Inspired Minds Podcasts

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Inspired Minds continues to bring you portraits of many of the world's great minds. Primary Format : Arts Language : German Also Listed as: City : Berlin State/Province : Unknown Country : Germany Region : EU User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of Inspired Minds Podcasts Methings.com listings of Inspired Minds Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Inspired Minds: One-to-one with writer Jason Star Jason Star first thriller "Cold Caller" came out in 1997, and he has been publishing about a book a year ever since. In his novels, Starr describes the everyday madness in urban life, often taking it to harrowing extremes. Jason Starr’s latest novel is called "The Follower." It tells the story of Katie Porter who has just started her first job after college in a PR firm in downtown Manhattan. She finds the dating circus in the city confusing and tiresome so running into an old friend from ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-one with violinist Sherban Lupu In this week’s Inspired Minds, Sherban Lupu talks to Breandáin O’Shea about Rumania’s very special violin school, the influence of the country’s folk music and his passion for the music of George Enescu. Sherban Lupu has performed as a soloist though-out the world. He is renowned both for his interpreatations of main-stream Western classics, and for his contemporary Rumanian repertoire. He has worked with leading Rumanian composers such as Theodor Grigoriu, Gheorghe Costinescu and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Author Robert Littell Littell’s latest novel “The Stalin Epigram,” is based on a riveting historical episode and is a fictional rendering of the life of the great twentieth century Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, one of the few artists in Soviet Russia who daringly refused to pay creative homage to Joseph Stalin. A former Newsweek journalist, New York born Robert Littell has been writing about the Soviet Union and Russians since his first novel, the espionage classic The Defection of A.J.Lewinter. He is th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Cellist Sol Gabetta Sol Gabetta performs on one of the most rare and valuable cellos in the world built by G. B. Guadagnini in 1759. The cellist Sol Gabetta was born in Argentina, the daughter of French and Russian parents. She was only ten when she won her first competition in Argentina, and has received many more awards since then including the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition and the ARD Competition in Munich and the Natalia Gutman Prize. In 2004 Sol Gabetta made her début with the Vienna Philharmonic under ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with author Colm Tóibín Tóibín’s latest novel “Brooklyn” portrays the immigrant experience and the complexities of what finally makes a place home. It tells a seemingly simple tale of a young girl and her immigration from Ireland to New York. The Irish novelist and journalist Colm Tóibín was educated at University College Dublin where he read History and English. The author of a number of fiction and non-fiction works, Tóibín is also a regular contributor to various newspapers and magazines. His nove ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with composer Krzysztof Penderecki "I am very lucky that artists the likes of Jean-Pierre Rampal, Anne-Sophie Mutter or Mstislav Rostropovich liked to play my music. I like to know who I am writing my music for." The Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki studied composition at the Krakow Academy of Music where he was subsequently appointed as professor in 1958. One year later, Penderecki won all three available prizes at the II Warsaw Competition for Young Composers. To date, Penderecki has composed over 130 works - some o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Author A S Greer Greer's "The Confessions of Max Tivoli," was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune - while his latest book "The Story of a Marriage" has been described by The New York Times as ascending to the heights of masters. Andrew Greer initially studied writing at Brown University, and later worked in various jobs in New York before completing his studies at the University of Montana. His first novel," The Path of Minor Planets," was published in 2001. His ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Theodor Paleologu Rumania’s Minister of Culture Rumania has always had a strong cultural tradition and the month long George Enescu Music festival is just one example of the country’s vibrant cultural life. Theodor Paleologu has been Rumania’s Minister of Culture, Religious Affairs, and Cultural Heritage since 2008 and is a member of Rumania’s Democratic Liberal Party. Born in Bucharest, Paleologu completed his secondary schooling at the city's German High School. Tertiary studies took him to Paris where he obtained a masters degr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Choreographer Royston Maldoom For the past 30 years, Royston Maldoom has been the initiator and leader of numerous dance projects around the world. His work was especially honoured with the project “Rhythm is it”- where 250 kids danced Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring", with Simon Rattle and the Berlin PhilharmonicMaldoom initially studied agriculture, but his passion for dance was ignited, after seeing a movie of the Royal Ballet. Although already in his twenties, he immediately joined a local Cambridge dance sc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with conductor John Axelrod "Lenny (Bernstein) said to me – music is music! There is good music, there is bad music. Just do the good music and it doesn’t matter what it is!" John Axelrod was born in Texas and studied music initially at Harvard, with advanced studies with the renowned musicians Leonard Bernstein, IIlya Musin and Christoph Eschenbach. In 1996 he founded the Houston Orchestra X and has since been Conductor Laureate of that group as well as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia and Mus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Inspired Minds best of 2008 Part 2 with Thomas Quasthof, Minette Walters and Meow Meow This is the second special edition of Inspired Minds where we look back at some of the highlights of the programme in 2008. Thomas Quasthof is one of Germany’s most celebrated singers. He is particularly renowned for his interpretations of lied and oratorio. He has been the recipient of numerous international awards and appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras under such renowned conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim and Sir Simon Rattle, to name but a few. Crime ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Wieland Speck, Director of the Berlinale Panorama Section Germany’s biggest film festival, the Berlinale is underway this week. The event, which runs until the 15th of February features up to 400 films as part of the public programme, the vast majority of which are world or European premieres. Independent and art-house productions can be found in the Panorama section which is directed by Wieland Speck. Wieland Speck studied German Literature, Drama and Ethnology then started working on video and film projects and was a writer and publisher ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with the translator Ulrich Blumenbach This month an unusual piece of American fiction finally appears in German - the novel "Infinite Jest" by the late David Foster Wallace. Ulrich Blumenbach spent six years translating this work. For many years, David Wallace’s more than a thousand page novel, "Infinite Jest", first published in 1996, was generally deemed untranslatable. Over six years ago the well-versed literary translator, Ulrich Blumenbach, decided to take on the task of translating this much-acclaimed book. Initiall ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Composer/Conductor George Benjamin Benjamin’s first orchestral work was played at the BBC Proms when he was just 20 and his work," Antara" was a commission to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Pompidou centre in 1987. George Benjamin started to play the piano at the age of seven, and began composing almost immediately. In 1976 he entered the Paris Conservatoire to study composition with the renowned Olivier Messiaen and piano with Yvonne Loriod. From there he studied at King's