Originally a singer-songwriter, Gareth Williams was seduced into writing opera by a love of storytelling. His piano-bar roots mean he isn't sure whether the music he writes now is best described as pop or contemporary classical music. However, he's not sure those labels are useful and is happy to let his ostensibly classical compositions veer "dangerously close" to the world of pop. Now a fully-fledged opera composer, he writes both staged and site-specific works, including an opera performed in a pub and another that took place in a lighthouse. In this episode he talks about why he went from singer-songwriter to opera composer and the (often true) stories that inspire his work.

Shiori Usui's recent music has been obsessed with the human body; from using a string orchestra to mimic the sound of a digesting stomach to basing the pulse of a work on her own heartbeat, her scores always feature an array of colour and unusual instrumental techniques. In this episode she talks about how and why she creates this body-music and also about how reading the poem Archimedes Lullaby by Gjertrud Schnackenberg opened-up a new form of expression in her work.

John De Simone discusses his transition from a manifesto-writing Angry Young Minimalist to the composer of a lush, Romantic (-ish) violin concerto. He talks about how death, the desire to be useful and a fear of flying have all influenced his music.