Edward Seckerson

The London Philharmonic Orchestra's podcasts are presented by Edward Seckerson.

For as long as Edward Seckerson can remember, music and drama have been inseparable for him. Long before 'Elocution' became 'Speech and Drama', he could be heard playing Tom Forrest's adopted son Peter Stephens in The Archers. Early piano lessons were frustrating; violin lessons little better. But percussion - that was instantly gratifying. He took zealously to the hardware through a variety of orchestras, amateur and semi-professional. Simon Rattle – one of his first interviewees as a journalist – experienced his cymbal playing at first hand in a performance he conducted of Mahler’s 6th Symphony with the Salomon Orchestra.

And so 'skin bashing' vied with amateur dramatics for a time. But theatre eventually won out. Turning professional as an actor was almost his undoing when he found himself on the receiving end of unfriendly fire in Sir Richard Attenborough's Arnhem epic A Bridge Too Far (or 'A Reel Too Many', as it became affectionately known).

After a short stint in the record industry, his journalistic career was born with Classical Music magazine and soon grew to take in most major music publications. He is still on the review panel of Gramophone magazine, and is currently chief music critic for The Independent newspaper. Edward has been a regular commentator in BBC TV's coverage of the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and has published books on Mahler, and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. For the last eight years he has been prominent on BBC Radio 3, first presenting the weekend breakfast show and then the highly successful musical theatre show 'Stage and Screen'. Last year he also presented Radio 4’s musical quiz show “Counterpoint”.

He is the co-founder of a new website, “Stage & Screen Online”, where some of the biggest names in musical theatre and film can now be found in conversation.

Edward is also the presenter of Podcasts for English National Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Josef Weinberger, and the City of London Festival websites.

www.edwardseckerson.biz