College Cambridge, where he is today, the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-one with baritone Alan Titus After a four-year break Alan Titus returned to the Bayreuth Festival this year to sing Hans Sachs in Katharina Wagner’s staging of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Born in New York, Alan Titus studied voice at the Juilliard School. Among his earliest performances - a Leonard Bernstein's Mass under the direction of the composer. Titus’s opera debut was as Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème in Washington and this was followed by guest appearances in all the great American opera houses, i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with the singer Michelle Breedt In the 2009 Bayreuth Wagner festival, Michelle Breedt may be heard as Fricka, the Ring cycle and as Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde. A graduate of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Michelle Breedt started her training at the opera houses in Cape Town and Pretoria, and continued her studies at the Guildhall School in London. In 1990 she moved to Germany – initially as a member of the Opera Studio in Cologne, thereafter joining the Ensemble of the State Theatre in Braunschw ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with the late author Frank McCourt McCourt wrote his first book “Angela's Ashes” at 66. An international best-seller, the book won many top literary accolades including the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.The world acclaimed author, Frank McCourt, died on July 19th in New York.He was born in New York in 1931, to Irish immigrant parents. Unable to find work in the depths of the Depression, the McCourts returned to Ireland, where they sank deeper into poverty. It is this time, in Limerick Ireland that Frank McCourt describes ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with the singer Michael Chance The British countertenor Michael Chance is in demand all over the world for his interpretation of male alto parts in opera, and as a recital, concert, and recording artist. Chance was a choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge where he completed a degree in English. Chance is active in opera, oratorio and song recitals and is also a guest professor at London’s Royal College of Music. His operatic roles include major baroque repertoire as well as contemporary works, the likes of Judi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-one with the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard Aimard has championed the works of many contemporary composers the likes of Messian, Boulez and Elliott Carter and collaborated closely with György Ligeti for more than 15 years, recording his complete works The pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is widely acclaimed both as a key figure in the new music world and a uniquely significant musical voice in the performance of established repertoire. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod, and in London with Maria Curcio. Early car ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Composer Elliott Carter - Part 2 100-year-old Elliott Carter is internationally recognized as one of the leading American voices of the classical music tradition Elliot Carter has known all the great leaders of contemporary music, from Charles Ives, Edgar Varese, Aaron Copland, Stravinsky and many, many others. Carter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and was the first composer to receive the United States National Medal of Arts, as well as Germany’s Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize.One of the extraordinary features of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Composer Elliott Carter - Part 1 100-year-old Elliott Carter is internationally recognized as one of the leading American voices of the classical music tradition Elliot Carter has known all the great leaders of contemporary music, from Charles Ives, Edgar Varese, Aaron Copland, Stravinsky and many, many others. Among his most vivid early memories, is the premier of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, where he sat next to George Gershwin. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and was the first composer to receive the Uni ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with writer Nuala O'Faolain The late Irish author enjoyed much international success, and was particularly popular in Germany, where her books lingered for months on bestseller lists. “Best Love, Rosie,” her last novel written before her death, was published this month. The journalist, TV producer, book reviewer, teacher and author Nuala O'Faolain became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoirs, “Are You Somebody?” and “Almost There”, and her novel, "My Dream of You". She also wrote a hi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with writer & filmmaker Scott Millwood Scott Millwood recently completed a feature documentary called “Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean?”. The film tells the story of one of the first leaders of an environmental political party in the world, whose fight to save Tasmania’s Lake Pedder, led to her mysterious disappearance in 1972. The Australian filmmaker Scott Millwood has been living in Germany for more than five years. He was born in Tasmania in 1973 and initially studied law at the University of Melbourne, specialisi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with author Charlie Huston Author Stephen King described Huston’s writing as "one of the most exciting voices this century." Charlie Huston initially made a name for himself writing thrillers, before turning his hand to the supernatural with his series of vampire novels featuring “undead”(to use Huston’s own special terms) investigator Joe Pitt . Huston’s first two books – “ Caught Stealing” and “Six Bad Things,” along with his fourth, “ A Dangerous Man,“ follow the loveable anti-hero, Hank ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with opera director David Pountney Part 2 "Classical music, opera, theatre - people turn to these in times of crisis, and to some extent, times of easy prosperity are often when the arts are ignored" Born in Oxford in 1947, David Pountney and was educated at Cambridge. It was a production of Janacek’s opera Katya Kabanova for the 1972 Wexford Festival that first brought his work as an opera director to world attention. From 1975 to 1980 he was Director of Production for Scottish Opera where, in collaboration with Welsh National ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with opera director David Pountney Part 1 Pountney has directed over ten world premieres, including two by renowned composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, for which he also wrote the libretto.Born in Oxford in 1947, David Pountney and was educated at Cambridge. It was a production of Janacek’s opera Katya Kabanova for the 1972 Wexford Festival that first brought his work as an opera director to world attention. From 1975 to 1980 he was Director of Production for Scottish Opera where, in collaboration with Welsh National Opera, his pr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Australian Poet Robert Gray "I think I like to write because I discover what I think about things that way. I wouldn’t understand my own experience if I didn’t write about it." Robert Gray began writing poems while working as a journalist and, later worked in various jobs which included teaching and as a reviewer for the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald. The recipient of numerous grants and Gray taught at various universities in Australia and at Tokyo’s Meiji University. He is regarded as an outstanding landsc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the pianist András Schiff – Part 2 In 1999 Schiff founded his own chamber orchestra, "The Cappella Andrea Barca," which consists of international soloists and chamber musicians. Hungarian born András Schiff started piano lessons at the age of five. Subsequently he continued his musical studies at the Liszt Academy with György Kurtág and in London with George Malcolm. Recitals and special cycles, i.e. the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bartók form an important p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with Anne Sofie von Otter - Part 2 The mezzo-soprano is considered one of the finest singers of her generation and is thus sought after by many of the world's major conductors, orchestras, opera