Front Row

Cuban composer, cellist and singer Ana Carla Maza performs live in the Front Row studio, ahead of her appearance at WOMAD, and discusses the unusual combination of cello and vocals.

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by critics Neil McCormick and Tara Joshi to review two of the week’s cultural highlights – the shortlist for this year’s Mercury Music Prize and a new documentary Reframed: Marilyn Monroe.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Kathryn Ferguson, director of the documentary feature Nothing Compares, pays tribute to Sinéad O'Connor whose death was announced today. The film explores the five years at the start of Sinéad O’Connor’s career.

Before appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe many performers hone their acts in a series of previews round the country. How does road-testing the shows prepare them for the festival? To discuss, we're joined by experienced comedian Paul Sinha, by Ned Blackburn - producer of a student revue at the Fringe for the first time, and by the artistic director of the Clapham Omnibus Theatre, Marie McCarthy, who is running a season of previews.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce's new book The Wonder Brothers tells of two young aspiring magicians who witness the disappearance of Blackpool Tower and vow to get it back. Efua Traoré was frustrated by the lack of diversity in children’s books so decided to write her own. In her latest, One Chance Dance, the hero Jomi heads to Lagos to audition for his missing mother's favourite television dance show so she will spot him. Frank and Efua discuss the magical appeal of pre-teen literature.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

Christian Blackshaw is a renowned classical pianist but has made only a handful of records preferring the concert platform. Ahead of his appearance at the Oxford Piano Festival on 29 July and as a prelude to that talks to Samira about his career and plays in the Front Row studio.

What can the world of fine art learn from the tech start-ups of Silicon Valley? Samira speaks to entrepreneur and musician Joey Flores, the co-founder of Inversion Art, a company proposing a new training programme and business model for artists. We also hear from painter and sculptor Servane Mary, one of the first artists to sign up to the programme and from Melanie Gerlis, art market author and columnist for the Financial Times.

Rabiah Hussain’s new play at the Royal Court explores the power of words – how the ripple effect of what someone in a position of power says publicly can influence views, create mindsets and even incite violence. She joins Samira to discuss.

Elizabeth Fremantle talks about her novel ‘Disobedient’, which explores the story of the extraordinary C17th woman artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, and how the traumatic events of her seventeenth year influenced her visceral biblical paintings like ‘Judith Slaying Holofernes’.

Ahead of his premiere at the Proms, French horn player Felix Klieser plays in the studio for Front Row and tells Samira Ahmed how, aged four, he surprised his family with his choice of instrument. Born without arms, he explains how he plays by pressing the valves with the toes of his left foot.

The potential of digital logo design is investigated by graphic artists Adrian Shaughnessy and Marina Willer.

Sarah Phelps on BBC drama The Sixth Commandment, Blur's new album reviewed.

Presenter Nick Ahad meets Christopher Nolan, director of the much anticipated Oppenheimer film. It tells the story of the American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who, in 1943, assembled a group of scientists in Los Alamos to create the world’s first atomic bomb.

Ahead of the National Eisteddfod, the annual festival of Welsh poetry and music, we learn about the poetic tradition of Cynghanedd from Dr Mererid Hopwood and Ceri Wyn Jones.

And as nightclubs continue to close across Britain, we look at club culture and why people need to dance together. Nick is joined by the music journalist John Harris and Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home.

Presenter: Nick Ahad

Aindrea Emelife and black women in art. Nigerian-British curator on her Somerset House exhibition Black Venus, addressing colonial history and the representation of black women in art as subject and artist, and her new curatorial role at the Edo Museum of West African Art, opening in Nigeria from 2024.

Earlier this year a viral song purporting to feature Drake and The Weeknd was removed from streaming services when it emerged that vocals on the track were not the artists, but were generated by Artificial Intelligence. Songwriters are increasingly concerned that AI could put them out of business, but how worried should they be? The BBC’s Will Chalk is joined by two professional songwriters, Aaron Horn and Holly Henderson, to see who can write the most convincing pop hit – the humans or the machines.

20 years since the launch of the first ever podcast, we look back at the highlights of the medium’s explosive growth. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by podcast pioneer and host of The Allusionist, Helen Zaltzman, and by Dino Sofos, founder and CEO of audio production company Persephonica.

This Friday sees the release of the much anticipated ‘Barbie’ starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Samira meets director, Greta Gerwig to discuss the making of the film and her myriad of influences.

A tapestry commissioned by Henry VIII has come up for sale in Spain. Historian of early modern textiles Isabella Rosner tells Samira why ‘Saint Paul Directing the Burning of the Heathen Books’ is so significant. We also hear from the collector and philanthropist behind the Auckland Project, Jonathan Ruffer, about why he's campaigning for the tapestry to be saved for the nation and installed at Auckland Castle.

Last year, Tanika Gupta’s play, The Empress, was put on the GCSE curriculum for the first time. Set in the late 19th century, the play intertwines the story of Queen Victoria’s relationship with her Indian teacher Abdul Karim, with the story of Rani Das, a young Indian woman brought to the UK by an English family. It was premiered by the RSC in 2013 and Tanika joins Front Row to discuss updating it for a new production.

Front Row bids farewell to the actress and singer, Jane Birkin, whose death was announced yesterday.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One - the long awaited seventh film in the series - and the Royal Academy's new exhibition about architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron. Ryan Gilbey and Oliver Wainwright review.

Plus Walter Murch. The renowned film editor and sound designer has won Oscars for his work with directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Anthony Minghella. On the occasion of his 80th birthday he leads Antonia Quirke through several key scenes from his films, including the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and explains his use of sound. He also talks about his own films, Return to Oz and the documentary Coup 53.

Presenter: Antonia Quirke

Front Row remembers the renowned Czech-born novelist, poet and essayist Milan Kundera who has died aged 94. Novelist Howard Jacobson and French journalist Agnès Poirier discuss the influence of his magical realist writing.

Imagine a world where prison inmates fight to the death, for entertainment. That’s the premise of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the debut novel of Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, who joins Samira live in the studio to discuss writing inspired by his dislike of the American justice system.

The first Northern Soul Prom is happening this weekend. Writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie, who has co-curated the Prom, joins Samira to discuss this celebration of the northern club culture of the 1960s and 1970s.

And the £120,000 Art Fund Museum of the Year award is announced this evening. In recent weeks, we’ve been spotlighting all of the shortlisted nominees: The Burrell Collection, Glasgow; Leighton House, London; The MAC, Belfast; Natural History Museum, London and Scapa Flow Museum, Orkney. Samira will be speaking to the Director of the winning museum, live from this evening’s ceremony at The British Museum.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed