The Music Show
The Music Show explores all kinds of music and features conversations with a wide range of musicians. Hosted by Andrew Ford, the show delves into the stories behind the music and the artists who create it.
Episodes
Live from the ABC studios: Katie Noonan & Lisa Miller
To celebrate AusMusic Month, The Music Show brings you The Dot Strong Sessions. Named for the ABC's formidable tea lady (and the outdoor terrace that bears her name at ABC Ultimo in Sydney), we'll bring you sessions from great Australian artists throughout November.Katie Noonan was the first to set her keyboard out under the jasmine vines, performing tracks from her 30th studio a
Fanny Lumsden has changed her mind about traditions
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised this program contains the names and voices of people who have died.Fanny Lumsden’s new album is a rollicking country record with her voice - both as a singer and songwriter - right at the centre of it. She’s brought her guitar and her bassist Dan Freeman into the studio to give us a live rendition of some tracks from the
Creative collaborations: Elena Kats-Chernin & Tamara-Anna Cislowska and Colin Stetson & Brìghde Chaimbeul
Composer and pianist Elena Kats-Chernin and pianist and ABC Classic presenter Tamara-Anna Cislowska share stories from a friendship and collaboration that's lasted decades, including how Tamara-Anna convinced Elena to perform with her, by sharing a single piano. Elena's concerto, Ancient Letters, was recorded by Tamara with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and that album is nomin
Loudon Wainwright III and k.d. lang
Loudon Wainwright III is a songwriter who falls somewhere between Woody Guthrie and Tom Lehrer. As well as being a storyteller and comedian, he's the father of a brood of musical children including Rufus and Martha Wainwright. He's 80 now and planning his first Australian tour in over twenty years. And from The Music Show's archives, another chance to hear Andy's favourite of a f
The Avalanches and Patti Smith
Listening to the new album by The Avalanches is like being on the dancefloor and then getting hit in the head with a whole desktop computer. Electronic, nostalgic, sample-laden and manic, their latest record is called No Bad Memories. The band - Robbie Chater, Toni Di Blasi, and Andy Szekeres - join Andy to unpack the record.Patti Smith was Andy's guest on stage at the Melbourne
Cezary Skubiszewski: a life's soundtrack
The musical voice behind Australian classics like Two Hands and Red Dog, Cezary Skubiszewski is being honoured at the 2026 Screen Music Awards for Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen. In an extended conversation with Andy, Cezary explores building tension in bank robberies, writing music based on the time signature of a pigeon’s coo, and bringing children to tears.Mus
Cellist Freya Schack-Arnott, and two foley artists on the thin line between sound effects and music
Cellist and composer Freya Schack-Arnott divides her time between classical and experimental music, exploring all of the possibilities of her instrument. Her latest project, Nornir - which premieres at the Melbourne Fringe Festival - is something different again: a mixture of movement and composition that breaks down the very idea of the cello.The line between foley (cinematic so
Emma Ruth Rundle finds her people in These Killing Times
Emma Ruth Rundle describes herself as a guitarist - an instrument she's taken from metal bands to ambient minimalism. But it's her voice that's been front and centre on recent albums, alongside her writing, which has recently extended to a book of poetry. Her latest album, These Killing Times, is a return to full-band mode after the stripped-back and confessional Engine of Hell,
Sally Walker performs to an audience of one and Mixtape blends music and gameplay
In 2020, the only way of making concerts work was suddenly to have very small audiences, so the 1:1 series allowed Sally Walker to continue to perform and connect with listeners. Sally has kept the concerts going post-lockdown, and she tells Andy about the unusual places where she’s set up a stage, and why a concert for a single person has a unique power for both performer and au
What Pulp did for an encore
Australian mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, and soprano Nicole Thomson have developed a new resource for artists, teachers, and students: an online database called the Australian Art Song Resource. They join Andy to uncover some great and little known Australian art song, and perform live in studio. And director Garth Jennings on What Do You Do For An Encore?, his documentary cove
John Coltrane
In celebration of John Coltrane's centenary this week, we trace the style and influence of one of jazz's greatest musicians, composers, and collaborators. We’ll hear a wide range of voices from the Music Show archive: jazz legends like McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, and Gary Bartz, who played with him; artists like Branford Marsalis, Kurt Elling, Dave Liebman, Phil Slater, Andy Sugg
Takuya Nakamura's jazz-jungle fusion & a new book of letters between composer Larry Sitsky and Gwen Harwood