and recording companies.Born in Stockholm Anne Sofie von Otter studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Vera Rosza. She also attended classes in lied interpretation with Geoffrey Parsons in London and Erik Werba in Vienna. Von Otter is a regular performer at Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera and in the op ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with author Michael Connelly Connelly’s book "Blood Work" was adapted for a movie that was directed by Clint Eastwood The American writer Michael Connelly initially worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the US’s largest newspapers. After three years on the crime beat in L.A., he began writing his first novel that featured Detective Harry Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo - based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles - was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best F ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with poet and actress Lebogang Mashile Lebogang Mashile is much more than South Africa’s most popular poet. Indeed, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, invited her to address the nation at his inauguration. The thirty year-old actress and community organizer studied law before she became a spoken word performer. Now, as South Africa prepares for its forthcoming election, Leboghang Mashile leaves all comfort zones behind to take stock of her country’s progress -- 15 years after Nelson Mandela was voted president of t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with poet and actress Lebogang Mashile Lebogang Mashile is much more than South Africa’s most popular poet. Indeed, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, invited her to address the nation at his inauguration. The thirty year-old actress and community organizer studied law before she became a spoken word performer. Now, as South Africa prepares for it’s forthcoming election, Lebogang Mashile leaves all comfort zones behind to take stock of her country’s progress -- 15 years after Nelson Mandela was voted president of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with crime writer Asa Larrson Åsa Larsson made her writing debut in 2003 with the novel "Sun Storm." The book was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers’ Association Prize for best debut novel and rights have now been sold to ten further countries. Swedish-born author Åsa Larsson is a fully qualified lawyer but stopped practicing that profession after her writing debut thriller in 2003. Her second book - " The Spilt" - was chosen as Best Swedish Crime Novel of 2004 and also enjoyed an immediate success. Born in an iso ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Conductor Osmo Vänskä "I had two dreams in my life – one was to become a clarinettist and the latter, to become a conductor… today, I’m pretty happy about my life " (Osmo Vänskä) Osmo Vänskä started his musical career as an orchestral clarinettist with the Turku Philharmonic and went on to become the principal clarinet of the Helsinki Philharmonic. Prior to winning France’s Besancon Young Conductor's Competition in 1982 he had studied conducting at the renowned Sibelius Academy. Particularly renowne ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to–One with Crime Writer Val McDermid This week one of Europe's biggest literature festivals, the LitCologne, gets underway. One of the star attractions at this year's event is renowned Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. Val McDermid grew up in Scotland and studied English at Oxford University. She trained as a journalist and worked on various national newspapers before becoming a writer. McDermid has written a large number of crime novels including The Lindsay Gordon Mystery series and The Kate Branningan Mystery series and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with violinist Joshua Bell Joshua Bell is internationally renowned as a great performer of contemporary and classical repertoire. He is currently on a European tour with the Minnesota Orchestra performing the Samuel Barber Violin Concerto. Joshua Bell started playing the violin at an early age and by 14 he had made his professional debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After this performance he went on to study with the legendary Josef Gingold and from there his career took flight. Equally at home as a soloist, ch ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-one with Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick Germany’s biggest film festival – the Berlin International Film festival - came to a close a few days ago. In total 383 films were shown and approximately 270.000 tickets were sold – an audience record. Today we meet the event’s Director - Dieter Kosslick. It was back in 2001 that Dieter Kosslick took over the creative direction and management of the Berlin ale. Kosslick - who was born in 1948 - studied communication, politics and education. He worked as a research assistant, an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to-One With Academy Award-Winning Director Adam Elliot Adam Elliot is one of the world's most celebrated animators. His films "Uncle," "Cousin," "Brother" and "Harvie Krumpet" have been viewed by millions of people around the world. This week he presented his latest film "Mary and Max" at the Berlinale in Berlin. Elliot grew up in outback Australia. After his father's business went bankrupt, the family moved to Melbourne. As a child he spent hours drawing and creating characters out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons. Elliot went on the study at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Beki Probst, Director of the European Film Market This week the Berlin Film Festival, the Berlinale, gets underway and will run until Feb. 15. Alongside this mammoth film event is the European Film Market, which has been directed by Beki Probst since 1988. Born in Istanbul Beki Probst initially studied law and journalism. From 1981 to 1988 she was the Berlin International Film Festival's delegate for Turkey and Greece and also served on the selection board of the Locarno film festival until the mid-nineties. Under her management the Euro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Trumpeter and Composer Markus Stockhausen (Part 2) As a trumpet soloist, improviser and composer of jazz, Markus Stockhausen feels as much at home in contemporary, as he does in classical music. But being the son of one of the world's most-renowned composers, wasn't always easy. Markus Stockhausen studied piano and trumpet at the Cologne Music Academy and was the winner of the German Music Competition in 1981. Since that time, he has appeared regularly as a soloist with orchestras around the world and is regular guest at international mus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the Trumpeter and Composer Markus Stockhausen Part 1 As a trumpet soloist, improviser and composer of jazz, Markus Stockhausen feels as much at home in contemporary, as he does in classical music. Markus Stockhausen studied piano and trumpet at the Cologne Music Academy and was the winner of the German Music Competition in 1981. Since that time he has appeared regularly as a soloist with orchestras around the world and is regular guest at international music festivals. Markus is the son of the renowned composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen who die ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Dancer/Choreographer Gregor Seyffert Gregor Seyffert is one of Germany’s most renowned dancer/chorographers. His productions are renowned for combining dance with acrobatics, theatre and music in some of the most unlikely performance venues. Already in 1986, while still a student at the Berlin State Ballet School, Gregor Seyffert won the Prix de Lausanne d'Or, one of the most coveted prizes for young dance students.After graduation, he proceeded directly to a solo engagement at the Comic Opera in Berlin—a great exception ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with mystery writer Simon Beckett „Whispers of the Dead“, Simon Beckett’s third novel appears this month – much to the relief of his fans around the world. After an MA in English, Simon Beckett spent several years as a property repairer and played percussion in several bands. Since 1992 he has been a freelance journalist, and more recently a renowned crime writer, who was has managed to thrill readers all over the world with his series