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Radio 3 to air COVID-influenced Postcards From Composers
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 27 April 2020
BBC Radio 3 has commissioned 20 music-makers to compose a 30 second instrumental piece “that responds to the current world-wide health crisis, and to the changes and worries resulting from it, with short musical messages of hope”.
Daniel Kidane, Anna Clyne, Kuljit Bhamra, Raymond Yiu, Belle Chen and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood are among those contributing original compositions.
Each piece is being recording by a solo instrumentalist from one of the BBC’s orchestras. Those recordings will start to air on the BBC’s classical station from today under the banner ‘Postcards From Composers’, with videos of the performances also available.
The first five pieces to be aired will come from Chen, Yiu, Clyne, Greenwood and Bhamra, performed respectively on the marimba, french horn, cor anglais, cello and tabla.
Confirming the project, Radio 3 boss Alan Davey said: “With ‘Postcards From Composers’, we are showcasing and supporting the breadth and creativity of the contemporary British composing scene, at the same time giving our audiences a short daily moment of hope, as news comes in and lots of people in lockdown turn to classical music in search of relief”.
