Dorset as he celebrates his 80th birthday later this week. His work as Artistic Director of his Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique has made him a central figure in the early music revival and a pioneer of historically informed performance. Together with the musicians from his performance groups, John Eliot Gardiner has performed and recorded repertoire which spans five centuries, from Monteverdi to Berlioz, Schutz to Schumann as well as the two composers he's especially associated with – J.S. Bach and Beethoven.

Tom Service explores classical music's place in British society, in light of the current national debates around funding from Arts Council England and the proposed cuts to the BBC's performing groups. The programme asks questions about how classical music and opera is valued, and how it resonates with today's diverse communities, through perspectives from within the UK and from abroad, from former culture minister Ed Vaizey to multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie. Richard McKerrow, the producer behind Channel 4's The Piano, on classical music on TV and the impact he hopes the series will have on our musical life. Sarah Price from Liverpool University, on her research into audiences: why do we return to the familiar when choosing which concerts to attend? Kully Thiarai, creative director and CEO of Leeds 2023, on the importance of the arts and culture for community and belonging. Andrew Mellor, a British journalist in Denmark, on the relationship the Nordic countries have with classical music, and why it's different in the UK. Bobby Duffy from the Policy Institute at King's College London, on how the arts and classical music fit into the culture wars debate. Nwando Ebizie, the multidisciplinary artist, on working with Aurora Orchestra on "Inside Beethoven" and making events work for D/deaf audiences. Ed Vaizey, Member of the House of Lords and former culture minister, on perceptions and political decision-making around the arts and music.

Kate Molleson marks the 150 anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninov's birth. She visits his home in Switzerland - after years of renovation, the beautiful Villa Senar, on the banks of Lake Lucerne, is reopening to the public. This is the peaceful summer residence where Rachmaninov lived in in the 1930s and where he composed the Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini and the Third symphony. Kate is shown around the Villa by its director Andrea Loetscher. They are joined by pianist Boris Giltburg, who is about to release his new Rachmaninov piano concertos disc, and who performs specially for Music Matters on Rachmaninov's original Steinway grand piano in the Villa's studio. Also joining Kate at the Villa is Fiona Maddocks: music critic and author of the upcoming book 'Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile'. Together they discuss Rachmaninov's life, work and his time spent at Villa Senar.

Kate Molleson talks to composer Anna Clyne, clarinettist Martin Frost and violinist Pekka Kuusisto together about the concertos Anna has written for the acclaimed soloists. The UK premiere of her clarinet concerto for Martin - Weathered - took place at the Royal Festival Hall this week, with Pekka conducting. Her violin concerto for Pekka - Time and Tides - will have its UK premiere in March 2024, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Also, Marques L.A. Garrett tell us about The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers, which he has edited. It features 35 pieces from countries including Brazil, Canada, Portugal, the USA and Britain, which span from the 16th century to the current day. Kate visits a new musical opening in London this month about Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian former Prime Minister and tycoon. At rehearsals, Kate met composer Ricky Simmonds, director James Grieve, and actor Emma Hatton who plays Veronica, Silvio Berlusconi's second wife. Plus, we look into the business of music streaming ahead of the launch of the classical music streaming app, Apple Classical. We hear from Sophie Jones, Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry; Naomi Pohl, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union; and Chris O'Reilly, CEO of Presto Music.

Tom Service visits Evelyn Glennie to discuss her life and career. As a soloist and improviser, the profoundly deaf musician created a role that had never existed in the classical world before, that of a solo percussionist. Growing up on a farm in Aberdeenshire, Evelyn Glennie's journey to musical stardom took her through the Royal Academy of Music to playing at the Proms in 1992; she was a household name on TV throughout the late 80s and 90s, and led hundreds of musicians at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012. She's commissioned an entire repertoire of concertos, has a vast archive of percussion instruments and has a determination to make the most of every moment. With Tom, as she shows him around her many instruments, she explores the essential principle that's been the cornerstone of her life - listening.