of books that feature a forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter as their main ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: The Best of Inspired Minds 2008 Part 1 with Ken Follett and Giora Feidmann This is the first of two special editions of Inspired Minds where we look back at some of the 2008 programme highlights. We also remember one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, Mauricio Kagel who died in 2008.The composer Mauricio Kagel died on September 18th 2008. His compositions - from the noisiest to the rigorous and often beautiful solo piano works - universally demonstrated his deep awareness of musical history, the same considered engagement with music’s many me ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with the jazz musician Klaus Doldinger Klaus Doldinger is one of Germany’s most renowned jazz musicians and composers. He is best-known for leading the fusion band Passport for over three decades, and for his countless compositions for film and television. Doldinger’s musical career started back in 1947 and by 1961, he had become a modern tenor saxophonist, working with such top visiting and expatriate Americans as Don Ellis, Benny Bailey and Kenny Clarke and recording as a leader for Philips, World Pacific, and Liberty. In ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with Dianne Reeves The American jazz singer Dianne Reeves is a four-time Grammy award winner. Reeves has toured with Harry Belafonte and sang in Billy Childs' jazz band "Night Flight." More recently, Reeves starred in George Clooney�s film "Good Night and Good Luck" and won the Grammy for best jazz vocal for the film's soundtrack. In this week�s Inspired Minds, Dianne Reeves talks to Breand�in O�Shea about her latest album, why she chose the songs she has and her feelings about where jazz is heading in the 21 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with countertenor and conductor Ren� Jacobs �You can not really understand any opera � Mozart even Wagner - without knowing the music of Claudio Monteverdi� - Ren� Jacobs Ren� Jacobs began singing as a choirboy at the cathedral of his native city of Ghent in Belgium. While studying Classics at the University of Ghent, he continued his musical training in Brussels, then at The Hague. There he met the great counter tenor Alfred Deller who encouraged him to become a counter tenor. In the space of a few years he became one of the mos ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with mystery writer Kate Mosse Kate Mosse�s �Labyrinth� was a New York Times best-seller and in 2006 the UK's biggest selling title. The British author Kate Mosse, not to be confused with the model, is making a name for herself around the world with her historical mystery novels. Mosse�s first novel, Eskimo Kissing, was published to great acclaim in 1996, followed in 1998 a time-travel thriller, called Crucifix Lane. Her short stories and articles have appeared in a range of magazines, newspapers and anthologies.Kate ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Author Gail Jones �My first identifications and interest in otherness, if you like, was with Asian and Aboriginal culture, and only later with European culture through reading. So there is a sort of layering effect there that I think many Australians feel, in terms of interest and dialogue and who we are in dialogue with� Gail Jones Gail Jones recently took up a position as professor within the Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney. She is the author of two short-story co ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher Pintscher is one of Germany�s most exciting young composers, whose awards include first prize in the Hitzacker Composition Competition, the Salzburg Easter Festival Composition Prize and the Hindemith Prize from the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival . Matthias Pintscher gained his early experience playing the violin in local youth orchestras and conducting them. He studied composition with Giselher Klebe and Manfred Trojahn and formative influences included encounters with the composers ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the pianist Andr�s Schiff � Part Two "When I was a young man I rebelled against the music of Beethoven. I needed to reach the age of 50 to really appreciate it and now I really got the message. "Hungarian born Andr�s Schiff started piano lessons at the age of five . Subsequently he continued his musical studies at the Liszt Academy with Gy�rgy Kurt�g and in London with George Malcolm. Recitals and special cycles, i.e. the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bart�k form an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the pianist Andr�s Schiff � Part One Among the highlights at Bonn�s Beethoven festival this year were two concerts featuring Andr�s Schiff and his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca. The ensemble, which consists of international soloists and chamber musicians, was founded by Schiff in 1999.Hungarian born Andr�s Schiff started piano lessons at the age of five . Subsequently he continued his musical studies at the Liszt Academy with Gy�rgy Kurt�g and in London with George Malcolm. Recitals and special cycles, i.e. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Frankfurt Book Fair Special � One to One with Author Moris Farhi This week the annual Frankfurt Book Fair is underway where the theme country Turkey. Moris Farhi was born in Turkey, and although he has been living in Britain for much of his life, his Turkish heritage is evident throughout his many novels, plays and poems. Alongside all this Moris Farhi has written extensively for film and television. His many poems have appeared in British, US and International publications and in the anthology of 20th Century Jewish Poets, Voices Within the Ark. Moris ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Author Ken Follett Around 100 million copies of Ken Follet�s books have been sold world-wide. His latest book "World Without End" is the long-awaited sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth." Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1949 and graduated from University College, London, with a degree in philosophy. Follet first worked as a journalist and then went to work for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director, but he continued to write novels in his spar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Crime Writer Minette Walters Minette Walters latest thriller, �The Chameleon�s Shadow� has shot to the top of bestseller charts all over the worldCrime writer Minette Walters first book �The Ice House� became a worldwide best-seller just months after it�s publication. It won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Award in the UK for best first novel and was translated into several languages within six months of initial publication. Her second novel, �The Sculptress� won the Edgar Allen Poe Award and a further seve ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Remembering the late Mauricio Kagel, one of the 20th century�s most influential composers In this special programme we remember the late composer Mauricio Kagel, who died on September 18th. His compositions universally demonstrate his deep awareness of musical history, the same considered engagement with music�s many meanings and its place in human life.Although born and educated in Argentina, Mauricio Kagel had been a long-time resident of Germany, and was for more than half a century one of the most inventive and wide-ranging figures in contemporary music. Kagel�s work defied ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with peace worker Alfons Schabarum The International Day of Peace provides an opportunity for individuals, organisations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by the United Nations in 1981 and since 2002 has been observed on September 21st. The tragic events of September the 11th, seven years ago shocked people around the world. While the American President waged a war on terror as a consequence, war seemed not to be the right answer for Alfons Schabarum. The management consultant ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with conductor Daniel Harding At just 33 Daniel Harding is already a well established name on the concert circuit. This week he appeared at Bonn�s Beethoven Festival at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra, in a programme of Beethoven and Bruckner. Born in Britain in 1975 Daniel