Some might think that jazz and electronic music don't have much in common, but Japanese DJ and trumpeter Takuya Nakamura has proven all that wrong. Growing up in 1980s Tokyo, he moved to the United States in 1990 to study under the legendary jazz composer George Russell, and went on to bring this expertise to the New York jungle electronic scene. He now performs live DJ sets of j
Four hundred years of family singing: Bob Copper
For hundreds of years, the Copper family have sung for their own pleasure, and for the pleasure of the people of Rottingdean, the East Sussex village where the family have been living since at least the 1500s. Singing together in pubs and houses, the BBC first recorded them in 1951, and they've gone on to become stars, particularly in the United States, where they toured extensiv
Bryce Dessner's Trembling Earth & Bob Scott's enormous radio
Drawing references to Kerouac, Munch, and Hildegard of Bingen, Bryce Dessner's music builds on a rich tradition of art that extends far beyond music. The classical composer (and guitarist for The National) is presenting the Australian premiere of his cello concerto, Trembling Earth, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and talks to Andy about his influences, NY's music scene, and
Benjamin Clementine isn't a jazz musician
To mark Andy’s departure from the show at the end of this year, we’re bringing you some of his favourite conversations from 32 years on air. This week, we’ll hear the American pianist, composer and teacher Seymour Bernstein in a conversation from 2015. Bernstein died earlier this year, just before his 100th birthday, and in that long life he passed on a huge amount of wisdom abou
John Farnham: The voice behind The Voice
You’re The Voice remains a favourite for generations of Australians and the album it's on, Whispering Jack, has sold more than 1.5 million copies. But John Farnham was 37 by the time he recorded that album and the music industry wasn’t all that interested in a new direction from a 60s pop star - until word of mouth began spreading that this was something special.In some ways it’s
Robert Forster's Swedish Strawberries and the Red Spirit Singers let their voices ring out
Recorded (largely) as-live in Sweden, with a group of that country's indie luminaries, Robert Forster's latest album Strawberries shows the singer-songwriter in a playful mood and embracing the role of storyteller. Speaking to Andy for the first time in quite some time, Forster explains why he made the trip and why he refused to tour the album until he could bring the band over t
Camp Cope's Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich on the artists rewriting the rules of the Australian music scene
Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich, or 'Kelso', of the great all-woman Australian rock band Camp Cope, is also a phenomenal writer. Her new book It's Not For You is part memoir, part feminist journalist project, in which she traces her own musical beginnings alongside conversations with a cross section of women and gender diverse musicians. She joins Andy to talk about the book. Noongar compos
Belinda Webster and Tall Poppies Records: a life's work
Belinda Webster, the producer, engineer and singular force behind Australia's art music label Tall Poppies died this month at the age of 74. Across 278 releases, Webster recorded and released music by many of Australia's best classical and jazz musicians, often playing Australian music.In 2006, Andy visited Belinda at her home in Kangaroo Valley for a wide-ranging conversation ab
A concerto for accordion and orchestra & the Persian tar gets Comfortable with jazz
With a recent concerto for amplified accordion and orchestra and another for more than 60 recorders Holly Harrison clearly loves a challenge. She shares why she enjoys writing for new instruments, and how she composed a work that will be performed by everyone from virtuosos to second-grade students.Hamed Sadeghi has released two albums this year, each of which fuses his instrumen
Dolly Parton (1946-2026)
Dolly Parton said she wrote over three thousand songs, so we can barely begin to honour her extraordinary songwriting in just one hour.From her early country duets with Porter Wagoner, to the extraordinary purple patch that brought us Jolene and I Will Always Love You (allegedly written on the same day), to lending her voice and country music bona fides to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter
The poetry of aja monet and Thomas Meadowcroft on composing for sound effects and orchestra
"I think if we saw every conversation as music, we would drastically shift the course of history." So says the poet and performer aja monet. For her latest record, the color of rain, monet worked with Meshell Ndegecello, Justin Brown, and a whole host of musical collaborators to create something that spans genre, but has seen her named as one of the early headliners of the Melbo
James Ellis Ford made a Mercury Prize nominated record in a chemotherapy ward
James Ellis Ford is better known as James Ford, producer for artists like Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine and Fontaines D.C. When you add the Ellis, he's a solo artist making his own music and he joins Andy to talk about his latest album Lost In Another World, and the War Child charity album HELP(2) which he made during his time as a 'boy in the bubble' of a quaran
Kate Miller-Heidke on Handel and planning for the apocalypse
