Features & Interviews
'Having to establish a real conversation with the audience is a good challenge': Raffaello Morales on a possible musical future
Thursday, 31 December 2020
As this most remarkable year prepares to enter the history books, most of us who are part of the music industry have come to realise that the western world is desperately looking for solutions to an emergency of unprecedented dimensions in post-war times, and that music is not widely perceived to provide a
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Book extract: Fat by Hanne Blank
Wednesday, 23 December 2020
"Ugh, I just feel so fat today," the woman near me in the locker room says to her friend as they get dressed after their workout. I look over – discreetly, as one does – to catch a glimpse of the grimacing side of her face as she zips up a pair of close-fitting blue jeans over a barely rounded lower abdomen, hip bones evident under taut fabric.
Dame Fanny Waterman (1920-2020) - some...
Tuesday, 22 December 2020
Dame Fanny Waterman was a true force of nature, in the best sense of the word. Her diminutive height belied a giant intellectual force and a steely...
First Person: conductor Johannes Vogel on...
Thursday, 17 December 2020
Think of the finale at a big fireworks show: the anticipation; the build up. There is nothing bigger than the Ninth Symphony. It is the climax of...
First Person(s): soprano Susan Bullock and...
Friday, 11 December 2020
Two of the singers in an ambitious project to film Britten’s opera based on a Henry James story – part timeless tale of repressive tradition which...
Filmmaker Frank Marshall: 'People don’t understand what geniuses The Bee Gees were'
Director of the new Bee Gees documentary discusses the brothers' legacy in music |
Not-quite-solitude on the 34th floor: violinist Maxine Kwok on the short film 'Rising'
The LSO player relates her lockdown experience in the City of London she loves so much |
First Person: Avi Avital on 'Art of the Mandolin'
Master of an exquisite instrument turns to works written specifically for it |
‘Our whole industry is supported by vulnerable freelance creators': Chen Reiss on the artist in a time of Coronavirus
The soprano, now on screen in the Royal Opera 'Ariodante', on recognition for performers |
First Person: Paul Bullock on making BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020
The BBC Young Musician executive editor on the challenges of making the competition work for TV in lockdown |
Book extract: Nativity by Jean Frémon, with drawings by Louise Bourgeois
Reckoning with the question of how to represent Christ |
First Person: horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill on authenticity and enlightenment in lockdown
Treading a fine line in Brahms between historical evidence and creative freedom |
First Person: Jessica Duchen on writing about Beethoven's Immortal Beloved
Why her novel 'Immortal' became more seismic, and more relevant, than she expected |
'Josquin has defined our career': The Tallis Scholars’ Peter Phillips on the end of a major recording project
Celebrating an epic on the eve of the Renaissance Mass master’s 500th anniversary |
First Person: Cellist Alban Gerhardt on why concert-hall life must go on
The return to lockdown of German musical institutions must not happen here |
Filmmaker Bassam Tariq: 'Great cinema doesn't need to be perfect - embrace the imperfections'
Director of 'Mogul Mowgli' discusses taking risks, and the differences between the British- and American-Asian experience |
First Person: harpsichordist Chad Kelly on reimagining Bach's Goldberg Variations
The background to what promises to be a vibrant new performance by Brecon Baroque |
The Secret History of My Library: Essay by Daniel Saldaña París
The eminent Mexican novelist on books and their ghosts |
First Person: composer Brian Elias on the Music@Malling Festival's retrospective of his works
Fifty years of vibrantly consistent music celebrated in rural Kent |
First Person: tenor Nicky Spence on working with Blackheath locals on screen Stravinsky
'The Rake's Progress' distilled and introduced by its star and community opera patron |
Book extract: Snake by Erica Wright
Short essays on a slippery object of fear, fascination and misunderstanding |
First Person: Gregory Batsleer on choirs for the 21st century
The conductor considers the future for choral music |
First Person: pianist Danny Driver on teaching online and the importance of music education
The challenges of top-level music lessons during the pandemic |
Eavesdropping on Rattle, the LSO and Bartók’s Bluebeard
Ahead of the London Symphony Orchestra’s streaming next month, a privileged preview |
First Person: Artistic Director John Gilhooly on an inclusive and diverse Wigmore Hall
The London venue which kept artists afloat during lockdown reopens tomorrow |
Singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter: 'I wanted to do something. I wanted to be useful in some way'
On creating her 'Songs from Home' in a time of crisis, depression and musical empathy |
'Masses of performers are still grounded': pianist Sophia Rahman on a UK music scene in crisis
Falling through the cracks in the benefit system, many musicians are giving up |
Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui: 'The disability community is the world community'
Interview with the men behind Netflix's new Paralympic documentary 'Rising Phoenix' |
Theatre Unlocked 4: Shows in concert and a contemporary classic comes to TV
A New York duo celebrates Sir Noël; Samuel Beckett bewitches and bewilders once again |
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