Harding initially attended the University of Cambridge, but after his first year there, Claudio Abbado named him his assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Harding�s career had begun earlier when he assisted Sir Simon Rattle at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Grete Pedersen conductor of the Norwegian Soloist's Choir The Norwegian Soloist's Choir occupies a unique position in the musical life of Norway. The ensemble has given over two hundred premier performances of which over seventy have been of works by Norwegian composers.Grete Pedersen studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo where she took her exam in choir conducting and since 1995 has also taught the same subject. She is the conductor of the Oslo Chamber Choir which she founded in 1984. In 1990, she succeeded Knut Nystedt as artis ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with Ilona Schmiel, Director of Bonn�s Beethoven Festival Bonn�s annual Beethoven Festival got underway a few days ago. The event which features 60 concerts, plus an extensive accompanying programme, has grown to become a musical highlight in the region.Ilona Schmiel initially studied music before completing further studies in arts and media management in Berlin and Oslo. Her career in arts management began as an assistant to the director of the Donaueschinger Musiktager. She has also worked in this field in Scandinavia, as a concert agent in Germ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Singer Robert Dean Smith The critically acclaimed Heldentenor is currently performing the title role in the Bayreuth Wagner Festival production of �Tristan and Isolde�Heldentenor Robert Dean Smith studied singing at Pittsburgh State University and at New York�s Juilliard School of Music. Not unlike many other heldentenors, he began his career as a baritone. His first professional engagements were in Germany. In 1995 he joined the Wiesbaden National Theatre and since then has sung all the major heldentenor parts. 19 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the King of Klezmer Giora Feidman, Part Two �Klezmer, Jazz, Classic - all these labels for music don�t mean a thing to me � it�s all music!�This week we continue our conversation with the remarkable musician Giora Feidman.It is over fifty years since the clarinettist he started his legendary musical career. Born in Argentina in 1936, his parents were Bessarabian Jews. Feidman comes from a family of Klezmer musicians - his father, grandfather and great-grandfather performed for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and holiday celebrations in the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the King of Klezmer Giora Feidman, Part One �Long live Giora, his clarinet and his music! He builds bridges between generations, cultures and classes and he does it with perfect artistry� conductor Leonard BersteinIt is over fifty years since the clarinettist Giora Feidman started his legendary musical career. Born in Argentina in 1936, his parents were Bessarabian Jews. Feidman comes from a family of Klezmer musicians - his father, grandfather and great-grandfather performed for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and holiday celebrations in th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Turid Birkeland, Director of the Ris�r Festival of Chamber Music The Ris�r Festival of Chamber Music was established in 1991 and is today one of the Norway�s most popular summer music events. For one week each summer, the sleepy seaside Norwegian village, becomes the stage for an international festival of chamber Music. Some of the biggest names in classical music make their way to Norway for the event. At the helm of the event are three directors � the musicians violist Lars Anders Tomter and the internationally acclaimed pianist Leif Ove Andsnes who ar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with the pianist and composer Marc-Andr� Hamelin Hamelin is renowned for his exploration of unfamiliar piano repertoire and has performed all over the world. The Canadian Marc-Andr� Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five and was just nine years old when he won the top prize in a Canadian music competition. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky and Sorabji when he was still young. Hamelin studied at the in Montr�al and then at Temple University in Philadelphi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Cory Doctorow - Author and Blogger Cory Doctorow is a Canadian blogger, journalist and science fiction author. Among his numerous occupations, he is a co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing and an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a advocate of the Creative Commons organisation, using some of their licenses for his books. Doctorow was the former Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Violinist Christian Tetzlaff Musical America named him �Instrumentalist of the Year� in 2005 and he is in demand as a soloist the world over. Christian Tetzlaff is renowned for his interpretations of the violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky as well as Berg, Ligeti and Shostakovich. Among his musical partners are the pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Vogt. He often performs at major festivals such as BBC Proms, Edinburgh and Lucerne Festival and all major US summer festivals. In this week�s Inspired ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with singer Thomas Quasthoff German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff is recognised as one of the most remarkable singers of his generation.Quasthoff began his vocal studies with Professors Charlotte Lehmann and Huber-Contwig in Hannover, Germany and has to date been the recipient of numerous international awards. He appears regularly with the world�s leading orchestras under such renowned conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim and Sir Simon Rattle, to name but a few, and is also a vocal professor at the Hanns Eis ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Ludwig Baumann Baritone and Festival Director Baumann established the Gut Immling Opera Festival 12 years ago. Today this event presents three major opera productions each summer. Ludwig Baumann grew up on a farm, surrounded by many animals. Indeed this early aspect of his life has continued to be an import part of his life today. After studying singing at Richard Strauss's Conservatoire in Munich, Baumann enjoyed a long career where he was engaged by many of the world�s most prestigious opera houses, including Los Angeles Rome, Pari ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with author Margriet de Moor Margriet de Moor's many acclaimed books include �First Gray, Then White, Then Blue,� �The Virtuoso,� �The Kreuzer Sonata� and �The Duke of Egypt.�The acclaimed Dutch writer Margriet de Moor initially trained as a singer and pianist. She achieved early recognition in the Netherlands with the publication of her first work of fiction, the 1988 short-story collection titled �Seen at the Back.� This was followed by �Three Novellas� for which she was awarded the Van der Hoogt Prize. In this week ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to one with composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher Pintscher is one of Germany�s most exciting young composers, whose awards include first prize in the Hitzacker Composition Competition, the Salzburg Easter Festival Composition Prize and the Hindemith Prize from the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival .Matthias Pintscher gained his early experience playing the violin in local youth orchestras and conducting them. He studied composition with Giselher Klebe and Manfred Trojahn and formative influences included encounters with the composers Han ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Author Christopher Moore Moore is the author of nine novels, including the international best-seller "Lamb."Christopher Moore�s biography is wide-ranging. Before publishing his first novel, �Practical Demon Keeping� in 1992, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, an insurance broker, a waiter, a photographer, and a rock and roll DJ. Moore has drawn on all of these work experiences to create the characters in his books. In this week�s Inspired Minds, Christopher Moore talks to Breand�in O�Sh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Author Christopher Moore Moore is the author of nine novels, including the