Andrew McPherson in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Release Date: 07/06/2026
Andy Stirling in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Andy Stirling is emeritus professor in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. His many interests centre around issues of uncertainty, diversity and power in science and technology. Andy has played a leading role in many project areas, including social justice, democratic politics and respect for the natural world. In the 1980s he was a volunteer with Greenpeace and took part in campaigns around nuclear disarmament and energy challenges.
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John Law in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
John Law is a pianist and composer who works across multiple genres. Initially trained as a classical musician, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In his early twenties he discovered jazz and improvisational performing and changed the direction of his career. He has recorded over fifty albums and played with a wide range of leading artists. I’ve followed his work for many years and have heard him play on several occasions, most recently as part of a quartet led by the saxophonist Jon Lloyd.
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Andrew McPherson in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Professor Andrew McPherson, Chair in Design Engineering and Music at the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. He has undergraduate degrees in engineering and music from MIT, a Masters in Engineering in electrical engineering from MIT and a PhD in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania. Andrew has designed many unconventional musical instruments, including an augmented magnetic resonator piano and TouchKeys which give pianists new kinds of expressive control over the sounds they create. In this podcast we explore the many strands of his career and the...
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Simon Wallace in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Simon Wallace is a pianist, composer and record producer. As a performer he collaborates with many other jazz musicians, including the singer Sarah Moule. He is a prolific composer and for nearly twenty years wrote songs with the late American lyricist Fran Landesman. He has also written for a wide range of TV shows in collaboration with Simon Brint, and for the National Theatre, Young Vic and Edinburgh Festival. I first met Simon several years ago, when he appeared at the Pheasantry in London with the singer Pete Atkin (a previous guest on Countercurrent), performing songs written...
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Finn Macpherson in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Finn Macpherson is race engineer at Hitech Grand Prix. An engineer by background, Finn has coached promising young racing drivers from their early experiences of go-karting up the motor racing pyramid with single-seater open-wheeled cars to F2 level. In this conversation we explore how mechanical and human perspectives come together in Finn’s work.
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David Gordon in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
David Gordon is a composer, harpsichordist, jazz pianist, improviser, teacher and much else besides. He has played with many of the world’s leading musicians in a wide range of genres, was the harpsichordist of The English Concert, is the pianist in the London Tango Quintet and leads the David Gordon jazz trio. In this conversation we explore many aspects of his work, including ideas around improvisation, risk and jeopardy in performing.
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Gary Bridgewood in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Gary Bridgewood has been making and restoring stringed instruments for over forty years - from violins and cellos to historic instruments such as the viola da gamba. In this podcast he describes his training at the London College of Furniture, followed by his partnership with the lute maker Tom Neitzert in establishing Bridgewood & Neitzert in 1982. We explore the complex nature of his work, which combines the highest level of craftsmanship and technical mastery with his attention to each customer’s individual needs.
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Antranig Basman in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Dr Antranig Basman is a mathematician and computer scientist who studied at Cambridge University. After completing a PhD in Computer Vision at the Cambridge University Engineering Department’s Machine Intelligence Laboratory he spent five years as Visiting Scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In this podcast we discuss Antranig’s many interests and avenues of work, especially around pressing societal challenges which exclude the perspectives of marginalised groups. Now he is based in London and works on a range of community-oriented projects with colleagues across the world.
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Geoff Brown in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Geoff Brown is Education Services Coordinator at Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court in central London. He trained as an actor before moving to the world of the law and now has a particular interest in advocacy training for those at the start of a legal career - especially the Moot. In this conversation we explore Geoff’s many skills and interests, including improv theatre and stand-up comedy.
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Lucy Skilbeck in conversation with Roger Kneebone
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone
Lucy Skilbeck studied drama in Australia before coming to the UK in the 1980s and establishing herself as a director and teacher. For ten years she was Director of Actor Training at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London. She is also Founder and Director of Being With Horses, where she offers equine-facilitated actor training and coaching. In this extended (2 hour) conversation we explore how her work in the theatre and with horses intersects with my own experiences in clinical practice and academia.
info_outlineProfessor Andrew McPherson, Chair in Design Engineering and Music at the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. He has undergraduate degrees in engineering and music from MIT, a Masters in Engineering in electrical engineering from MIT and a PhD in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania.
Andrew has designed many unconventional musical instruments, including an augmented magnetic resonator piano and TouchKeys which give pianists new kinds of expressive control over the sounds they create. In this podcast we explore the many strands of his career and the way in which his interests intersect.