BBC Radio 3 to air concert celebrating diversity in classical music
BBC Radio 3 will this week air a concert aiming to celebrate diversity in classical music while ensuring that “unfairly forgotten figures are welcomed again into the Western classical canon for future generations”.The result of a collaboration with the Arts And Humanities Research Council, which is funding academic research into historical classical composers from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the concert will feature performances of orchestral works by Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Margaret Bonds and Ali Osman. It will also include solo piano works composed by Nathaniel Dett, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry.Radio 3 Controller Alan Davey says that – not only does his radio station have a role in expanding the classical canon by commissioning new works – it can also contribute to that canon by “unearthing those from the past that might forever be lost without a platform for audiences to discover them.