international best-seller "Lamb."Christopher Moore�s biography is wide-ranging. Before publishing his first novel, �Practical Demon Keeping� in 1992, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, an insurance broker, a waiter, a photographer, and a rock and roll DJ. Moore has drawn on all of these work experiences to create the characters in his books. In this week�s Inspired Minds, Christopher Moore talks to Breand�in O�Sh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Performance Artist Meow Meow Meow Meow has wowed audiences with her own special brand of cabaret performance art around the globe. She has just appeared at David Bowie's High Line Festival in New York, and is currently appearing to sold-out houses in Berlin. It is difficult to find an exact description that fits the performance artist Melissa Madden Gray � known the world over as Meow Meow. She is quite careful to protect her true identity, but observing her on stage, it becomes quite evident that she is an experienced ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann The world-renowned soloist plays a Stradivarius from 1711, which once belonged to the legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler.Frank Peter Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was just 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. Today his many concert engagements with major orchestras take him all over the world including international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America and Australia. Zimmermann has recorded virtually all the maj ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One-to-One with Writer John Burnside John Burnside is the author of nine collections of poetry and six works of fiction. He's achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000 for "The Asylum Dance," which was also short-listed for the Forward and T. S. Eliot prizes.John Burnside studied English and European Languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. After working for a time as a computer software engineer, he became a freelance writer in 1996. He is a former Writer-in-Residence at Dundee U ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Crime Writer Minette Walters Minette Walters latest novel, "The Chameleon�s Shadow," was published in late 2007 and already has shot to the top of best-seller charts. Crime writer Minette Walters' first book "Ice House" became a worldwide bestseller just months after it�s publication. It won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Award in the UK for best first novel and was translated into several languages within six months of initial publication. She has gone on to write a string of successful novels including t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Irish author John Boyne Boyne's novel "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" quickly found an audience with adults and children alike and has now been published in 18 languages. His first novel, �The Thief of Time,� was published in 2000 and was followed by five others including the titles �The Congress of Rough Riders,� �Crippen� and later this year �Mutiny on the Bounty.� In this week�s Inspired Minds, John Boyne talks to Breand�in O�Shea about the process that went into writing �The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,� and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Cory Doctorow - Author, Journalist and Blogger Cory Doctorow is a Canadian blogger, journalist and science fiction author. Among his numerous occupations, he is a co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing and an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a advocate of the Creative Commons organisation, using some of their licenses for his books.Doctorow was the former Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standard ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Crime Writer Val McDermid McDermid has been the recipient of numerous major crime fiction awards and her work has been translated into over 30 languages The crime writer Val McDermid, grew up in Scotland, and studied English at Oxford University. She trained as a journalist and worked on various national newspapers before becoming a writer. She has written a large number of crime novels and these include three different series of books: The Lindsay Gordon, The Kate Branningan and the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan myst ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Poet Joachim Sartorius Dr. Joachim Sartorius is renowned as a poet and translator of works by the likes of Malcolm Lowry, Robert Gray and John Ashbery. Born in 1946 in Germany, Sartorius is the son of a diplomat and grew up in Tunis. After studying law and political science, he served as a diplomat and lived for extended periods in New York, Istanbul and Nicosia. Sartorius has held many prestigious positions in the field of international cultural policy and was director of the Goethe Institute until he was appo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Berlinale Talent Campus Director Dorothee Wenner The filmmaker and journalist Dorothee Wenner has directed the Berlinale Campus since 2006 The Berlin International Film Festival has encouraged young filmmakers from all over the world and all professional fields to apply to the Berlinale Talent Campus since it was established in 2003. Over 350 of them are invited to Berlin each year to reflect on their ideas about film in lectures, ateliers and panel discussions, and to work on their projects in specialised hands-on workshops. Since 2006 t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the King of Klezmer Giora Feidman (Part One) "Long live Giora, his clarinet and his music! He builds bridges between generations, cultures and classes and he does it with perfect artistry" (Conductor Leonard Bernstein) It is over fifty years since the clarinettist Giora Feidman started his legendary musical career. Born in Argentina in 1936, his parents were Bessarabian Jews. Feidman comes from a family of Klezmer musicians -- his father, grandfather and great-grandfather performed for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and holiday celebrations ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Architect, Curator and Author Deyan Sudjic " I think buildings work in two ways � when they are brand new then they are like a - gosh look at me - the subject of a picture postcard. But really their strongest effect - when they really change the way people think and operate - is when they are almost invisible - when they are taken for granted". Deyan Sudjic was born in 1952 to Serbian parents. He originally trained as an architect at Edinburgh University and is currently the director of the Design Museum in London. Deyan�s illustrio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Conductor Helmut Rilling and the Music of Advent " Bach�s musical language is very strong and so relevant to today�s world and problems "Over his career, Helmuth Rilling has become one of the most respected choral conductors in the world. He grew up in a musical family in southern Germany, where he received his early musical training, later studying choral conducting, composition and organ at the Stuttgart Academy of Music and in Italy with Fernando Germani. Then he travelled to the Untied States where he studied conducting with the renow ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Author Jordi Punt� Punt� is considered one of the most promising new voices of contemporary Catalan literature The author Jordi Punt� was born in 1967 and is currently the editor of the literary supplement, Quadern, published by the newspaper, El Pa�s. Having received much critical acclaim, Punt� is considered one of the most promising new voices of contemporary Catalan literature. He has published short-story collections such as Pell d�armadill and Animals tristos, and his work has been included in several a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One With Novelist and Biographer Nicholas Shakespear "Life is an opera every day, with poisonings, stabbings, blood-curdling screams and deceits, then a couple of arias and a rapprochement before bed ... It is the discovery of a new region as a writer for me�.Novelist and biographer Nicholas Shakespeare was born in Britain in 1957. He spent his childhood in the Far East and in South America where his father worked as a diplomat. After graduating from Cambridge University he worked as a journalist and was literary editor of both the