BBC Radio 3 premieres forgotten music by composers from diverse ethnic backgrounds

Tomorrow’s BBC Radio 3’s Afternoon Concert will premiere forgotten orchestral and string quartet repertoire by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Margaret Bonds, and Ali Osman. The discovery is the result of the Diverse Composers scheme, a collaboration between the radio station and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

In Spring 2021, after a call out for expressions of interest from academic researchers, the scheme awarded funding to seven researchers to unearth rarely performed pieces of music by diverse composers. The scheme aims to redefine what is accepted in the classical music canon, recognising and celebrating Black, Asian and ethnically diverse composers across the centuries.

Alan Davey, BBC Radio 3 Controller, says: ‘We’re grateful to the AHRC for supporting us and enabling us to take steps to ensure that unfairly forgotten figures are welcomed again into the Western classical canon for future generations.’

Tomorrow’s programme, introduced by Tom McKinney and Linton Stephens, will feature works by Nathaniel Dett, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry, played by Clare Hammond. Students from the Royal Northern College of Music will also feature with string quartets by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George. A further concert will be broadcast in Autumn.

Professor Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair, said: ‘These performances, made possible by the work of leading arts and humanities researchers in tandem with Radio 3’s reach and platform, make an important contribution to expanding the breadth and diversity of the classical music canon.’

BBC Radio 3 is also releasing two Arts & Ideas podcasts featuring discussions with the scheme’s seven funded researchers giving an insight into the lives of the composers they are focusing on and the music they are unearthing.

You can listen to BBC Radio 3’s Afternoon Concert tomorrow (2 February) at 2pm GMT.