Kate Miller-Heidke's new album, the first since 2020's Child In Reverse is a very theatrical and sometimes funny slice of gothic-folk called The Kiss and the Abyss. In between live performances of two new songs, Kate talks about referencing Handel and planning for the end of the world.Pianist Maki Namekawa has an enduring relationship with Philip Glass - performing the world prem
Grace Cummings' Bloodhorse! and the legacy of Vivaldi's star orphan
Grace Cummings’ latest album is called Bloodhorse! and it's fantastic and fantastically strange. Her ragged, bluesy voice floats through a lush, ornate sound world on tracks like 'The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Morphine', and 'WITCH! WITCH! WITCH!', the latter of which was recorded whilst Grace wielded a grim reaper style scythe in the studio. She joins Andy to take us int
Tom Service on the classical music that shapes us
Can you tell the history of the world in fifty pieces of music? No, but BBC Radio 3 presenter and writer Tom Service has given it a red hot go in A History of the World in 50 Pieces: The Classical Music That Shapes Us. He joins Andy to talk through the surprising stories behind some of those pieces, from Handel to Happy Birthday. Music heard in the show:Title: Overture from The M
The travelling community of the Grateful Dead, Don Walker's Love Songs, and a performance lasting 639 years
All The Grateful Dead are one of the iconic bands of the last century, not just for their music, but for their extended tours, which saw their fans follow them across America and create a very special sort of travelling community. Mischa Richter shares stories from the road and explores his new documentary Summer Tour.Don Walker talks basement recordings, lessons from Nashville,
The dangerous jazz life of Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was a jazz singer who lived 'the jazz life'. She's been compared to people like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald: an incredible singer, storyteller, and a deeply troubled drug user and alcoholic. Despite the turmoil of her personal life, she's one of the most precise singers of her generation, on the beat and right in tune for every note. Author James Gavin, who kn
William Basinski hosts a sleepover, Will Swenson plays Neil Diamond, and vale Glen Hansard
American composer William Basinski's very long and much celebrated avant-garde electronic work The Disintegration Loops was born from the gradual decay of magnetic tape. It was created over a month in August and September 2001, during which time Basinski witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Centre from his New York apartment. 25 years later, the piece is being presented in i
Music Now & Then: Liza Lim
The latest in our Music Now & Then series with composer Liza Lim, who first appeared on The Music Show in its early years when she was in her mid twenties, where both her youth and the 'difficulty' of her music were remarked upon. As her opera The Oresteia is remounted by Sydney Chamber Opera and ELISION Ensemble, Andy speaks with Liza on stage about revisiting works and idea
Music for winter stillness and electromagnetic storms
The Veils frontman Finn Andrews joins Andy to talk about love, death, and Sinead O'Connor, all features of their latest and aptly named album Fragile World.Married couple Anna Maria Friman and Arve Henriksen are both Norwegian musicians who've benefited from Norway's remarkably genre-blind attitude to making music. She's a classical vocalist (one third of Trio Mediæval), he's a j
Middle of the Air: The Music Show at Sydney Writers' Festival
Ziggy Ramo, Leah Senior, and Kate Fagan join Andy to talk about the art of turning poetry into song.Recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival, in partnership with Red Room Poetry.Songs performed live:Ziggy Ramo: Little Things (after Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly)Leah Senior: The Arbour (text by Giles Watson)Kate Fagan: Child Upon the Road (Kate Fagan, based on Child Ballad
Songs about fish, divorce, and moth DNA: Montaigne, Gin Wigmore, and Elissa Goodrich
Electropop singer, songwriter and producer Montaigne took the plunge into the world of independent music after over a decade with a big label a couple of years back. Their first offering in the indie era is an album called it's hard to be a fish. But they've not left their earlier music behind entirely: Montaigne joins Andy to talk about taking their 2016 album Glorious Heights o
"An ecosystem for song people": 25 years of Koori Radio
Guringai writer and creator Kaylene Langford is behind the mic for NAIDOC Week, with a celebration of Koori Radio for its 25th anniversary."It's an ecosystem for song people" says Stiff Gins' Nardi Simpson, one of the acts championed by Sydney's Indigenous station.From beginnings in a Redfern terrace with a knocked-through wall to a cornerstone of Indigenous culture, it's a story
ELISION Ensemble turn 40 and Rosie McDonald on The Go Twos and Nigel Lever
ELISION Ensemble began as a Melbourne new music ensemble, but have gone on to become international in both focus and reputation, building enduring collaborations with some of the world's best modern composers. Elision turns 40 this year and the artistic director Daryl Buckley reflects on the ensemble's history and their birthday celebrations.The Go Twos began as a collaboration b
