April 2026

For information about past and upcoming episodes of Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 3 you can follow this link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001xmxc/episodes/player

It shows previous episodes which are still available for replay via BBC Sounds (for up to 30 days after broadcast).

Coming up soon:-
BBC Radio 3 at 7.30pm

Friday 10th April 2026
Chichester Festival Theatre
Jérôme Kuhn conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in music which features American songs from soprano Alison Scherzer. Recorded at Chichester Festival Theatre in January.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t9y7

Friday 17th April 2026
Paris in the Jazz Age (repeat)
The BBC Concert Orchestra, live from Alexandra Palace, with conductor Fiona Monbet and clarinettist Giacomo Smith in works by Gershwin, Ellington, Reinhardt and Debussy.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cjd3

Friday 24th April 2026
Classical Music in Film
Karen Ni Bhroin conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra live at Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, with special guest pianist Clare Hammond. Presented by Petroc Trelawny.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002v1kf

April 2026

2026 Museum Events

(click image to enlarge)

February 2026

Review of Aspidistra Drawing Room Orchestra
St Valentine’s Day Concert

The ADRO has, for many years now, given a Spring Concert at the historic Lauderdale House on Highgate Hill in North London.

For the first time this year, we are fortunate to have been treated to an extra event – a St. Valentine’s Day Concert, held in the evening of February 14th.

You can read the full report on the concert here

February 2026

(click to enlarge)

December 2025

The Midland Radio Orchestra

Serenade Radio at 5.00pm on 1st January 2026

An hour of great archive orchestral music
curated by The NDO Project
producer Ian Reed

Listen here!

December 2025

Friday Night is Music Night
on BBC Four on Christmas Day!

Gavin Sutherland advised us that he conducted a (live) FNIMN last December from Snape Maltings, and the BBC also filmed it and broadcast it on Christmas Day 2025 on BBC FOUR

So there is still hope about light music on television!!

The programme is available to view on BBC iPlayer for 11 months, HERE.

December 2025

Icons of British Light Music
BBC Radio 3
presented by Donald Mcleod

The names of the composers of British light music - Coates, Ketèlby, Farnon, Dring or Tomlinson - might not be as well known as those of Mozart, Beethoven or Bach, but some of their music will be just as familiar to most listeners, and it still provides the soundtrack to many people's everyday lives through, among other things, the theme music to their favourite TV and radio programmes.

Over the course of the week, Donald Macleod tracks the rise and fall of light music in Britain over roughly 100 years, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th. He’ll be exploring the social history which led to this genre flourishing, from the late-Victorian theatre crowds in want of more popular fare after the successes of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, to the orchestras which sprang up to entertain the burgeoning UK seaside resorts.

Along the way, Donald will examine the explosion of music in people’s homes, as at first pianos and other instruments, and then radio and television sets, became affordable to households across the country, and the transition from silent movies to the talkies.

Donald will also explore the challenges which the genre faced as audiences moved towards new ways of listening in the 20th century and the pioneers who have sought to keep this music alive.

You can still listen to the programmes here.

November 2025

Happy Birthday
Petula Clark!

Petula Clark celebrated 93 years on 15th November 2025, with over 82 years in show business.

And you can hear her in what long-standing fans have called her "fullest and frankest ever" interview - you can find it here: http://rosebudpodcast.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petula_Clark

September 2025

Happy Birthday!

Pete Murray OBE

100th Birthday on Friday 19th September

Pete Murray OBE, British radio and television presenter and actor. He is known for his career with the BBC, including stints on the Light Programme, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4. In the 1950s, Murray became one of Britain's first pop music television presenters, hosting the rock and roll programme Six-Five Special (1957–1958) and appearing as a regular panellist on Juke Box Jury (1959–1967).
He was a recurring presence in the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. Pete retired in 2002 before he returned to broadcasting for a Boom Radio special on Boxing Day 2021, over 70 years after his career began. He returned to the station on Boxing Day 2022 where he presented a two-hour show alongside his friend David Hamilton.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Murray_(DJ)

Johnny Mathis

90th Birthday on Tuesday 30th September

Johnny Mathis, American singer, started his 69-year career with singles of standard music. He is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as an album artist, with several of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts.
Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three recordings. Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Latin American, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979. Mathis has also recorded seven albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, he cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mathis

August 2025

Dancing in Vienna

SOMMCD 0708
Release Date: 15th August 2025

SOMM Recordings celebrates the wealth of popular concert music produced in Vienna in the 19th and early 20th centuries with a release called Dancing in Vienna, an exhilarating collection of waltzes to set your feet tapping. The Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is led by the versatile Scottish conductor, Iain Sutherland, whose previous, wide-ranging collaborations with SOMM have received enthusiastic critical response: "strong and trenchant, often exhilarating, never sentimental," Gramophone; "getting pretty much everything right, every nuance and subtle rhythm," Amazon USA.

More information: somm-recordings.com/recording/dancing-in-vienna/

May 2025

New CD from Gavin Sutherland

The new album by GAVIN SUTHERLAND conducting THE FAST TUNES ORCHESTRA and ROYAL BALLET SINFONIA.
Newly recorded at Abbey Road Studios

available from Ebay on CD or Double LP

52 tracks (see Ebay item descriptions for full details)

Click here for archived news items