PODCAST · music
This Classical Life
by BBC Radio 3
Jess Gillam hosts the music show for people who like classical and other stuff too. Music, eclectic playlists and chat, with a new guest every week.
Episodes
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Jess Gillam with... Francesca Dego
Jess Gillam is joined by Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego to swap some of their favourite music. Francesca has played everywhere from Wigmore Hall to Lincoln Centre New York, and her latest recording of Brahms and Busoni violin concertos with BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dalia...
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Jess Gillam with... Alessandro Fisher
Jess Gillam and tenor Alessandro Fisher share the music they love. Alessandro Fisher is a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme, and a Kathleen Ferrier award winner: a versatile performer equally at home in baroque and romantic opera, or song. His choices today include barbershop...
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Jess Gillam with... James Baillieu
Jess Gillam swaps music with pianist James Baillieu, including works by Mozart, Bach, and Ella Fitzgerald. Pianist James Baillieu has worked with musicians including Lise Davidsen, Timothy Ridout and Pretty Yende, and has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Vienna Musikverein. He is also...
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Jess Gillam with...Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
Jess Gillam and soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha share their favourite tracks. South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha was the winner of the Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2021 and is a current BBC New Generation Artist. She’s brought a track from...
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Jess Gillam with... Keelan Carew
Jess Gillam swaps favourite music with pianist Keelan Carew, and between them they put together a boundary-pushing playlist with songs by Kurt Weill and Nat King Cole - pianistic fireworks by Busoni and Chopin, orchestral fireworks by Shostakovich and some classic Japanese jazz fusion by…
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Jess Gillam with... Jordan Bak
Jess Gillam meets violist Jordan Bak to share some of their favourite music. Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak is a proud new music advocate – he’s performed world premieres of works by composers including Kaija Saariaho and Augusta Read Thomas. His debut album IMPULSE was released in 2022 and...
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Jess Gillam with... Kate Whitley
Jess's guest this week is the composer Kate Whitley. Kate is an award-winning composer and pianist, who also runs the Multi-Story Orchestra. The orchestra was born in a multi-story car park in Peckham, and perform in car parks around the country, as they wanted to take classical music out of…
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Jess Gillam with... Johan Dalene
Jess Gillam meets Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene to swap some of their favourite music. At 23 years old, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene is already the winner of several awards, including the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition in 2019, the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year...
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Jess Gillam with... Robert Ames
Jess Gillam and conductor Robert Ames share some of the tunes they love, with music by Philip Glass, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Makaya McCraven, Pauline Oliveros and J.S. Bach. Playlist: Philip Glass – Aguas da Amazonia - Madeira River [Uakti] Abel Selaocoe – Voices of Bantu Hildur Guðnadóttir - For…
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Jess Gillam with... Fleur Barron
Jess Gillam meets mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron to swap some of their favourite music. Singaporean-British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron sings everything from opera to chamber music, from the baroque to the contemporary. She is mentored by Barbara Hannigan and has performed with LSO, Czech…
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Jess Gillam with... Laura Cannell
Jess Gillam shares music with composer Laura Cannell, including a sublime Biber Requiem, new music by Kenya Grace, traditional Norwegian fiddle music and a Memphis Soul Stew! Playlist: Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1; first movement [Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel]...
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Jess Gillam with... Lise Davidsen (This Classical Christmas)
Jess Gillam is joined by Norwegian soprano and Last Night of the Proms star Lise Davidsen for a very Christmassy edition of This Classical Life. They share their favourite Christmas music and chat about what gives them that festive feeling! Lise Davidsen has been described as “the greatest…
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Jess Gillam with... Guylaine Eckersley
Jess Gillam and bassoonist Guylaine Eckersley share their favourite tracks, with music by Abel Selaocoe, Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Laura Misch and a guilty pleasure from Frozen 2. Playlist: Abel Selaocoe - Ka Bohaleng / On the Sharp Side Pergolesi - Stabat Mater [Philippe Jaroussky (counter-tenor)…
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Jess Gillam with... Daniel Shao
Jess Gillam and flautist Daniel Shao play each other their current favourite music. Daniel is a versatile musician, at home in the classical repertory with a number of leading orchestras, or performing contemporary music and exploring his Chinese heritage with the group Tangram. Daniel's choices...