Cover Story: Can’t Buy Me Love
It’s almost impossible to choose a Beatles song for Cover Story (we’ve been putting it off for three series). The band’s productivity in 1964 alone would give us ten good options. It was the year of their first - and second! - US tours, their one Australian tour, and the film A Hard Day’s Night. Can’t Buy Me Love inspired a wide and wild range of covers, so strap in with DOBBY an
Stephen Foster: The bicentenary of the father of American music
Stephen Foster's songs remain among the best known music to come out of the United States, with classics like Oh! Susannah, Hard Times (Come Again No More), and Old Folks At Home still covered to this day. He wrote with an ear to melody that saw his songs performed both in minstrel shows and in the parlour, and with an ambiguity that led to his lyrics being claimed by both sides
Cover Story: Never Tear Us Apart
Never Tear Us Apart began its life as a bluesy demo by INXS’s keyboardist and songwriter Andrew Farris. Frontman Michael Hutchence gave it lyrics, producer Chris Thomas gave it synthesisers, and the public gave it a place on every Australian Music best-of list. And the covers come from far and wide: you’ll hear English, American, Welsh, French and Lanarkshire accents amongst the
Embracing the choir: Alina Pash returns to Ukraine and Kristina Olsen takes up choral composition
Alina Pash was last on the show back in 2021, before the Russian invasion of her country began. At that point, Pash said that she wanted to stay in Ukraine and be part of a strong emerging music scene there. Circumstances changed and Alina is now based in the USA, but she returned home last year with the Belgian-Canadian producer Apashe. Together, they recorded with local choirs
Cover Story: Wonderwall
A love song, a football anthem, and a weapon of war for men with acoustic guitars: Noel Gallagher said he thought Wonderwall was an annoying song when he wrote it. Cover Story dips more than a toe into the world of Britpop with composer and ex-Go-Between Amanda Brown, and conductor, composer and singer Dan Walker. Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes ba
A solo debut from Trials and Isobel D'Cruz Barnes is working In Shadows
As one-half of A.B. Original, Trials was responsible for one of the key moments in Australian hip-hop over the last decade with the album Reclaim Australia. Away from that collaboration he’s worked with everyone from Paul Kelly to the Hilltop Hoods. His latest work though marks a debut of sorts - his first solo release, called Hendle.Shadow puppetry, dance theatre, and music are
Cover Story: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Cover Story makes a long overdue visit to the songwriting of Carole King, who with her then-husband Gerry Goffin wrote Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow as songwriters-for-hire in the Brill Building music factory of 1960s New York. Originally recorded and made famous by The Shirelles, King's own version of the song on 1971's Tapestry might be its most famous iteration, but there ar
David Mills' glamour and despair and Lawrence Power shines a light on British music
Comedian David Mills takes his acerbic humour into the world of cabaret for this year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He joins Andy to talk about pessimism, storytelling, and picking the right song for the moment.Violist Lawrence Power joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra this month for a program wending its way through the rolling hills of English music, from Thomas Tallis and He
Different versions of Daniel Avery and clipping's experimental approach to hip-hop
Daniel Avery has been filling dancefloors around the world for more than a decade, both as a dj and with his own critically acclaimed records. On his latest, Tremor, Avery has embraced his love of rock and shoegaze, blending driving guitars with his normal electronics. Not content with one set of songs, Avery completely remixed his own album, turning it back to the dancefloor wit
Cover Story: Jolene
Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes badly, and sometimes by people who clearly should have known better.Cover Story, returning for its third series, hunts down the best, the worst, and the downright strange versions of classic songs, and asks the question: why does this version give us goosebumps while that one makes our skin crawl?According to some Do
Miles Davis: a centenary
A portrait of the legendary trumpeter Miles Davis on his centenary. We hear how Miles not only changed music but also the lives of those he played with. We've pulled interviews from The Music Show's archives with former bandmates including pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Gary Bartz, guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Dave Holland as well as
A tribute to Sonny Rollins, Mahalia Barnes sings The Rose, and Cass McCombs live in the studio
We pay tribute to Sonny Rollins, who died this week at the age of 95. Rollins played with many of the greats of jazz, but was himself something of loner. Driven by ideas of perfection, Rollins played into his 80s, but spent years away the music industry, including a famous three-year sabbatical where he played for no one other than himself on the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC. Andy