Daily and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Nobel Prize Winner Doris Lessing Grand Lady of Literature, British author Doris Lessing, has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize. An Inspired Minds portrait by Ulrike Sarkany and Breand�in O'Shea. Doris Lessing is only the 11th woman to have won literature�s most prestigious prize. The Swedish Academy described the British author as "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." The Academy singled out Lessing�s masterpiece, The Golden ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Frankfurt Book Fair Special - One to One with Sigrid Loeffler - Literary Critic " I think that all the interesting new ideas that are born in the world, are first expressed in books". Born in Austria in 1942 Sigrid Loeffler studied English, Philosophy, Germanistik and Pedagogic at the Vienna University. For many years Loeffler was the Vienna arts correspondent for the German newspaper the, "S�ddeutschen Zeitung" but has also worked as a literarycritic for the publications "Die Woche", "Theater heute" and the "Basler Zeitung". However she gained a national reputation ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with Violinist Julia Fischer " I don�t think it is always a good thing to adjust art of any kind to the listeners....the ultimate aim should be to educate and inform the listeners towards art so they are going to listen to it the way you want them to listen to it ". Julia Fischer was born Munich in 1983 and is of German- Slovakian parentage. Initially she studied piano with her mother and took her first violin lessons before she turned four - eventually becoming a student of the renowned violinist Ana Chumachenco. T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One With Author Tash Aw "When I started out I wanted to make sure that the entire cast of characters was Asian. That is the complete reverse of most Western novels about Southeast Asia where most of the characters are white". Tash Aw, was born in Taiwan in 1971. His parents were Malaysian and when he was two years old his family moved back to their native land. Tash grew up in Kuala Lumpur and was educated there before moving to Britain with his family, where he studied law at Cambridge and Warwick. After he grad ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One on One With Iranian Author Azar Nafisi "The young people in my country have been flogged and jailed for just wanting to dress the way they want to�so they know about individual freedom."Azar Nafisi was born in Tehran in 1956. She was mainly educated abroad and at thirteen attended school in England before going to study in the USA, where she received a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. In 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, she returned to Iran, hopeful, after being away for seventeen years. There she worked as a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Sir Andrew Davis, Conductor Elgar�s music is such an integral part of my being that some of the most important milestones in my life are associated with performances of the major works This year�s Beethoven Festival in Bonn opened with a concert featuring the London Philharmonia Orchestra, under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis. Sir Andrew is one of Britain's leading conductors and was for many seasons a regular visitor to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera before becoming the events Musical Director in 1988. He has se ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Christian Br�ckner - Actor Best-known in Germany for synchronising the voices of Robert de Niro, Burt Reynolds and Warren Beaty The actor Christian Br�ckner is best known in Germany for his work synchronising the voices for the films of Robert de Niro, Burt Reynolds and Warren Beaty. Indeed, unlike many other non-English speaking countries where films are often presented with subtitles, the German film industry works hard at dubbing foreign language films. This is often done by some of the German - speaking world�s, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: James Weeks composer and conductor I think of my work as writing-through-life: provisional conclusions at best, open-ended and experimental in spirit. James Weeks, is fast establishing himself on the British new music scene both as a composer and conductor. He was born in Britain in 1978 and from 1997-2000 he was organ scholar of Queens' College Cambridge and then completing a PhD at Southampton University, studying with the composer Michael Finnissy. In 2002, together with soprano Juliet Fraser, Week�s founded one of Brita ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Conductor Adam Fischer I want to bring together the stage and the orchestra. Of course I don�t want to change Wagner�s music, but I do think we conductors must utilise more freedom. And if others say - I do only what the composer wanted- it is often not authenticity, it is laziness. Hungarian-born conductor Adam Fischer studied conducting and composition in Budapest and Vienna.. Fischer regularly conducts at many of the major opera houses in Europe and the USA including the Wiener Staatsoper, the Paris Opera, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Jonathan Mills - Artistic Director of the Edinburgh Festival "If the festival is to continue to be strong, it must come up with this kind of artistic challenge for itself "Jonathan Mills was appointed Artistic director of the renowned Edinburgh festival last year. Prior to that he had been director of Melbourne�s International Arts Festival and had established his own festival in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. Indeed Mills was born and raised in Sydney and has degrees in music and architecture. This year celebrating its 60th anniversary, the E ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born in a small village in north-eastern Tibet, to a peasant family. His Holiness was recognised at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama. He began his education at the age of six and completed the Doctorate of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Author, James Hamilton-Paterson " Travel? Autobiography? Fiction? I suppose my writing has elements of all three. Publishers find it hard to pigeonhole me." Before James Hamilton-Paterson left Britain 25 years ago he�d worked as a hospital porter and teacher. Today renowned travel writer, memoirist, poet and award-winning novelist, he has just moved to upper-Austria after living between Tuscany and the Philippines. He was born in London in 1941 and studied at Oxford University, where he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: John Eliot Gardiner, conductor " I grew up in a perhaps peculiar, even eccentric family, who sang regularly together all sorts of things from Palestrina to Schultz. It wasn�t until I went away to school that I realized this was not the norm... John Eliot Gardiner was just fifteen when he first started to conduct. His teachers included the eminent conductor keyboard player and musicologist Thurstun Dart and the renowned French composer, conductor and music professor Nadia Boulanger. As an undergraduate student at Cambri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Alan Britten � nephew of the composer Benjamin Britten �My uncle had a great work ethic. He thought of himself as an artisan, a servant of society and composed from 9 to 5 every day�Born in 1916, the renowned British composer Benjamin Britten was also a gifted conductor and pianist. He studied with Frank Bridge as a boy and in 1930 entered the Royal College of Music in London. Stravinsky and Mahler were important influences, but Britten's effortless technique gave his early music a high personal definition, notably shown in orchestral works suc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Edward St Aubyn "There's only ever been a two- or three-week gap between books because I'm very driven, then suddenly I had a blank phase. I'm determined to start again, but I don't really know what I'm going to write from now on."Edward St Aubyn was born in London in 1960 but his family home is in Cornwall - where the family own a lot of land. A great deal of his childhood was spent in the South of France, much like his the principal character in his book called, Patrick Melrose. St Aubyn went to Westmin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Andrea Levy " In all my books so far, I have been on both a literary journey (learning