Andrew Ford

British singer songwriter Grace Petrie has an EP called “There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Singer” – but if there was such a thing she would definitely be one of the preeminent ones. Her musical career started in the early years of the UK Conservative Party’s now 15 years in government, and she’s railed against injustice throughout those years. She’s on The Music Show to talk about hope, activism, and cynicism and to play live in studio. Unsound is a Polish festival with an adventurous spirit.…

Norwegian trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth returns to The Music Show as she prepares to play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She talks to Andy about the peculiarities of trumpet concertos, about composers writing for her versus writing for her instrument, and about expanding her musical life to include playing and writing. Maanyung is a proud Aboriginal man with strong connections to Gumbaynggir and Yaegl nations. His songwriting comes from Language and Country – he’s a surfer, a youth…

It was hard to miss Corinne Bailey Rae’s ubiquitous track from 2006 ‘Put Your Records On’. And it’s still heard in coffee shops the world over. The English singer songwriter released her fourth studio album late last year and it represented a complete left turn in both sound and subject. Black Rainbows is her first album not on a major label and spans genres like rock, jazz and punk. It’s a celebration of Black history and resilience, with each track inspired by books, photographs and objects th…

The Music Show is back on Kaurna Land at Adelaide’s Botanic Park for WOMADelaide 2024, a festival celebrating music from all over the world. Marta Pereira da Costa was the first woman to make a career as a Fado guitarist. From Lisbon, Portugal, she gave up a career as a civil engineer to pursue the music full time and keep Portugal’s major musical tradition alive. The Good Ones formed in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as a way of processing, healing and finding hope. There is a u…

Arooj Aftab’s 2021 album Vulture Prince took her ten years to write, and for the final two she had to shut all other music out of her life. “I just was trying to make a thing that didn’t have a blueprint” she says, of an opus that combines jazz, experimental electronica and Sufi devotional music with her own unique voice. She’s about to tour the album here and looks back at over a decade of work with Andy before she hits Australian stages. When Notre-Dame caught fire in 2019, playwright Alana V…

Celebrate 100 years of broadcast radio in Australia with The Music Show in a live recording at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra! In front of a live audience, we are joined by the NFSA’s Sound Curator Thorsten Kaeding, pianist and Deputy Head of School at the ANU School of Music Scott Davie, and local experimental musician Sia Ahmad for a chat about the impact of broadcast radio on music, and music’s influence on the development of media. We delve into the ar…

for the conductor, the rehearsal is the gig... Umberto Clerici’s CV lists principal cellist, chamber musician, educator, soloist and now conductor, as the newly appointed Chief Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra It’s an unusual trajectory from orchestra to podium, a post usually inhabited by soloists, not former orchestral musicians. He says the physicality of the cello lends itself to conducting as well as playing at the bottom of the orchestra.  He also credits COVID to his break with the baton and tells us how he needs to balance being a ‘traffic controller with inspirer’.

A mix of conversation and music hosted by Andrew Ford. Gregorian chant or hip hop, kd lang or a rookie conductor — all get the rapt attention they deserve.

While piano players and trumpeters may loom large in the genre, these 10 singers more than hold their own.

She went on to marry one of the greatest composers in history, but perhaps Clara Schumann's most enduring legacy is that she invented the classical piano recital.

A compelling new biography of one of Australia’s most significant composers, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, brings us closer to the truth than either of its predecessors.

Peter Asher topped the charts in the 60s. But instead of fading away, his career crossed the paths of musical greats like James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Cher.

There is so much Easter music, but here are the stories behind four important pieces you might hear this weekend — from medieval chants to Handel's Messiah.

Andrew Ford, one of Australia’s best-known composers and musical commentators, has given beautiful new settings and accompaniments to familiar and neglected children's songs.

Like Kennedy’s assassination and the first moon landing, most people who remember the ’60s also recall where they were the first time they heard Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In a career that spanned six decades, Ella Fitzgerald recorded hundreds of songs, including definitive versions of many standards — but she was first and last a jazz singer.

In a career that spanned six decades, Ella Fitzgerald recorded hundreds of songs, including definitive versions of many standards — but she was first and last a jazz singer.

In a career that spanned six decades, Ella Fitzgerald recorded hundreds of songs, including definitive versions of many standards — but she was first and last a jazz singer.