interviews
Hannah Fiddy interviews prominent composers, performers, musical comedians and content creators about developing diverse audiences for classical music and creating fresh ways of presenting concerts.
Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the world’s most performed living composers, has just celebrated his 80th birthday. Alternative Classical Founder Hannah Fiddy chats to Karl about the role of music criticism, his tips for emerging composers, ego, and what peace means to him.
Read MoreJames B Partridge is a singing teacher who has built a social media following around nostalgic primary-school tunes and music education. He chats with Hannah Fiddy about going viral, tips for musicians on TikTok, and perfectionism within the classical music industry.
Read MoreGrammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today’s most popular musicians. He goes deep with Hannah Fiddy on life lessons learned from composing, people pleasing, and the weight of composing within the classical tradition.
Read MoreTrailblazing composer Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene. He chats with Hannah Fiddy about classical music gatekeeping, coping with the distraction of the online world, and his favourite weekend breakfast.
Read MoreIsabel Hagan is a stand-up comedian and Juilliard-trained violist, working with artists such as Max Richter and Steve Reich. She chats with Hannah Fiddy about following an unconventional path after music college, performance anxiety, and learning to be a beginner again.
Read MoreElizabeth Alker is the BBC Radio 3 host of Unclassified, a late-night show that presents a new generation of musicians breaking free of concert halls. She speaks with Hannah Fiddy about attracting diverse audiences to classical music and getting your music played on the radio.
Read MoreLloyd Griffith is both a comedian and a choirboy. He has supported Jack Whitehall and Rob Beckett, and sings with the choir of Westminster Abbey. Lloyd talks with Hannah Fiddy about how choir was the ideal training to be a comic and how the classical industry can combat the class divide.
Read MoreSir James MacMillan CBE is one of today’s most successful living composers. He had a Zoom conversation with Hannah Fiddy about the pressure of creating new works, elitism and the class divide in classical music, and the TV he’s been watching during lockdown.
Read MoreMILOŠ is a bone fide “Classical Guitar God” (The Times). Search on any streaming platform for classical guitar and he’s often the first person to appear. MILOŠ dropped by Alternative Classical HQ to chat with Hannah Fiddy about social media, burnout, injury and his fave TV.
Read MoreAyanna Witter-Johnson is a singer, songwriter and cellist, a ‘rare exception to the rule that classical and alternative R&B music cannot successfully coexist’. She talks to Hannah Fiddy about diversity and sexism in the classical music industry.
Read MoreThree-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson is an acclaimed actor, writer and comedian, as well as an amateur violinist. He tells Hannah Fiddy about his musical upbringing, performance anxiety, and how the arts of comedy and music diverge.
Read MoreJess Gillam MBE is the first ever saxophonist to be signed to Decca Classics and the youngest ever BBC Radio 3 presenter. Jess speaks with Hannah Fiddy about maintaining individuality as a performer, carving out your own path, and programming classical club nights.
Read MoreGrammy award-winning conductor Jules Buckley is an agitator of musical convention and pushes the boundaries of almost all musical genres. He chats with Hannah Fiddy about resistance to innovation in the classical music sector and being the underdog.
Read MoreChi-chi Nwanoku OBE is a double bassist and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Chineke! Orchestra. She and Hannah Fiddy chat during lockdown about a mix of topics including diversity in classical music, and the impact Coronavirus will have on the music industry.
Read MoreHannah Fiddy chats to ‘one of the world’s most daring conductors’ (The Wall Street Journal) about how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting the music industry, the online content that’s caught his eye and where he sees innovation in classical music going next.
Read MoreJoep Beving is a Dutch composer/pianist who has been described as a ‘one-man recording phenomenon’, going from ‘kitchen composer to Spotify star’ . He shares with Hannah Fiddy his incredible journey to fame, and where how he fits within the classical canon.
Read MoreAhead of his performance at the Southbank Centre, Icelandic musician and producer Ólafur Arnalds talks to Hannah Fiddy about being force fed Chopin, using social media to communicate with your audience, and the alternative classical scene in Iceland.
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