my craft as a writer) and also a personal journey, trying to find out about and make sense of the heritage (Jamaican/English) that I was born into. "Andrea Levy is the daughter of pioneers who sailed from Jamaica to England on the Empire Windrush ship. Her father and later her mother came to Britain in 1948 in search of a better life. For the British born Levy this meant that she grew up black in a very white England ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Inspired Minds with Donna Leon �They�re not translated into Italian and they won�t be. That�s my choice because I do not want to live where I am famous. I think the reason I don�t like it is that is creates a certain kind injustice. . . . I don�t like being approached by people in a deferential way. That goes against my ideas of social intercourse. And it always makes my alarm bells ring. It just makes me feel creepy. " Born in 1942 in New York, of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returnin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Jan Kaczmarek, composer To write music gave me freedom of expressionInitially educated as a lawyer, Jan Kaczmarek abandoned his planned career as a diplomat to write music � for what he says - finally gave him freedom of expression. His first compositions were for the highly politicised underground theater, and then for a mini-orchestra of his own creation,"The Orchestra of the Eighth Day". The major turning point in his life, he says, was a period of intense study with avant-garde theater director, Jerzy Grotows ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Soprano Joan Sutherland at 80 "I didn't realize that I had as much top to the voice as I did have until my husband started working with me, thinking now you've gotta let top of the voice there. What are you singing mezzo-soprano for? So then changed. Not just from a secretary to a singer, but to a different kind of singer." The soprano Dame Joan Sutherland's opera career spanned four decades. She was born the daughter of a tailor and a teacher in Sydney, Australia, on November 7, 1926. With a repertoire of more than 5 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Sa�a Stani�ic " I just took myself as an example to tell how it is to have an interrupted childhood - to wake up one morning and the first thing you hear are gunshots..."The German Book Prize was established by the German Publishers & Booksellers Trade Association in 2005 . It was modelled in the style of Britain�s Man-Booker prize and the Pulitzer Prize in the US � only it�s aim is to draw world attention to authors writing in German. Sa�a Stani�ic was the youngest author to be included on this ye ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Israeli Author Zeruya Shalev Born in 1959 in Kibbutz Kinneret, Zeruya Shalev has spent her entire life in Israel. After a degree in biblical studies she worked as an editor for an Israeli publishing house and since the success of her second novel, the international best-seller "Love Life" she turned to writing full-time. However Zeruya Shalev�s life changed drastically when she was among the injured after a bomb when a bomb exploded in a Jerusalem bus in January 2004. Zeruya Shalev had been in the midst of writing a ne ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Writer, literary critic Pankaj Mishra - Frankfurt Book Fair Special "I would like to express much more than is possible in a novel. I grew up where Buddha walked the earth, 2,500 years ago. For me, this region represents history; possibly the only one with which I feel a bond."Pankaj Mishra was born in 1969 in India. H e spent his childhood in the Northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh and completed his MA in English Literature in New Delhi . In 1992, Pankaj Mishra moved to Mashobra where he began working as a literary critic forThe Indian Review of Book ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Matthew Barley Cellist and Music Educator Despite the fact that Matthew Barley considers his musical world to have no geographical, social or stylistic boundaries, it is cello playing that is at the centre of his career. After training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Moscow Conservator he was invited to play as guest principal cellist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and London Sinfonietta Orchestras. His solo and chamber music engagements have take ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Thomas Weber-Schallauer Actor and Theatre Director Inspired Minds Austrian born Thomas Weber -Schallauer attended the Max Reinhardt Seminars in Vienna as an actor. His first professional engagement was with the Bonn Theatre, where he remained a member of the ensemble for over six years. His career moved toward directing in 1988 when he assisted director G�r�me Savary for a prodcution at the renowned Bregenz Summer festival. However Weber-Schallauer continued his acting career which included engagements with the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Sabine Krayenb�hl � Film Editor " People underestimate the importance of storytelling in filmmaking" A native of Switzerland, Sabine Krayenb�hl has worked in both the United States and Europe editing documentaries and features. She is a graduate of the renowned Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Krayenb�hl �s recent work includes the feature Heartbreak Hospital, starring Patricia Clarkson and John Shea; "An American Love Story," a 10 part series directed by Jennifer Fox and broadcast by - among others - ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Violinist Leonidas Kavakos " I believe an artists responsibility is to perform a work with a sense of the period when it was written, but to also be aware of the time in which it is played ...at least that is what I try to do " Born in Athens into a musical family, Kavakos began studying violin when he was five years old and continued his studies at the Greek Conservatory with Stelios Kafantaris. An Onassis Foundation scholarship enabled him to attend masterclasses with Joseph Gingold at Indiana University, and he m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Screen Writer Fred Breinersdorfer Fred Breinersdorfer is a multi-talented writer who for many years also held down a demanding day job. Breinersdorfer studied law and began practicing his trade � specialising in constitutional and administration law. Five years later, he published his first crime novel � the first of twelve. His protagonist was also a lawyer, called Jean Abel, and was a huge hit. More books followed, and so did screen adaptations. Breinersdorfer was only just gearing up. He quickly moved into television, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: Author Craig Russell Craig Russell has been a freelance writer since 1990, but it was as the author of the Jan Fabel series of thrillers, that he has achieved international acclaim. Russell was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1956. He has served as a police officer and worked in the advertising industry as a copywriter and creative director. Craig Russell has a long-standing interest in the German language and in post-war German history. Indeed, he has set the first of a planned series of six crime novels in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One–to-One With Academy Award-Winning Director Adam Elliot Elliot's films "Uncle," "Cousin," "Brother" and "Harvie Krumpet" have been viewed by millions of people around the world. He presented his latest film "Mary and Max" at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year.Adam Elliot grew up in outback Australia. After his father's business went bankrupt, the family moved to Melbourne. As a child he spent hours drawing and creating characters out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons. Elliot went on the study at The Victorian College of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inspired Minds: One to One with the pianist András Schiff – Part 1 "When I was a young man I rebelled against the music of Beethoven. I needed to reach the age of 50 to really appreciate this and now I really got the message." Hungarian born András Schiff started piano lessons at the age of five . Subsequently he continued his musical studies at the Liszt Academy with György Kurtág and in London with George Malcolm. Recitals and special cycles, i.e. the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Bartó ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website