Tom Service | |
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| Born | (1976-03-08)8 March 1976 (age 49) Glasgow, Scotland |
| Alma mater | University of York,University of Southampton |
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| Years active | 2001–present |
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| Family | Joanna Tope |
Tom Service (born 8 March 1976) is a Scottish writer, music journalist, and television and radio presenter. He has written regularly forThe Guardian since 1999 and presented onBBC Radio 3 since 2001. He is a regular presenter ofthe Proms for Radio 3 and has presented several documentaries onclassical music.
Service was born inGlasgow and attendedKelvinside Academy, where he learnedcello andpiano.[1]
Service studied music at theUniversity of York, then studied for a masters in music at theUniversity of Southampton.[1] He wrote hisPhD thesis on American composer and musicianJohn Zorn.[2]
Service joinedBBC Radio 3 in 2001 presentingHear and Now,[3] and from 2003 he has presentedMusic Matters.[4] From 2016, he started presenting a weekly show also on Radio 3, calledThe Listening Service, which drew comparisons toDavid Munrow's programmePied Piper, which aired on the same station in the 1970s[5][6]
Since 2011 Service has presentedthe Proms,[7] broadcast on Radio 3, from theRoyal Albert Hall andCadogan Hall,[8] as well as presenting special editions ofThe Listening Service in 2017 exploring the musical pathways between featured composers and the BBC Proms Guide.[9]
In 2014 Service made the first of a series of documentaries with historianAmanda Vickery, produced by Reef Television for the BBC, titledMessiah at the Foundling Hospital. The programme received mixed reviews withThe Daily Telegraph criticising the delivery of both presenters and its inaccuracies[10] andThe Arts Desk being very positive.[11] A second film,La traviata: Love, Death and Divas followed in 2016.[12] The third film, also in 2016 with Amanda Vickery, was the documentaryLeningrad & the Orchestra that Defied Hitler forBBC Two about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the performance ofSymphony No. 7 (Leningrad Symphony) byDmitri Shostakovich.[13][14]
In 2015 Service wrote and presentedThe Joy of Mozart, a documentary for BBC Four, whichThe Daily Telegraph described as "joyous" and "richly enjoyable".[15] The film aimed to deconstruct some of the myths surroundingMozart and the romanticism that has been built around his life and relationships.[16] This was followed in January 2016 byThe Joy of Rachmaninoff, featuringVladimir Ashkenazy,Steven Isserlis andStephen Hough.[17][18]
Also in 2016 Service presented a documentary film tribute toPeter Maxwell Davies for BBC 4 calledSir Peter Maxwell Davies: Master and Maverick, described byDavid Chater ofThe Sunday Times as “memorable” and with a “lucid commentary”.[19]
Since 1999 Service has written about classical music forThe Guardian newspaper.[20]
In his 2012 bookMusic as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras, he examined music through studies of and interviews with sixconductors, each preparing a performance with theirorchestra. In a four-star review inThe Daily Telegraph, Sameer Raham described the book as "excellent" and an "enthralling study".[21]Suzy Klein ofNew Statesman also found it to be "excellent", while expressing disappointment that the conductors themselves weren't able to clearly describe "what makes an exceptional, alchemical conductor".[22]The Economist found the interview portions "not particularly rewarding" but said "the book's strength is in its mix of stories and perspectives".[23]
In 2013, Service collaborated withcomposer and conductorThomas Adès to write the bookThomas Adès: Full of Noises. Conversations with Tom Service.Opera News described the book as "two hundred pages of brilliant talk" and said of Service that "there's no doubting the intelligence he brings to the project".[24]Classical Music magazine described the conversations as “a great battle of wills and provokes an unapologetically complex book”.[25]
Service wasProfessor of Music from 2018 to 2019 atGresham College and has taught atTrinity College Of Music.[1][26]
His mother was the British actressJoanna Tope (1944–2024).[27]
In 2015 Service married Russian violinistAlina Ibragimova, whom he first met while interviewing her forThe Guardian. They lived inGreenwich, London.[28] They later divorced.
In 2023, Service married writer anddramaturg Victoria Saxton in Deal Town Hall.[citation needed]
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