Hilary Geddes' Redleaf and Kae Tempest's Self Titled
Hilary Geddes is a guitarist of understated virtuosity, and a composer of music that takes jazz into a rolling, lush, environmental register. Her latest album Redleaf, with the Hilary Geddes Quartet, is a record of the sounds she's heard, the music she's created, and the relationship between the players over the past four years.Kae Tempest returns to The Music Show ahead of his a
Barry Conyngham's rarely performed classic & Mogwai and Tortoise both celebrate new music and big anniversaries
Barry Conyngham’s piece Ice Carving isn’t performed very often, and almost never in its intended configuration - a solo violinist surrounded by an audience, who are then surrounded by 4 string orchestras. It’s finally getting its proper form at The Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne and Barry takes us back to the inspiration, at The Imperial Palace in Tokyo.It's been 30 years since M
Folk fixtures: Judy Small's Swansongs, and the National Folk Festival at 60
Judy Small is a fixture of the Australian folk scene, a writer and performer of songs about politics and people. She joins Andy to recap the thirty-ish years since she was last on the show, including a career in family law and as a federal judge, and the process she's been undertaking of recording some of her last songs (Swansongs) and appearing at the 60th National Folk Festival
Xiu Xiu take on Eraserhead and Pinchgut Opera's first murder
Xiu Xiu has been a leading figure in American avant-pop for more than two decades: combining abrasive noise and extremely dark subject matter with a catchy pop sensibility. It’s perhaps no surprise then that they’ve been drawn to the work of David Lynch, releasing their version of the music of Twin Peaks, and now, appearing at Dark Mofo in Tasmania to present their take on Eraser
The mystery and music of Connie Converse
American Singer-songwriter Connie Converse would be hard enough to pigeonhole had she not disappeared without a trace in 1974. She wrote folk songs, and art songs, and the story of her life and disappearance is a fascinating one. It's the subject of a biography called To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman, who joins Andy to tel
Raven Chacon's Pulitzer Prize-winning Voiceless Mass and Cam Butler takes on the grand organ
Voiceless Mass, by Raven Chacon, can be performed in 'any space of worship with high ceilings and pipe organ' and plays with the amplifying power of a church's architecture, while commenting on the silencing of voices and languages that churches have been active in throughout their history. It won the composer the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 and is heading to the Rising Fest
The prodigy and the piano: Ruth Slenczynska 1925-2026
The American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who died last week at the age of 101, was a childhood prodigy (although she denies the label). That came at a huge price, including a punishing concert schedule from the age of 4, orchestrated in the main by a tyrannical teacher-father. She went on to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, playing duets with Harry Truman, touring
Anna Meredith wants her music loud and the musicality of Dorothy Porter
Scottish composer Anna Meredith creates a meeting place between the concert platform and the rave in her music. Her piece for electronics and string quartet, Tuggemo, takes its name from an archaic English word for a swarm of bees, and demands to be heard loud. It's being given its Australian premiere by Omega Ensemble as part of their Howl concert season.Sophia Brous is an Austr
Music Now & Then: Jeremy Sams
Jeremy Sams is a composer, theatre director and a long-time friend of the show. He's the latest in our series of long conversations with old friends. He joined Andy recently in London to talk about how opera, music theatre and the industries behind the art forms have transformed over the years. Music heard in the show:Title: Balloon MusicArtist: Royal Philharmonic OrchestraCompos
ZÖJ deafen the devil's ear and The Three Seas embrace naivety
ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent
John Darnielle: meaning, musicals, and The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging,
Going gospel with Robert Finley and going ham(mond) with Jake Mason
Robert Finley's first album was called Age Don't Mean A Thing, which was fitting because he released it in his 60s. Before that, he was a military man and then a carpenter. When he began to go blind he sat down his tools and returned to music - initially the blues - but his latest album Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool Ya is a gospel album, and a very special one. Robert is o
Hitchock and Herrmann: the thrilling partnership that shaped an era of cinema
Film composer Bernard Herrmann’s career started and ended with classics: his first film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), his last was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). But it’s the nine films that Herrmann worked on with Alfred Hitchcock that define his legacy, and in his new book, Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C Smi
Sparks rennaisance continues and Mo'Ju's rebel heart
