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.

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 last year's gala Christmas Celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

First broadcast in December 2022

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 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.

Ahead of her concert next week with the LSO, Tom Service speaks to the pianist Alice Sara Ott who is also preparing to embark on a tour which features lighting and images alongside performances of Chopin’s Op 28 preludes, and other contemporary works from her recent Echoes of Life album, to create a multi-media experience that extends the boundaries of what’s possible in concert halls.

As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference concludes, Music Matters hears from Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Eakin, Executive Chairman of Harrison Parrott, Jasper Parrott, and Professor of Geosystem Science and leader of the group responsible for climate modelling at the University of Oxford, Myles Allen, about the degree to which the classical music industry is delivering its own promises to reduce its impact on the environment.

With all eyes on Qatar for the opening of the FIFA World Cup, Tom hears from the BBC’s Series producer for Arabic Digital Investigative Documentaries, Rosie Garthwaite, about the construction she witnessed of Doha’s opera house in the Katara Cultural Centre. He learns how the country has nurtured both Western art forms and cultural institutions, and the potential projection of soft power.

Tom joins the soprano Danielle de Niese and tenor Frederick Ballentine during rehearsals for a new production, by English National Opera, of Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life. The composer shares how he adapted the story behind Frank Capra’s classic movie, and Tom speaks to the journalist, broadcaster, and author, Matthew Sweet, about the phenomenon of setting operas from film, as well as different roles music plays on both the screen and the stage.

On the eve of the launch of her new album, ‘Seraph’, featuring works for trumpet and string orchestra by James Macmillan, Grieg, and Satie, Tom Service speaks to Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth about her diagnosis with cancer last year, her relationship with music during gruelling treatment, and the conscious decision she made after her recovery to commit again to a career in music.

As Arts Council England reveals its 2023-26 national portfolio of funded organisations, Music Matters speaks to ACE’s Director of Music, Claire Mera Nelson, about the body’s investment decisions. We hear from a cross section of organisations who’ve seen changes to their public funding, as well as first-time recipients, with contributions from Chief Executive of the Paraorchestra, Jonathan Harper; Artistic and Executive Director of MishMash productions, Liz Muge; and Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia, Meurig Bowen.

And as the EFG London Jazz Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary, Tom’s joined by jazz author and presenter, Alyn Shipton, former Director of Serious (the creative company who administer the festival) Claire Whitaker; and the British-Bahraini jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer, Yazz Ahmed, who discuss how the British jazz scene has evolved since the early 90s.

Producer: Marie-Claire Doris