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Tom Service talks to Viktoria Mullova, known as a violinist of exceptional versatility and integrity. Her musical curiosity ranges from the baroque through the classical and romantic repertoire and up to the most contemporary influences from the world of fusion and experimental music. She talks to Tom about the differences in approach between playing classical and non-classical music, the benefits of waiting for the right musical partnerships and how she has become less obsessed with musical perfection.

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Ahead of Radio 3's celebration of female composers on International Women's Day (Sunday 8th March) Sara Mohr-Pietsch questions why Ìýthere are still so few female composers represented at the highest levels of British music, with fewer commissions and performances than their male counterparts and only a handful represented by the main music publishers. Sara explores the possible reasons for this with the composers Nicola Lefanu and Kate Whitley, the Managing Director of the publishers Boosey and Hawkes - Janis Susskind and Susanna Eastburn the Chief Executive of Sound and Music.

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A new report entitled Equality and Diversity in the Classical Music Profession, highlights a number of significant inequalities in the British classical music industry – including the under-representation of women, people from black and minority ethnicities and working class backgrounds. Tom talks to the report’s author Dr. Christina Scharff of Kings College London, about the report’s findings and its recommendations. ÌýThese include introducing blind auditions and quotas to help ensure a more diverse profile of people into the UK music industry.

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As a curtain raiser to the Royal Opera’s staging of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, (broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 on Saturday 14th March), Tom looks at the history of this work which was first premiered in Leipzig in 1930. A satire on money, morality and pleasure-seeking among the dubious citizens of a fictional city, the richly varied score is influenced by jazz and ragtime and features the Alabama Song, made famous by Weill’s wife Lotte Lenya (pictured). Tom talks to Kim Kowalke, President and CEO of the Kurt Weill Foundation and we hear archive recordings of Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill himself.

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