Music Matters

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

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Music Matters: Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Santtu-Matias Rouvali

BBC Radio 3 - Music Matters, Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Composer Laura Bowler, music in UK prisons, and national anthems at the World Cup.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Santtu-Matias Rouvali about his work with the Philharmonia. Also, composer and vocalist Laura Bowler. And a UK project bringing music to prisoners.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali about his work with the Philharmonia, currently busy with his second season leading the London-based orchestra. He discusses the composers who challenge him when conducting, and tells why humour is so important in his music making.

We take a look at the nature of national anthems and why they're so popular at sports events like the current football World Cup, with an expert on the subject, Dr Ruth Dockwray, associate professor of Popular Music at the University of Chester.

Also, we talk to Mary Cohen, co-author of the book Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, November 2022); to Robin Harris from Finding Rhythms, an organization running song-writing workshops with prisoners in the UK; and to two former inmates who've benefited from these programmes as part of their process of rehabilitation back into society.

And composer, vocalist and artistic director Laura Bowler, who's just been granted the 2022 Paul Hamlyn Foundation award, given to support artists in their future paths, talks about her projects about climate change and about violence against women, and why working on these subjects have impacted both her physical and mental health. 

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

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.

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