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Jess Gillam with... Cécile McLorin Salvant
Jess Gillam meets jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant to swap some of their favourite music. Cécile is a 3 time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer and her music shows off her passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. She spoke…
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Jess Gillam with... Matthew Barley
Jess Gillam and cellist Matthew Barley sit down to listen together to the music they love. Matthew's career as a cellist has seen him straddle any number of different genres and continents. He's just as at home in front of an orchestra as he is improvising in a nightclub, playing chamber music…
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Jess Gillam with... Ema Nikolovska
Jess Gillam and mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska share the music they love, including a traditional Macedonian folk song, Janelle Monáe’s sci-fi concept album The Arch Android, a sublime Bach partita in the hands of guitarist Sean Shibe and the beautiful voices of Mara Carlyle and Odetta. Playlist:...
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Jess Gillam with... Nicholas Collon
Jess Gillam meets with the conductor Nicholas Collon to share some of the music they love. Today their musical journey takes in the harmonic genius of Jacob Collier, glorious choral music by Poulenc, a youthful Octet by Mendelssohn, a dreamy song from Sibelius, Britten’s iconic Young Person's…
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Jess Gillam with... Sumina Studer
Jess Gillam and violinist Sumina Studer swap some of their favourite music. As well as picking up prizes for her playing in the Berliner International Music Competition and the Verbier Festival amongst others, and performing with various orchestras across the world, Sumina still finds the time to...
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Jess Gillam with... Lucy Humphris
Jess Gillam and trumpeter Lucy Humphris share their favourite music. Their musical adventure today includes scary Prokofiev, dreamy Debussy, wide open space from Edmund Finnis and Schoenberg, birdsong with Lady Maisery and some 8-bit chiptune from the computer game FEZ by Disasterpeace. Playlist:...
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Jess Gillam with... Karim Kamar
Jess Gillam and pianist Karim Kamar share some of their favourite music. Karim has an amazing musical story - after loving playing as a kid but never studying properly, at 25 he decided to quit his job and learn the piano seriously to become a professional musician. He spent years painstakingly...
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Jess Gillam with... Delia Stevens
Jess Gillam is joined by percussionist Delia Stevens to share the music they love and make some new discoveries, including tracks by Tessa Lark, Avner Dorman, Fabiano do Nascimento and Jack Hylton and His Orchestra. Playlist: Debussy: Danse profane for harp & orchestra Tessa Lark: Jig and Pop...
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Jess Gillam with... Braimah Kanneh-Mason
Jess Gillam and violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason swap some of their favourite tracks and chat about their lives in music. Braimah comes armed with a classic Beethoven recording by violinist Itzhak Perlman, a feel good tune by The Melodians and a Haydn quartet. Meanwhile Jess spins Rachmaninov at…
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Jess Gillam with... James Newby
Jess Gillam and baritone James Newby swap some of their favourite tracks and chat about their lives in music. James - who was one of Radio 3's New Generation Artists - is one of the country's most exciting young baritones and performs all around Europe in everything from contemporary opera to...
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Jess Gillam with... Anne Sofie von Otter
Jess Gillam swaps favourite music with the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter Anne Sofie is one of classical music's most celebrated singers with a huge back catalogue of recordings, and she's also known for her huge versatility and musical curiosity working with artists from conductors Claudio...
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Jess Gillam with... Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux
Jess Gillam and violinist Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux share their favourite music with each other, including the sublime voices of Dhafer Youssef and the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, an intimate transcription of Gluck, joy and happiness from Boccherini and the Maccabees plus the...
