Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Twenty Minutes

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating subjects

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating people, places and events

Twenty Minutes: The Global Flute Fraternity

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Music: Classical

The Global Flute Fraternity

04/08/2012

BBC Radio 3 - Twenty Minutes, The Global Flute Fraternity

Keith Waithe gives Julian May a tour of his collection of 207 flutes from around the globe

Guyanese jazz flautist and composer Keith Waithe gives Julian May a tour of his collection of 207 flutes gathered from his travels around the world.

James Galway, this afternoon's soloist, plays a flute made of gold - and the penny whistle. These are two extremes of this instrument. People have, everywhere and always, fulfilled their need to make music by blowing into and across a reed or a hollow bone. 

Keith Waithe, the Guyanese jazz flautist and composer, has played in the Americas, Africa, India and the Far East and, on his travels, has gathered members of the flute family from all over the world. He now has 207 flutes, of bamboo, bone and even pottery. 

For the interval of this matinee he takes Julian May around the collection, around the world, and around his kitchen table, telling the stories of the flutes - their provenance, their use, how he came by them - and he plays them in 'The Global Flute Fraternity'.

Keith Waithe has been a resident with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, his band The Macusi Players, performs widely and he composes for the theatre and radio. He has also made a theatre show using his collection of flutes, performed at BAC. 

Producer: Julian May.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Twenty Minutes

The Global Flute Fraternity

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3