There aren’t many bands that are still going after 50 years, but Sparks, who had their first big hit back in 1974 with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, have seen a renaissance of sorts in the last few years - they wrote a film, starred in a documentary, collaborated with Cate Blanchett, and have released some of their best work. The brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, talk
Tabaran is a Sound of Australia and Carl Vine's final collaboration with the Goldner Quartet
Tabaran, the 1990 album by Not Drowning, Waving and the musicians Of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea featuring Telek, has been inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive as one of the Sounds of Australia. David Bridie looks back on the album, which saw the band head to Papua New Guinea to work with George Telek for the first time.The music of Australian composer Carl Vine serves
Disney's Renaissance man Alan Menken
Alan Menken’s name is synonymous with Disney’s 1990s purple patch: a so called ‘renaissance’ of the animation empire’s fortunes, where a run of films starting with 1989’s The Little Mermaid cut through to a new generation. Ahead of a series of solo performances in Australia, he talks to Andy about how he's brought characters to life through songs. And from the archives, conversat
Pits, picket lines and pop music: the 1984-5 UK miners' strike
We're digging into the archives for a special program looking at the role that music played in the UK miners' strikes: a political, industrial and personal struggle. From Peggy Seeger to Paul Weller, Billy Bragg to brass bands—there's music supporting the striking miners, songs tormenting strikebreakers and tracks referencing (and sometimes sampling) National Union of Mineworkers
Flinders Quartet and Melody Eötvös plan ahead, Cassie To gets personal, and Mantis shares his award-winning hip-hop
Zoe Knighton of Flinders Quartet is undertaking a multi-year project with composer Melody Eötvös. It's fittingly called The Eötvös Cycle, and The Music Show will be following this creation of new Australian repertoire over the next five years. Composer Cassie To has told other people's stories when she's scored for the screen and advertising, but her debut album, Heart Songs, tak
What Did You Hear: listening to the music of Bob Dylan
Writing about and scholarship of Bob Dylan tends to focus on the words - he's a Nobel Prize winner for literature, after all - but his music deserves a deeper look too. Between the jangling guitar sound, rusty-hinge vocal stylings, and highly variable intonation, his unpolished and constantly shifting attitude towards performing his own music demands a long conversation with Stev
Riccardo Tesi and Giua open their retablos & Rafael Anton Irisarri searches for connection
Riccardo Tesi and Giua are bringing their melodeon, guitar, and Italian folk tradition to Australia for a series of concerts called Retablos. These are Peruvian magic boxes which create windows into different worlds. Riccardo and Giua join Andy to open a window into their worldPoints of Inaccessibility, the latest album by Rafael Anton Irisarri, began as an audio-visual improvisa
Music Now & Then: Andy Irvine
Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine has been coming on The Music Show for over thirty years, so he's the perfect person to start our occasional 2026 series Music Now & Then, in which Andy (Ford) speaks to long-running guests about how the world of music around them has changed over the years. Andy spoke to Andy in front of a gaggle of session-goers at the Gaeli
Violinist María Dueñas and percussionist Claire Edwardes
Spanish violinist María Dueñas makes her Australian debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Signed to Deutsche Grammophon since she was nineteen, her distinctive style of playing, her expressiveness, and her youth have all captured audiences. She talks to Andy about embracing canonical repertoire like Beethoven, and new music like the wor
Live at WOMADelaide 2026: Ganavya, La Perla and the Zawose Queens
On stage at WOMADelaide, the world's festival on Kaurna Country, Andy hosts bands from Tanzania, Colombia, and India via the USA. The Zawose Queens, La Perla, and Ganavya demonstrate their diverse musical languages in front of a live audience. The Music Show is made on Kaurna, Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country CountryTechnical production by Ann-Marie Debett
The magnificent voices of Annahstasia and Åkervinda
First discovered as a 17-year-old, Annahstasia found the music industry had a vision for her that she didn't recognise. Leaving the industry behind gave her a chance to find her voice - both metaphorically and literally, with months spent testing various mics and studios to get the right right for her latest album, Tether. While she points to influences like Nina Simone and Bill
Ron Sexsmith and Mary Coughlan
Ron Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter who more than earns the title of tunesmith with his melodies and storytelling. He's back on The Music Show to talk about his latest album Hangover Terrace, about finding his voice eight albums into his career, and being a songwriter's songwriter.Uncategorisable is how we like them on The Music Show and Mary Coughlan is certainly that.
