Desert Island Discs

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Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

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Desert Island Discs: Charles Hazlewood, conductor

Charles Hazlewood, conductor

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Charles Hazlewood, conductor

Charles Hazlewood, conductor, shares the soundtrack of his life. With Lauren Laverne.

Charlies Hazlewood, conductor and founder of the Paraorchestra, chooses the eight discs, book and luxury he would take with him if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne

Charles Hazlewood is a conductor and the founder of Paraorchestra, the world's first professional ensemble of disabled musicians. 

Once described as the Heston Blumenthal of orchestral music, Charles has spent his career challenging Britain’s musical palate, exploding boundaries and expanding our ideas about what an orchestra can be - and do. 

His repertoire encompasses Beethoven, Bruckner and Barry White, and his critically-acclaimed projects include more than 100 world premieres and the first orchestral headline performance at Glastonbury.  Paraorchestra, the ensemble he established in 2011, reached a global audience at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympics. He also co-founded an opera company in South Africa, and its production of Carmen, with a mainly black cast, won international acclaim. 

He studied music at Keble College, Oxford and was the Organ Scholar there.  He won the EBU conductor's competition in 1995 and has had an international career as a conductor.  

DISC ONE:   Somebody’s Gonna Off The Man by Barry White & The Love Unlimited Orchestra
DISC TWO:  A Rainbow in Curved Air by Terry Riley
DISC THREE: Ach, ich fühls, composed by Mozart, conducted by Otto Klemperer and performed by Gundula Janowitz and Philharmonia Orchestra  
DISC FOUR:  R. Strauss: 4 Lieder, Op. 27 - 4. Morgen! by Richard Strauss, conducted by Kurt Masur, performed by Jessye Norman and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
DISC FIVE:  Improvisation by Olivier Latry 
DISC SIX: Kraftwerk-Rewerk, composed by Charlotte Harding and Lloyd Coleman, conducted by Charles Hazlewood 
DISC SEVEN:  Ndisakuthanda Mna, composed by Georges Bizet, performed by Pauline Malefane, Andile Tshoni and Dimpho Di Kopane, conducted by Charles Hazlewood
DISC EIGHT: The Last Time/Ultima Vez by Pauline Oliveros   

BOOK CHOICE: A book of poetry by Ivor Cutler
LUXURY ITEM:  An espresso machine
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE:  Ach, ich fühls, composed by Mozart, conducted by Otto Klemperer and performed by Gundula Janowitz and Philharmonia Orchestra  

Presenter: Lauren Laverne 
Producer:  Sarah Taylor

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