Jo Cheung is director and founder of Olympias Music Foundation, a Manchester charity championing diversity in music – from violin lessons for children on free-school meals, to community choirs for vulnerable BAME women and school children. Since 2015, they have delivered over 2000 free music lessons to 250 children in Manchester, and engaged with many more through workshops and performances. We chat how Olympias got here, where it’s going and stop off along the way at: The completely unregulated nature of teaching music Taking music education from school to the community and what that really ..read more

Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of Julian Anderson at Guildhall in 2009. His debut album The World Was Once All Miracle showcases his talent with three identity-exploring works informed by his time at Guildhall. How to get your foot on the ladder as a self-trained composer Why he won’t be getting a publisher any time soon Why Raymond never wrote the Cantonese pop songs that inspired him so much https://raymondy ..read more

Lara Agar is a composer, violinist, and collaborator who recently caught my eye with a credit on Shades of Blue, a dance piece performed at Sadler’s Wells and broadcast on the BBC. We talk about how the piece came about, curating nights, and the different relationship musicians, dancers, and actors have with their art. Also in the episode: The benefits of long-term creative partnerships Lara’s accidental rock opera Lara’s love of chaos Music’s uniquely non-visual role in today’s world https://www.laraagar.com/ This episode is sponsored by Dorico: the next-generation music notation software ..read more

Aubrey and I geek out about marketing in the classical realm. Why classical’s core product will always be live music Why we shouldn’t be streaming whole concerts for free Plus Aubrey gives her advice on how new groups should approach finding and keeping new listeners, and how to get around the fear of the unknown with newly written music. If you’re a musician or arts administrator of any kind, this is an essential listen. If you fall outside of that, enjoy looking behind the curtain at what an orchestra exec spends her time thinking about. Some Aubrey bio fun facts: she grew Seattle Opera’s ..read more

Ellie and I have a really open chat about our experiences with choral conducting and running a music group. Plenty of golden advice from Ellie, plus she explains why conductors shouldn’t silo into orchestral or choral, the weirdness of masterclasses, and creative administration. Ellie is a conductor, and founder of Kantos Chamber Choir (who I sing with). She recently debuted with the Hallé and toured with Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet production as the Young Associate Conductor. She is musical director with the Hallé Youth Orchestra, Radius Opera, Stafford Choral Society; and associate con ..read more

Shruthi Rajasekar is a composer from Minnesota USA who straddles the worlds of Western contemporary music and south Indian Carnatic music from a truly unique position. Having grown up in the US with prominent Carnatic musician Nirmala Rajasekar as a mother, Shruthi is a joy to talk with as we cover: Choral culture and education in the US vs UK How the pandemic is actually improving conversations around pieces in the rehearsal process Shruthi’s experience at SOAS and RNCM We also get super into the weeds discussing how despite its insane cross-rhythms, Carnatic music never changes time signatu ..read more

or Picking Weird Enough Instruments That People Can’t Look Away Cello/singer–accordion duo Good Habits perform live for us all the way from New Zealand. We chat musical storytelling, capturing attention, and moulding a bar gig into a full blown concert by playing the room right. We also hear about their experience writing pop songs for a Chinese media company! Good Habits https://www.facebook.com/goodhabitsband/ Links and Show Notes Classical evolution The Trouble Notes The Unthanks The Fitzgeralds - amazing! Silkroad Ensemble A great series on mixing basics by Dan Worrall for Fabfilter Benja ..read more

⭐ Revolutionary alternatives to tokenistic diversity programmes ⭐ Deconstructing boundaries between jazz and classical and freeing yourself to make the music you want to make ⭐ Methods for sneaking improvisation in front of classical musicians without them freaking out Vijay Iyer is an ECM-signed artist. He has worked with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, written violin concertos for Jennifer Koh, and music for the LA Phil New Music Group. He has been ‘Jazz Artist of the Year’ more times in more magazines than it is polite to count and it is my immense honour to welcome him to Classical Music No ..read more

Ah what a lovely chat. We begin with a love letter to new music and Manchester, work through why everyone should be improvising and the parallels between graphic scores and electroacoustic soundscapes, before ending with the role of music in activism, and electro finding a mainstream home in horror music and Amazon’s Alex Rider adaptation. Sarah Keirle - http://sarahekeirle.wixsite.com/ Links and Show Notes The Illy Quane Episode James Keirle International Anthony Burgess Foundation The Vonnegut Collective episode I found it! Turns out we liked the piece enough to commission him… Theme & T ..read more

Illy Quane: trumpet player extraordinaire, composer, and very funny guy. If you’re looking for some light lockdown distraction, this is it. We chat about our disappointment with existing brass repertoire (apart from one piece for brass ensemble), Illy explains his developing thoughts on creating gran-friendly contemporary music programmes, and Joe recounts the moment he realised The Sixteen had more than sixteen members. All in-betweeny music composed or arranged by Illy, and can be heard in full at the links below. Links and Show Notes Penderecki - Threnody (Animated Score) starts 0:32 Illy p ..read more