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Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Great Lives

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

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Great Lives: Series 24

Great Lives: Episode 4: Kathleen Ferrier

Kathleen Ferrier

Episode 4

Episode 4: Kathleen Ferrier

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Kathleen Ferrier

Broadcaster Sue MacGregor nominates singer Kathleen Ferrier who died tragically young.

4 Extra Debut. Broadcaster Sue MacGregor nominates singer Kathleen Ferrier who died tragically young. With Matthew Parris and conductor Christopher Fifield. From April 2011.

Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time she had had become an international star, singing at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and Carnegie Hall; and had worked with such luminaries of post-war music as Benjamin Britten, Sir John Barbirolli, and Bruno Walter. Not bad for someone who had no formal training as a singer and who had left school to work in the Blackburn telephone exchange. Ferrier never lost her common touch, never became a prima donna, and retained her liking for beer, cigarettes, and risque jokes. In this programme, broadcaster Sue MacGregor tells Matthew Parris why she admires Ferrier's work. Joining the discussion is conductor Christopher Fifield who edited Ferrier's letters.

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