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Published: Friday, 26 January 2024 at 12:59 PM


The BBC Music Magazine team have been busy in the studio creating a brand-new podcast for those wanting to learn more about the nuts and bolts of classical music. All the Right Notes is a new series featuring interviews with top musicians, conductors and broadcasters, with the BBC Music Magazine team asking the big questions: What’s the point of a conductor? How should you look after your voice? How do musicians cope with pressure?

Guests include soprano Danielle de Niese, vocal coach Olivia Sparkhall, film composer Anne Dudley and classical music critic Jessica Duchen.

All the Right Notes will launch on Thursday 1 February and will be available on podcast providers. All episodes will be available at classical-music.com/podcast.

In the first episode, we sit down with the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s conductor Sakari Oramo to find out about the mysterious vocation of being a conductor. In tangible terms, how does a conductor create different sounds from an orchestra? And what do people mean when they say an orchestra has a specific ‘sound’ or ‘identity’ under different conductors?

The eight-part series is the first in a new podcast format from the BBC Music Magazine team. If you previously listened and subscribed to our Music to my Ears podcast, this new All the Right Notes podcast should just land in your feed. If you’re a new follower, make sure to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

The season will include the following:

  • What’s the point of a conductor? (with conductor Sakari Oramo)
  • Where do you start with opera? (with soprano Danielle de Niese)
  • How do musicians cope with pressure? (with cellist Laura Van der Heijden)
  • Why do we love The Lark Ascending? (with broadcaster Andrew Green)
  • How do you look after your voice? (with vocal coach Olivia Sparkhall)
  • How do you write a film soundtrack? (with film composer Anne Dudley)
  • How do you play the French horn? (with Royal Opera House’s principal horn, David Pyatt)
  • What do musical terms really mean? (with author and critic Jessica Duchen)

Subscribe so you never miss an episode!