As her career takes flight, the French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre talks to presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch about her love of baroque music, how her ballet training has influenced both her voice and stage presence, and the special musical alchemy that she experiences while collaborating with Thomas Dunford and the Jupiter Ensemble. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the late American composer Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditations – a series of text-based scores that instruct groups of people to practice ‘sounding' and listening together – Music Matters speaks to the improviser and saxophonist, Artur Vidal, and sound artist and researcher, Ximena Alarcón ahead of a weekend of performances at Café Oto in London. They describe how Oliveros' works broke with the conventions that separate composer, performer, and audience, and discuss how her Sonic Meditations became the blueprint for the composer's hugely influential Deep Listening school. As China eases its Covid restrictions, Sara speaks to the Shanghai-based journalist Rudolph Tang to learn how the country's classical music sector is returning to business after the pandemic. And, during rehearsals for Richard Jones' new production of Rheingold at English National Opera, Sara joins the musicologist John Deathridge backstage to hear more about his new translation of the first instalment of Wagner's Ring Cycle. She asks the musicologist Barbara Eichner about the nuances of creating a convincing, contemporary translation of High German epic poetry, and is joined by ENO's Head of Music, Martin Fitzpatrick, and music critic at the New York Times, Zachary Woolf, to discuss whether the enterprise of translating foreign language operas into an audience's vernacular remains relevant.

Composer Dobrinka Tabakova talks to Tom Service about her artist residency at The Hallé in Manchester. She discusses her love of melody, the thrill of writing for youth orchestra, the importance of understanding the character of the musicians she writes for, and how meeting composer Iannis Xenakis when she was 14 shaped her musical path. Tom visits the site of the new Shireland City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Academy in West Bromwich, which opens in September 2023. As the first state school in the country to be established in collaboration with an orchestra, the academy is built around a central performance space which will also be open as a venue in evenings and throughout the year for the wider Sandwell community and beyond. Tom takes a tour of the site with CBSO Chief Executive Stephen Maddock, Principal Designate David Green and architect Claire Mantle to find out more. Emily MacGregor joins Tom to talk about her new book ‘Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity and the Sound of 1933' which explores how symphonies in Europe and America reflect and shape the politics of their time, and how they resonate with us today. The book looks at symphonies by composers such as Kurt Weill, Hans Pfitzner, Roy Harris and Florence Price which were written or premiered in 1933 – a year in which Hitler came to power in Germany and the Great Depression reached its peak in the United States. We explore the past, present and future of immersive performances with David Owen Norris who takes us on a whistle-stop tour of how composers and musicians have played with sound and space throughout the centuries. Tom also visits the d&b Audiotechnik demo facility in Stroud to find out about the latest technology being used to create immersive audio performances in halls, theatres and opera houses across the world.

Ahead of her performance in the Royal Opera House's production of Tannhäuser, Tom Service joins the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen backstage at Covent Garden during rehearsals for Wagner's story of love, redemption, and mythical depiction of the Wartburg Song Contest. She tells Tom about inhabiting the role of her character, Elisabeth, and how opera is a space in which we can connect with world events. As Celtic Connections celebrates its 30th anniversary in Glasgow, Tom is joined by musician, producer, and festival director Donald Shaw; Chief Executive of Fèis Rois, Fiona Dalgety; singer-songwriter, Karine Polwart; and the piper, fiddler, composer and instrument-maker, Malin Lewis, to discuss the festival's impact in the Celtic musical world and beyond. Music Matters talks to the American harpsichordist and author Leslie Kwan about her new book for toddlers, A is for Aretha, which features 26 portraits of inspirational black women in music. And, Tom visits violinist Daniel Pioro and organist James McVinnie as they prepare for a deep-dive into the soundworld of the 17th century Austrian composer, Heinrich Biber, and his virtuosic Rosary sonatas. He hears about the series of performances and talks, Daniel and James have curated, which stretch from sunrise to sunset this weekend at the Southbank Centre in London.

