Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

Maths prodigy and now composer. Alexey Shor is the composer in residence at the Malta International Festival. In this podcast he discusses why he writes and how he writes, and challenges a whole load of assumptions about the classical music world as he does so. Read the accompanying blog post on the Thoroughly Good Blog. 

Director of Music at St Johns College of Cambridge discusses his work at St Johns College Cambridge, the educational impact of Cambridge music making, and the choir's new release on Signum Records, Locus Iste. 

Jon Jacob speaks to composer Jonathan Dove at the Salisbury International Arts Festival about the compositional language he uses in some of his works. An album of orchestral music by Jonathan with the BBC Philharmonic and Timothy Redmond is available on Spotify. 

Podcast 40 features an interview with cellist Joy Lisney who appears at the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, on 8th June in a recital of Bach, Chopin and Brahms with her piano playing father James Lisney. More information on the [Southbank Centre website](https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/128978-joy-and-james-lisney-2019) or at [www.joylisney.com](http://www.joylisney.com). Music: Vriend's '[Anatomy of Passion](https://youtu.be/LDzdp6mc8Zc)' performed live in 2004.

Composer Paul Ben-Haim moved from Germany during the 1930s to escape the Nazi regime to settle in the British Mandate of Palestine. There he continued his work as a composer spanning musical styles - Western European classical music and Arabic classical music. Itamar's exploration of Ben-Haim's work is documented in an album recorded with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and is supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

Double bassist Leon Bosch discusses education, detail, knowledge and expertise. His South African Double Bass Concert with Rebeca Omordia is at the October Gallery, London on Thursday 2 May.

Adam Szabo from [Manchester Collective](https://manchestercollective.co.uk/) discusses alternative classical music experiences in this hour long discussion about audience development (fuelled by wine).

Jon Jacob visits PRS for Music for the Wild Plum Songbook Workshop recently held in London in collaboration with Wild Plum Arts and Cheltenham Music Festival. He speaks to composers workshopping their new works, and Wild Plum Arts Artistic Director and workshop mentor Lucy Schaufer. Composers in order of appearance in the podcast: Ella Jarman-Pinto, Kate Marlais, Rose Miranda Hall, Janet Oates, Lisa Robertson, Sarah Lianne Lewis.

Upon this Handful of Earth received its European premiere at the Church Music Festival in Oslo on Monday 24 March 2019\. Jon Jacob speaks to composer and librettists Gisle Kverndokk and Aksel-Otto Bull about the work, the issues it highlights, and the challenges in bringing the conversation about climate change to the operatic form.

James Macmillan and Tenebrae’s Nigel Short discuss the Holy Week Festival, faith and how it supports Macmillan’s work as a composer, and how Tenebrae chorus creates its distinctive sound. Including excerpts from Macmillan’s Seven Last Words (Naxos) and Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden (Signum). More information about the festival can be found at [sjss.org.uk](http://sjss.org.uk).