Four years after the premiere of ‘Woke’ at the BBC Proms in 2021, composer Daniel Kidane is riding high, this year Composer in Residence at the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival. Kidane reflects on his training, his mindset for composing, and what’s changed (or not) since the work that promoted empathy, compassion and togetherness. The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Woke (now named Awake) at the Aldeburgh Festival alongside a whole host of other works by Kidane.

In this episode, Jon Jacob joins Britten Sinfonia and medical professionals at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge to explore how live music brings moments of connection and calm in clinical settings. Recorded during hospital visits, the conversation reveals how music supports recovery and emotional wellbeing in the most challenging of environments.

This episode spotlights contemporary classical composer Oliver Davis talking about his new album Life.

Davis writes music that makes a montage of your own life. Had author Augesten Burroughs had access to Davis he'd have had access to soundtracks that would have consoled and celebrated the very life BUrroughs ended up documenting in Running with Scissors.

Davis brings his experience writing music for TV to scores that elevate real life. His newest album is dedicated to his father, first violin in the Alberni Quartet, who had a close association with Benjamin Britten and the Aldeburgh Festival. In this episode we talk about Howard's introduction to the violin, his work, Oliver's work writing music for TV and the scores and production that make up Life, a project which also features the pupil his father introduced Oliver to at the Royal Academy, violinist Kerensa Peacock.