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Photo credit: Tom Zimberoff

Ahead of this weekend’s Tectonic’s festival in Glasgow, Kate Molleson meets the pioneering electronic music composer at the centre of this year’s programme, Janet Beat, and learns how the studios she inaugurated at universities in Birmingham and Glasgow – from the late 1950s – blazed trails for future generations.

Following a performance of Matthias Pintscher’s La Linea Evocativa at Wigmore Hall earlier this week, presenter Tom Service speaks to the American-Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz about her life making music on the concert stage, her role championing contemporary repertoire for the instrument, and the inspiration she finds in Bach's mighty Chaconne.

The composer Hannah Peel and conductor Charles Hazlewood join Tom to discuss their new album, The Unfolding. Written during lockdown especially for the Paraorchestra, the album has shot to number one in the classical music charts, and we hear from the musicians in the ensemble, Hattie McCall-Davies and Lloyd Coleman, as they tour with live performances of the project this spring.

And, the composer Michael Zev Gordon tells Tom about his new chamber opera, Raising Icarus, which explores the harm parental expectations and aspirations can have on their children. It’s staged by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group this week.