Marisa Anderson's UnAmerican Folk Music and paying tribute to Éliane Radigue
Marisa Anderson says she learned to play the guitar three times. Once, as a young learner of classical guitar as a child. Then, being exposed to folk music at university, and, finally, when she threw away standard tuning about fifteen years later. On her latest album, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, she has taken inspiration from the record collection of Harry Smith and c
György Kurtág at 100
It's the hundredth birthday of György Kurtág, one of the most revered and increasingly performed of living composers. Cellist Steven Isserlis and baritone Benjamin Appl have both worked closely with the Hungarian composer on his rarefied music, and they tell Andy about his humour, high standards and a commitment to work that finds him currently composing a new opera in between ta
The surprising and eclectic sounds of Ben Nobuto and Black Country, New Road
British Japanese composer Ben Nobuto's Hallelujah Sim. opened the BBC Proms in 2024, garnering a roaring, standing ovation (a rare feat for a world premiere). His musical vocabulary, which marries precise chamber music sensibilities with video game sound effects and electronic multitracking, is unique in the universe of contemporary composition. He joins Andy to unpack his compos
Nairobi comes to Adelaide with Blinky Bill, and the weird and wondrous sacred music of Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo was a Renaissance composer, a prince, and a murderer. His sacred music, including his Tenebrae Responsoria, is a strange collection of settings full of dissonance and chromatic moving parts. AJ America is the Artistic Director of Luminescence Chamber Singers, and she joins Andy to talk about how the gory details of Gesualdo's life translate to the music.Blinky Bill
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings celebrate new music and a big anniversary; and Raphael Pichon's surprising choice of Orfeo
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are one of the great couples of Americana, with a catalogue that stretches back decades. Along the way they've put their stamp on the classics of American folk, and created more than a few classics of their own. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Time (The Revelator), they're heading back to Australia to show off their latest collection of new mat
Lachlan Skipworth on expanding his compositional palette and Worlds Only embrace the moment
Lachlan Skipworth, one of Australia's most beautiful compositional voices, has a very unusual new double concerto - for trumpet and clarinet - set to premiere with Omega Ensemble. He tells Andy how a series of 'joyful and uplifting' commissions added a new string to his bow.And Thomas William Smith & Mara Schwerdtfeger from the ambient collective Worlds Only share why they pr
Andrea Keller's Transients; and Ian Thompson takes us to the French musical underground of 1968
Andrea Keller is not only a pianist, composer, bandleader and educator, she's also the Jazz Ambassador at this year's Clarence Jazz Festival, celebrating its 30th year. She joins Andy to talk about creating a web of collaborators in her Transients series. Ian Thompson's book, Synths, Sax and Situationists, examines the music of the French underground that began with the Paris 'ev
Neil and Tim Finn unsplit the Enz and Reuben Brown on the music of Arnhem Land
Tim Finn and Neil Finn have worked together in a number of guises over the years: Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, and guesting on each other’s solo projects. But it all began with Split Enz, and there’s something about that music that keeps bringing them back together. Neil and Finn reminisce about their early collaborations, explain how a setlist comes together, and share how
