Background/biographies of performing artists.

[Guest]

Each week we have new artists appearing on the BBC3 concert scene be they soloists or conductors. They are just names to us and rarely does the BBC give any details of their background, often even their nationality. I just cannot understand why.
If the BBC Organisers think these artists are good enough to appear on their schedules, surely it would not take much to at least tell us something about them.

[Eudaimonia]

Maybe this is something best left to the website? I don't suppose a sentence or two would hurt, but any more than that and it starts to get into promotional territory. Maybe it would alienate the artists' agencies-- or even worse, lead to suspicions (and charges by rivals!) of under-the-table deals. And God only knows what kind of field day the record companies would have with it...ugh. No need to dirty up the industry any more than it already is...so all in all, I definitely wouldn't change it.

[Daring Tripod]

That's fine, Euda, if the BBC was consistent but sometimes they tell you something about the artist (mainly with Chamber recitals) and sometimes they do not.
For example, tonight there is a concert from the Barbican Centre of music evoking Spain and South America. BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Josep Pons. I wonder if Martin Handley, the presenter, will tell us who this conductor, who I have never heard of, is. At least, tell us what country he comes from. I cannot recall that he has featured on any previous R3 broacast but I stand to be corrected, as I usually am!

On Wednesday night, there is a recorded broadcast of a performance which I am very much looking forward to. This is the NYO concert which was universally praised by all the critics and the violin soloist in the Berg Violin Concerto, is an artist called Tai Murray. Alas, I have not heard of him. Maybe, I should have. Will we get to know? I am sure that if he is young and won any British competitions, we will get to know but, say, if he was from another country, and this was his first appearance here, would anyone ever bother telling us?

[doversoul1]

Daring Tripod
Tai Murray is actually she. I have heard some very impressive performance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/newgenerationartists/artists/tai_murray.shtml

I agree with you. It is the inconsistency that puzzles me. I often wonder if there are any guidelines for what personal/background information of the performer presenters are supposed to refer to. What is interesting in Tai Murray’s case is the fact that she is black yet this has never been mentioned or brought up in her interviews let alone at concerts as far as I am aware. All right, you might say what the colour of someone’s skin has got to do with music but in the case of Chinese performers, the first thing an interviewer asks is usually about the culture the performers come from. Even that venerable Masaaki Suzuki gets asked how a Japanese person comes to play Bach or something to the effect (though not so much now). And yes, all right, being black American is not quite the same cultural matter as in the geographical sense but I would have thought it has quite a strong cultural implication in the world of classical music. The complete lack of the reference does seem, well, odd to say the least.

Afterthought: It may of course be Tai Murray’s own wish not to bring in anything non-musical.

[Daring Tripod]

Many thanks Doversoul for solving that Tai Murray problem for me! Why cannot the BBC do that more often such as a biographical section of the R3 website of some artists performing in their porgrammes? It would be a very good feature if it is anything like that item on Tai Murray?

[Tapiola]

Why cannot the BBC do that more often such as a biographical section of the R3 website of some artists performing in their porgrammes? It would be a very good feature if it is anything like that item on Tai Murray?

Because the powers-that-be would far prefer to give us pointless and rather narcissistic biographies/photographs of Radio 3 presenters.

In my view, of course.

[french frank]

Because the powers-that-be would far prefer to give us pointless and rather narcissistic biographies/photographs of Radio 3 presenters.

Wash your mouth out with soap and water, Tapiola! I agree with Euda that the website is an important port of call, and could be used much better. On air it seems much more important to 'puff' artists (award-winning, acclaimed - we're not giving you rubbish, you know, you may not have heard of Joshua Bell but he's really, really famous!) than in giving plain facts.

On the other hand, another recent critic has complained that there has been rather too much emphasis on performers/personalities and too little on musical discussion.

[David Underdown]

Well in this instance Tai Murray is one of the current New Generation artists, tehre's normally a certain amount of fanfare when they are first appointed, and (though I didn't hear this programme) the annoucements normally mention this status - taht would seem to be a fairly big flag to go and have a look at the website if you heve missed previous descriptions. And int his day and age it's the matter of moments usually (tricky in the car I'll grant) to go and find Wikipedia page bio on agent's website, personal homepage, Facebook official page and so on.

[Chris Newman]

Daring Tripod,

Josep Pons is the chief conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra:

http://www.michael-eriskat.com/artistes/josep-pons-chef-dorchestre/

http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/entrevistas/jun09_josep_pons.html

Personally, if I wish to discover a little about a musician I put their name in Google. Sometimes you find a big Wikipedia file. In the case of Pons there is a very short one. In other cases (like Pons) his agent, record companies and newspapers have provided articles like the two above.

Some artistes provide their own websites, the exploring of which can be very strange.

[Daring Tripod]

Sorry ladies and gentleman, on this occasion I have to disagree with you. It would have added something for me about the value of this concert with the useful information which I was able to gleam from those websites that Chris Newman supplied. If that information is so easy to access on the net what then is so special to put it somewhere
which is directly related to the concert in question?

Of course, I do not mean those useless accolades about the performer/conductor, but practical knowledge as to the any position held, if the incumbent is male or female etc.

In this case the concert was really enjoyable and obviously the conductor had the ability to bring out the ‘Latin’ quality which I never thought the BBC Symphony Orchestra had in them! I now also know, possibly, why and that Pons is not a Teutonic expert on the music of Reger!