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Jess Gillam with... Pekka Kuusisto
Jess Gillam is joined by the Finnish violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto. They share thoughts on some favourite music, from a jazz arrangement of a Monteverdi madrigal to piano music by Ligeti, and from Bernstein's Wonderful Town to the Swedish singer Katarina Barruk.
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Jess Gillam with... Sehyogue Aulakh
Jess Gillam and percussionist Sehyogue Aulakh share some of the music that they love, from Aretha Franklin to Dmitri Shostakovich, JS Bach and Seckou Keita. Sehyogue's Playlist: SHOSTAKOVICH – Symphony No. 5 in D Minor Op. 47: I. Moderato (Royal Concertegabouw Orchestra, Bernard Haiktink) MOBY –...
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Jess Gillam with... Tessa Lark
Jess Gillam meets violinist Tessa Lark to swap some of their favourite music. Tessa is an in-demand classical concert violinist but growing up in Kentucky, she’s equally inspired by bluegrass music and American folk styles and so blends the two influences in a lot of her work. Traditional music...
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Jess Gillam with... Zubin Kanga
Jess Gillam is joined by composer, pianist and technologist Zubin Kanga, with music from Gesualdo to Ravel via Laurie Spiegel and Jaco Pastorius.
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Jess Gillam with... Jasdeep Singh Degun
Jess Gillam is joined by sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun to share and talk about the music that they both love, with tracks from Philip Glass, Monteverdi, Nishat Khan and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Along the way they discover some of the links between western and Indian classical...
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Jess Gillam with... Missy Mazzoli
Jess Gillam's guest is pianist and composer Missy Mazzoli. They share some of the music that they love, including Ellen Reid, JS Bach, Julian Lage and Sudanese singer Aamina Camaari.
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Jess Gillam with... Hazel Askew
Jess's meets folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Hazel Askew to swap some of their favourite music. Hazel is a fixture in the UK folk music scene known for her bands Lady Maisery and the Askew Sisters, as well as numerous collaborative projects across different musical genres. Today they sit…
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Jess Gillam with... Gabriella Teychenné
Jess Gillam's guest this week is conductor Gabriella Teychenné. Her musical life bounces between conducting brand new music, collaborating with symphony orchestras and she's the founder of Sinfonia Humanitas, a new ensemble whose concert programmes fuse early and contemporary music. Gabriella and...
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Jess Gillam with... Soweto Kinch
Jess Gillam is joined by a fellow saxophonist the Award-winning composer, poet, MC and producer Soweto Kinch to chat and share the music they love. Playlist: Debussy - Dances for Harp and Orchestra, L.103:2. Danse profane [Lavinia Meijer, Amsterdam Sinfonietta] Ben Webster - When I Fall in Love...
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Jess Gillam with... Tine Thing Helseth
Jess Gillam is joined by acclaimed Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth to chat and share the music they love. Playlist: Stravinsky - Rite of Spring - XIV Pt2 le sacrifice: danse sacrale l’Elue [Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti] Mozart – Die Zauberflote, K.620; Act 2, no.17; Ach, ich…
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Jess Gillam with... Jack Bazalgette
Jess Gillam chats to conductor Jack Bazalgette, co-founder of ‘through the noise’ which aims to innovate and revolutionise live classical music. Their musical journey takes them to Zimbabwe with the music of mbira player Chiwoniso, a forest in Sweden with the Danish String Quartet plus we have…
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Jess Gillam with... Laura van der Heijden
Jess is joined by the cellist Laura van der Heijden to share some of their favourite musical discoveries, including JS Bach interpreted by the Lodestar Trio, music from Philip Glass’s Book of Longing, a track from the trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and Elena Urioste playing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
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Jess Gillam with... Peter Gregson
Cellist and composer Peter Gregson joins Jess from LA. They share some of their favourite tracks and new discoveries, including Steve Reich's Different Trains, a special recording of Schubert's String Quintet, Bach's Mass in B minor, and songs by Eva Cassidy and Bon Iver.
