In the final episode of 2021, Tom Service meets mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and composer and pianist Jake Heggie whose album ‘Unexpected Shadows’ has been nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in the 2022 Grammy Awards. Jamie recently sang in Atlanta Opera’s production of Jake’s first major opera, Dead Man Walking, which tells the story of a nun who becomes the spiritual advisor to a convicted murderer on death row. They discuss the power of opera and song in tackling existential stories of life and death, engaging with new audiences and the need for greater representation and inclusion in opera and on the concert stage.

Since the major explosion in the Port of Beirut in 2020, Lebanon has been in crisis with economic collapse, severe poverty, fuel shortages and political instability. But musicians are continuing to make their voices heard there, including the players of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and their conductor Lubnan Baalbaki, despite a significant number of the orchestra’s players having to leave the country. Tom talks to the BBC Middle East correspondent in Beirut Lina Sinjab and conductor Lubnan Baalbaki about the fight to save the cultural life of Lebanon.

Tom is also joined by Morag Grant whose new book ‘Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture’ traces the emergence of the song made famous by Robert Burns, and explores the traditions and rituals that emerged around its use as a song of parting, and as a song of New Year. Plus, we explore the sounds of Christmas and how they affect us with the BBC Big Band’s Barry Forgie, music psychologist Alex Lamont and record producer Chris Alder.

Tom Service talks to Lin-Manuel Miranda about making musicals, including Hamilton and tick, tick … BOOM! The soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn talks about the songs she has uncovered by composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. And two musicians who have had to leave their homes in Afghanistan share their hopes for the future.

Today Tom Service talks to superstar violinist and conductor, André Rieu about his passion for sharing the joy of music across the world with his Johann Strauss Orchestra. Tom also visits the Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, now a resident of London, whose recordings of Chopin and Bach have earned widespread acclaim. Bach's Goldberg Variations also feature in a radical new reworking, which has been occupying the pianist and composer Xenia Pestova Bennett. She tells Tom more about Gold.Berg.Werk.

Tom Service travels to the Monastery in Gorton, the new home of the Manchester Camerata, to find out how the orchestra is embedding in to the community. Gorton was once the engine-room of the world as it kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, building the engines for the cotton mills. Having since suffered from socio-economic decline, Gorton is now being regenerated and the Manchester Camerata is doing something very new in its move to The Monastery, providing a weekly Music Café for local residents living with Dementia, making lasting connections with a local youth charity, and providing affordable concert tickets for the local community.

Andreas Staier has just released a new disc of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2. Tom talks to Andreas about Bach’s decision to compile a second book of Preludes and Fugues for keyboard and how the work fits in his overall output, and especially his later works.

Tom also visits director of Dash Arts, Josephine Burton, and musicians Yuriy Gurzhy & Mariana Sadovska, as they rehearse for their new work, Songs for Babyn Yar. He finds out about the horrors of Babyn Yar and talks to the musicians about how they are creating a fitting musical memorial to this dark chapter in Ukrainian Holocaust history.

We also hear from Claire Mera-Nelson, Director of Music for Arts Council England, about the findings of a new 'Creating a more Inclusive Classical Music' report, launched as part of the Fair and Inclusive Classical Music project.

As the COP26 climate summit continues, Tom Service is joined by a panel of guests to discuss how musicians, orchestras and cultural organisations can respond to climate change. Live guests include violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto, London Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Kathryn McDowell and founder of the cultural and environmental charity Julie's Bicycle, Alison Tickell. We also hear from the environmental consultant Natalja Andersson about her work on Gothenburg Opera's sustainable production of Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Tom talks to Norwegian musician and composer Terje Isungset about his Ice Music project and gets his unique perspective on the changing planet after 20 years of making ice instruments. Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq discusses the relationship between her music and the natural environment and we explore environmental soundscapes with music writer Kate Galloway. Plus, journalist Zack Ferriday shares his thoughts on the limitations of musical activism.

Music clips from COP26 include:

Following the death of Bernard Haitink this week, Tom revisits the last Music Matters interview the Dutch conductor gave at his home in 2017, a moving account of his beginnings in music, his love for the musicians he worked with in the world's top orchestras, and his thoughts on the power of music to transcend.

Also this week, Tom looks into the issues affecting young people transitioning from studying music at 16-19 to Higher Education, following a recent report by Adam Whittaker from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire showing declining numbers at A-level. Tom discusses with Adam, and with Bridget Whyte of Music Mark, and we hear how two universities are responding: Royal Holloway, University of London, and Keele University in Staffordshire.

Tom catches up with the contralto turned conductor Nathalie Stutzmann following her appointment as the next music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, hearing about her bold plans for the orchestra's repertoire and for its engagement with the city's many and varied communities.

And Daniel Grimley talks about his book, Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence, a new biography which explores the Finnish composer's relationship with nature, politics and culture. Sakari Oramo, the Finnish chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, reflects on his own experiences with the complex life and music of Sibelius.

In 1999 the musician Warren Ellis clambered onstage at the Royal Festival Hall to retrieve a piece of chewing gum. The gum was deposited there by Nina Simone, who had chewed it throughout her concert that night. Fast forward twenty-two years and Ellis has written a book inspired by the piece of gum, now enshrined in its own glass case, on a specially built gum plinth. Kate Molleson caught up with him to find out more about a story which goes to the heart of artistic belief, generosity and affirmation. It was a book he never really set out to write, but then couldn’t not write.

Following on from Music Matters’ meeting with Steve Reich two weeks ago, Kate delves further into the origins, development and lasting legacy of minimalism. She talks to composers Linda Catlin Smith, Nate Wooley and Julia Wolfe to find out how a disparate group with new ideas continues to inspire, and also hears from pioneers such as Philip Glass and Pauline Oliveros about the mentality of anti-hierarchy and participation which changed the musical landscape.

Laurence Crane is one of the most beloved figures in British contemporary music, his work is full of surprise, fondness, wit and wisdom. As a successor to a certain sort of minimalism, he lets us hear humble wonders in the everyday. Celebrating his sixtieth birthday this year, he met up with Kate at one of his favourite performance spaces to look over his constantly surprising career and oeuvre.

And as orchestras and musical institutions look at ways to represent diversity among their ranks, Kate talks to John Shortell of the Musicians’ Union, and Diversity and Inclusion consultant Chico Chakravorty, about what are the most effective ways to achieve this.