Emma Barker in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Release Date: 10/14/2024
Mark Oakley in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
The Very Rev Dr Mark Oakley is Dean of Southwark. He has held many ecclesiastical roles, including Rector of St Paul’s Covent Garden, then Chancellor at St Paul’s Cathedral. He is deeply interested in poetry, is a prolific writer and has a PhD in English literature. A turning point for Mark as a young minister in his twenties was his work with young men dying from HIV/AIDS. In this conversation we explore the role of poetry and metaphor in Mark’s ministry and find surprising resonances between our areas of practice.
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Stephen Kovacevich in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most celebrated concert pianists of his generation. Since his Wigmore Hall debut in 1961 he has been known for his interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. Stephen and I look back over his career and discuss his experiences as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and conductor, collaborating with many of the world’s leading performers and orchestras. He and pianist Martha Argerich will be performing at the Wigmore Hall in October 2025 in a concert to celebrate his 85th birthday.
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Michael Booth in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Michael Booth is Chief Library Assistant at the London Library, where he has worked for forty years. One of his remarkable skills is an ability to track down books that have gone missing amongst the Library’s collection of over a million volumes. We discuss the combination of observation, experience and detective work that enable him to find even the most elusive items in the Library’s enormous repository.
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Toby Purser in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Toby Purser is Head of Conducting at the Royal College of Music in London. His musical interests encompass symphonic, operative and contemporary repertoires alongside film music and intercultural collaborations. He founded the Orion Orchestra in 2005 and is its artistic director. Toby has been guest conductor with many leading orchestras across the world. In this conversation we explore the many facets of a conductor’s role.
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Wayne Meeten in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Wayne Meeten is a distinguished craftsman whose work builds on ancient Japanese metalworking techniques and is profoundly influenced by Tai Chi. Wayne has studied in Japan, working with leading experts in the field. His works are created from a flat sheet of metal using only a hammer. He has won numerous awards for his work, which is in many private and public collections. In this podcast he traces his journey from his early days working in a jeweller’s shop in Brighton through a series of unpredictable twists and turns.
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Janis Wong in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Dr Janis Wong is Data and Technology Law Policy Advisor at The Law Society of England and Wales. She holds a PhD in computer science and is especially interested in the intersection between legal practice, technology, computing and artificial intelligence in today’s rapidly changing environment.
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Howard Phipps in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Howard Phipps is an artist and print maker, well known for his wood engravings which often focusing on the natural world, with haunting images of landscapes and trees and a vivid sense of place. He exhibits widely, his work features in the collections of many museums and galleries and he has won numerous prizes. He has been a member of the Society of Wood Engravers since 1985.
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Adele Wagstaff in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
The portrait artist Adele Wagstaff trained at Newcastle University and the Slade School of Fine Art. She has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the BP Portrait Award and her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. Alongside her work in the UK she spends time in Egypt, working on portraits of people along the Nile. Adele teaches a wide range of students, including life classes at the Royal Academy of Arts, which is where we first met. In this conversation we explore similarities and differences between our areas of work.
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Helen Leek in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Helen Leek is a pianist who has won many prizes, including the International Young Concert Artists Competition and the Brant International Piano Competition. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and teaches piano at Royal Holloway, University of London. She also gives masterclasses and adjudicates at competitions within the Royal College of Music. In this conversation explore her approach to music and discuss parallels between our professional worlds. Helen dedicates this podcast to the memory of psychotherapist Bill Hendry, who died suddenly in March 2025.
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Eleanor Sharpston in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Dame Eleanor Sharpston KC served as an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union from 2006 to 2020, before being removed following Brexit. Eleanor has held academic roles at the University of Cambridge, has numerous honorary doctorates and is a Bencher at the Middle Temple. In this conversation we discuss her remarkable career and explore parallels between our different paths.
info_outlineDr Emma Barker is an art historian and academic who teaches and researches at the Open University. She specialises in eighteenth-century French art and she is currently exploring ideas around art and blindness.