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Jess Gillam with... Laura Misch
Jess Gillam and fellow saxophonist Laura Misch share the music they love, including tracks by Bjork, Hildegard von Bingen and Bob Marley. Playlist: Sibelius - Impromptu V (Leif Ove Andnes) Bendik Giske - Cruising Sarah Vaughan - Just One of Those Things Hildegard von Bingen - O vis eternitatis...
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Jess Gillam with... Shivank Menon
Jess Gillam is joined by the Mumbai-born pianist Shivank Menon to talk about the records that they love. Their playlist includes Rostropovich playing Bach, Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, songs by Ravel, Fanny Mendelssohn and Donny Hathaway, and a recording of Bill Evans duetting with himself....
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Jess Gillam with... Bishi
Jess Gillam swaps favourite music with singer, rock sitarist and composer Bishi. Together they journey through evocations of space from Meredith Monk, Holst and Roger Webb back home to different shades of the human voice in music - from sacred vocal music from the 15th century, via a Ravi Shankar...
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Jess Gillam with... Ionel Manciu
Jess is joined by violinist Ionel Manciu to chat about some of their favourite records and share their lives in music. Including a revelation of Ionel's past life as a Moldovan pop star, John Adams conjuring raindrops from the piano, a classic by Amy Winehouse and a piece by Arno Babadjanian that...
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Jess Gillam with... Iyad Sughayer
Jess is joined this week by the Jordanian-Palestinian pianist Iyad Sughayer. They're in the studio to share some of their favourite tracks with each other, and some new musical discoveries - including a joyful piano concerto by Haydn, terrifying music by Bartok, a mesmerising song by Caroline…
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Jess Gillam with... C Duncan
Jess Gillam and Scottish composer C Duncan share the tracks they love, with music by Charles Ives, Broadcast, Lili Boulanger Messiaen and Mahler. Playlist: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Symphony in E-flat Major Wq. 179 - 1. Prestissimo [Akademie für Alte Ausik Berlin] Broadcast - Colour Me In Lili...
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Jess Gillam with... Ellie Consta
Jess Gillam is joined by violinist Ellie Consta to share some of the music they love the most. Ellie is the founder of Her Ensemble which champions the work of female composers and strives to present classical music in new diverse ways, and her music choices reflect that - from Florence Price's...
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Jess Gillam with... Anna Lapwood
Jess brings out the fizz and party poppers for a New Year's Eve listening party with the organist and conductor Anna Lapwood, as they introduce each other to their favourite music for this time of year. Their choices take them through the night, from classic Ella Fitzgerald, to pumping base from...
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Jess Gillam with... Love Ssega
Jess meets up with Love Ssega to swap some of their favourite music. A founding songwriter and vocalist of Clean Bandit, Love Ssega is hugely in demand for his collaborative work across genres from pop to visual art. He is currently the Philharmonia's artist in residence. Ssega came with some…
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Christmas Party with the Kings Singers
Jess Gillam dons her Christmas jumper to throw a This Classical Life Christmas Party. She's joined by The King's Singers, a fairy light bedecked studio, several packets of party rings and plenty of good tidings as they all share their favourite Christmas music and talk about their festive...
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Jess Gillam with... Caroline Shaw
Jess Gillam and composer Caroline Shaw share their favourite music, with tracks by wordsmith Kae Tempest, a concert waltz by Scott Joplin, the incredible voice of Sarah Vaughan and an unfinished piece by Schubert (but not the one you're thinking!). Playlist: Clara Schumann: 3 Romances Op. 22 No.…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Jess Gillam hosts the music show for people who like classical and other stuff too. Music, eclectic playlists and chat, with a new guest every week.
HOSTED BY
BBC Radio 3
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does This Classical Life have?
This Classical Life currently has 177 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is This Classical Life about?
Jess Gillam hosts the music show for people who like classical and other stuff too. Music, eclectic playlists and chat, with a new guest every week.
How often does This Classical Life release new episodes?
This Classical Life publishes regularly with 177 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to This Classical Life?
You can listen to This Classical Life on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts This Classical Life?
This Classical Life is created and hosted by BBC Radio 3.
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