Show Notes
On July 12th, 2022, the music world lost the much-loved conductor, pianist, and composer Bramwell Tovey.
I had the great pleasure to chat with him back on 15th May 2020, when the world was in lockdown and in the full grip of the Covid pandemic. Much to my regret, it was the only time we chatted and I loved every second of our time together.
There have been countless heartfelt tributes to him since the sad news was announced that his cancer had returned and that he had lost his battle with it. I have decided that the best way to pay tribute to him is to re-release our chat and add on the six-minute chat we had after we had finished recording the episode.
I found him to be a lovely man - ready to tell his story, not afraid to voice his opinions, and, as so many have also said, a great raconteur. Our chat has been one of my personal favourite episodes ever since I released it and honestly, I have probably listened to it again at least five times since!
Farewell Bram - I know that wherever you are, you will be making friends, making music, and making everyone laugh.
More from a mic on the podium
Andrew Constantine and I have known each other for over 30 years, and catching up with him was brilliant. It was a lovely warm chat with someone who really thinks long and hard about what we do as conductors. We talk very frankly about the cultural differences between the US and the UK, I discover which competition he thought he should have won, and he uses a wonderful metaphor to describe the difference between Valery Gergiev and Yuri Temirkanov! If you would like to discover a whole lot more about conductors and conducting, why not subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/amiconthepodium, and, for a monthly fee starting from just £5 a month, you can access two new series of interviews, group Zoom meetings with other fans of the podcast and myself, a monthly bulletin about the podcast and my own career as well as articles, photos, videos and even conducting lessons from myself. If you listen via Apple podcasts, please do leave a rating and review - it really helps the podcast get noticed and attract more listeners. If you want to get involved on social media, you can via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/amiconthepodium) or Twitter (@amiconthepodium). This interview was recorded on 27th February 2024 via Zoom.
Karen Ní Bhroin and I have one thing in common - we both have our own podcast about conducting. It means that she really does think a lot about what we do and it was just nice chatting with her throughout!
I have fond memories of the first time I met Neil Thomson and knew this would be a good interview - a charming man who has spent a lot of time thinking about what we do as conductors.
I could have chatted with Ryan McAdams for many hours - it turned out to be one of the longest episodes yet! We had such an open and honest discussion sprinkled with a lot of humour.
Part 2 of my chat with Jacobus de Jager, Oliver Cope, Peggy Wu, Kentaro Machida & Riley Court-Wood is here. They are all studying conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and they were brilliant fun to interview.