The Early Music Show

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

Music: Classical: Early Music

Performance and news from the world of early music.

An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.

The Early Music Show: Empowered Women

Empowered Women

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, Empowered Women

Lucie Skeaping chats to Clare Norburn, from The Telling, whose recent projects have focused on the stories of musical women including Hildegard of Bingen and Beatritz de Dia.

As part of Radio 3's programming for International Women's Day, Lucie Skeaping chats to Clare Norburn, director of the group The Telling.  These musical storytellers celebrate their 15th anniversary in 2024, and there's a particular focus on their recent projects celebrating three astounding musical women.

This first is the medieval German nun, mystic and composer Hildegard of Bingen.  

Then, there's Beatritz de Dia - a female troubadour, whose melodies and lyrics in the Occitan language have come down to us from 13th Century France.  

And finally, there's an imagined Jewish woman on her final night in Seville as the Spanish Reconquista looms over the Kingdom of Al-Andalus.  She is being forced to leave Spain and set sail for an uncertain future. Her story echoes down the ages to the personal stories of people affected by politics and war today. She tunes into the voices of a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women from across the Spanish peninsula.

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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