Music Matters Folgen

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: Brìghde Chaimbeul RSNO Junior Choir Musicians in Exile Emma Donald and Isbel Pendlebury

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.