As part of Radio 3's New Year New Music, Kate Molleson talks at length to one of the 21st-century's leading creative artists – the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Celebrating her 70th birthday this year, Kaija describes music as a study of self and the human spirit. Kate meets her at home in Paris where she reflects on her life in music, describing the the conviction with which she pursued compositional classes with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, and the distinctive musical style she developed as a result. Kate hears how Saariaho found herself in the musical milieu of Paris and the draw of the city's research institute for music and sound, IRCAM, where she cemented her place on the world stage with a dazzling work for small chamber orchestra and electronics inspired by the aurora borealis, Lichtbogen (1986). She tells Kate too about the challenges of writing her opera Innocence, whose subject matter deals with the legacy of trauma surrounding a shooting in a Finnish International School, and the inevitability of embodying the emotional pain of the story's characters during the composition process. And as 2023 commences, Kate is joined by the Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell, and the music journalist and author, Norman Lebrecht, to discuss the major challenges and opportunities awaiting the musical world in the year ahead.

Kate Molleson travels to Paris to join Olivier Latry, titular organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral, as he reflects on the possibilities of making music outside the iconic building following 2019's devastating blaze. He describes how the spirit of the cathedral has seeped into musicianship as well as its absence while the basilica is rebuilt and its congregation worship at a different site, as well as his hopes for the musical life of the building after it reopens in 2024, and how performing in religious ceremonies differs from recitals in concert halls. Kate is joined by the musicologist Roger Nichols whose new book, 'From Berlioz to Boulez', surveys the story of French musical history through the country's most important composers. The French music expert Caroline Potter shares her thoughts on Nichols' new tome too. Music Matters learns about a new archive of contemporary repertoire, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for students and people consulting their website, called 200 Pieces. We hear from 3 composers who've written material especially for the modern-day compilation: Helen Grime, Howard Skempton and Daniel Kidane. And Betto Arcos, whose journalism focusses on Latin American music, tells Kate about his favourite Mexican Christmas music traditions, including the rituals of Las Posadas, La Rama, and the villancicos which has echoed across Oaxaca Cathedral's interior since the time of the conquistadors.

Beloved by choirs and audiences all over the world, John Rutter is one of the most popular and successful choral composers of the last half-century. In particular, for many people Rutter's carols and carol arrangements are the sound of Christmas. The festive season would be unthinkable today without the joyful tunes of Shepherd's Pipe Carol or Star Carol resounding in school halls, churches and concert halls. Tom Service visits the composer at his home in rural Cambridgeshire to try to learn the secret of writing a great carol, and to chat about an illustrious career that has also included major choral works such as his Requiem and Gloria, and the large-scale Mass of the Children, written in 2003 following the sudden death of Rutter's son Christopher at the age of 19. We also drop in on a rehearsal with the Bach Choir in London, as John prepares them for his gala Christmas Celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Produced by Graham Rogers.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali about his work with the Philharmonia, currently busy with his second season leading the London-based orchestra. He discusses the composers who challenge him when conducting, and tells why humour is so important in his music making. We take a look at the nature of national anthems and why they're so popular at sports events like the current football World Cup, with an expert on the subject, Dr Ruth Dockwray, associate professor of Popular Music at the University of Chester. Also, we talk to Mary Cohen, co-author of the book Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, November 2022); to Robin Harris from Finding Rhythms, an organization running song-writing workshops with prisoners in the UK; and to two former inmates who've benefited from these programmes as part of their process of rehabilitation back into society. And composer, vocalist and artistic director Laura Bowler, who's just been granted the 2022 Paul Hamlyn Foundation award, given to support artists in their future paths, talks about her projects about climate change and about violence against women, and why working on these subjects have impacted both her physical and mental health. Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Kate Molleson speaks to Irish soprano Ailish Tynan at home with her dog. She reminisces about growing up in Ireland, learning her craft as a young artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and working with students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in Greenwich where she has been recently announced as International Artist in Voice. Kate travels to rehearsals to meet members of the Glasgow Senior Citizens Orchestra where she finds them preparing for their next concert; and she talks to music therapist, Grace Meadows from the Utley Foundation and David Cutler Director of the Baring Foundation about the benefits music brings to older people. Author Frederick W. Skinner introduces his new book 'Beethoven in Russia: Music and Politics' which explores how the composer's music interfaced with politics in Russia and the revolutionary struggle that culminated in the Revolution of 1917. Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music History and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge sets the context and describes the current musical climate in Russia. Plus, Kate speaks to Ammo Talwar from UK Music about their newly published Diversity Report. And Charisse Beaumont joins us from Black Lives in Music to explain some of the findings of the report. Produced by Marie-Claire Doris.