Tommy Pearson talks to Latvian conductor Andris Nelsens who has just been announced as Sakari Oramo?s successor as Music Director of the CBSO, starting in the 2008/9 season. Nelsens gives his reaction to being offered the post talks about his career so far how he first met his teacher Mariss Jansons in Oslo when he replaced a trumpeter at the 11th hour his inspirations, repertoire ideas and plans for the CBSO. A great opportunity to meet a man eager to become a part of Birmingham, and UK, musical life.

This Month Conductor Vassily Sinaisky is a popular and familiar figure on the Symphony Hall podium. This month he conducts no less than 6 concerts in 8 days with the CBSO, with music by Elgar, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Rachmaninov amongst others. Sinaisky talks to Tommy Pearson about his early days studying in Russia, assisting the great Kiril Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic, his love of English music and performing with the CBSO. Stephen Johnson looks ahead to a CBSO concert on the 21st February and profiles the music in the programme : the tone poems Til Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote by Richard Strauss and Prokofiev?s 3rd Symphony. And in a slightly different PodGuide to the Orchestra, CBSO leader Laurence Jackson reveals the secrets of being a leader: why do they come onto the stage after everyone else? What is their relationship with the conductors? And what is the political role of a leader in an orchestra? Competition In our first podcast competition of 2008, we have a pair of tickets for a CBSO concert conducted by Music Director Sakari Oramo; a performance of Brahms?s A German Requiem. It?s being played twice, on the 19th and 20th of March, paired with Bach?s Cantata No.21, and the CBSO is joined by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and soloists Anu Komsi and baritone James Rutherford. If you want to be there, with free tickets in your hand, then just answer this question : Why does soprano Anu Komsi?s appearance with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo make it a family affair? Answers to the usual address please ? podcast@cbso.co.uk. Good luck!

Podcast Extra : Sakari Oramo and Stephen Maddock answer your questions at a Q&A session at Symphony Hall

This Month Conductor John Wilson talks about his passion for British light music and looks ahead to his concerts with the CBSO in January, when he takes up residency to conduct a programme of British Classics and also lead the orchestra in Symphony Ballroom! Stephen Johnson takes a look at Anton Bruckner?s 9th Symphony, which is being performed by the CBSO on 17/18/19th January. There are highlights from our annual public Q&A with CBSO Music Director Sakari Oramo and Chief Executive Stephen Maddock, held at Symphony Hall when you asked the questions. And in the latest edition of the PodGuide to the Orchestra we reach the dizzying heights of the piccolo. CBSO principal Andrew Lane reveals the big secrets behind the tiny instrument and we hear the great piccolo solos in the repertoire.

This Month Special guest Aled Jones talks about his transition from choirboy to mature performer. Aled talks to Tommy Pearson about singing for Leonard Bernstein, going to the Royal Academy of Music, taking on Joseph, recording with his younger self, and he looks ahead to his appearances with the CBSO over Christmas. Tommy looks back over a year of celebrity interviews in the CBSO Podcast ? with clips from oboist Nick Daniel, pianists Joanna McGregor and Artur Pizarro, violinist Nicola Benedetti and CBSO Music Director Sakari Oramo, plus Oramo?s successor, Andris Nelsons. And players from the CBSO give their verdict on the appointment of Andris Nelsons.

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