You help Classic FM fundraise for
Global’s Make Some Noise charity,
which raises money for smaller UK
charities. Why is it close to your heart?
Global’s Make Some Noise is
particularly important because it
looks after community-based charities
that make a massive difference.
Our
brilliant major charities obviously do
phenomenal work, but we can speak
direct to these small organisations
which sometimes have only a
handful of people working for them and see directly what they do for
their communities.
So between the
communities and us, there are these
lovely small institutions.
It’s a much
more direct form of action for us,
and so satisfying to put lifeblood into
these crucial local-level charities.
You and the presenter Aled Jones were recently filmed hunting for clues on Viking Neptune, and listeners who donated to Make Some Noise were in with a chance of winning a Viking ocean voyage to Scandinavia. Which cruise is top of your wish list?
It would have to be the Norwegian fjords. I’ve been to Norway, but to flit along its coastline and see them from the sea would just be staggering. I would love that.
How did you find presenting Classic FM Live
with Viking at the Royal Albert Hall in October?
The music was phenomenal. I’m
particularly excited for listeners to hear the former
official royal harpist Alis Huws and
the Brazilian violinist Nathan Amaral
– a Classic FM rising star – who performed Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending.’
But the thing that makes the hair
stand up on my arms is having our
audience, our listeners, there –
sometimes coming to a classical music
concert for the first time.
It’s such a
spectacle, it blows everyone’s socks off.
You can feel it in the room. Everybody’s
jaws are on the floor as they watch
phenomenal musicians playing
classical music they know and love.
Seeing a world-class orchestra on that
scale belting out the music they love
is a moving, visceral experience.
What does 2025 hold in store for you?
As well as my Classic FM weekday show,
I’ll be promoting my new children’s
tale Evenfall: The Golden Linnet when it
comes out in paperback in April 2025.
At some point next year, I’ll also have to
deliver book two, which is exciting.
Appeared first on: Worldofcruising.co.uk
