Who We Are

Leah Broad, Founder

Unheard Heritage has grown out of Leah's research. She programmes each album, and crafts the narrative around every disc to share the composers' life stories.

Leah is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Her first book Quartet: How Four Women Challenged the Musical World was a group biography of Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen. It won the Royal Philharmonic Storytelling Award 2024, a Presto Music Books of the Year Award 2023, and was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography 2023. Her next book, Unsung: Women and Music in World War II publishes in 2027, and was the recipient of a 2024 Whiting Creative Non-Fiction Grant.

Leah regularly works with organisations and performers to diversify their programming, using storytelling to bring classical music to life. She has spoken at events including the BBC Proms, Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Buxton International Festival and Harrogate International Festivals. As a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker she is often on air discussing music and history, and her writing has appeared in outlets including the Financial Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, Prospect Magazine, London Review of Books and BBC Music Magazine.

www.leahbroad.com

John Andrews, Artistic Director

John Andrews is a specialist in reviving works by British composers. He has conducted many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Singers, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Manchester Camerata. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.

He has won the BBC Music Magazine Award three times: for Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master (2021); J.F. Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley (2023) and British Piano Concertos (2024).

www.johnkandrews.com

Samantha Ege, Performance Lead

Samantha Ege is an internationally recognized concert pianist and award-winning music historian and whose championing of lesser known composers is transforming classical music on a global scale.

She is best known for her award-winning work on the African American composer Florence Price, and critically acclaimed recordings of under-represented composers. Her first book South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene (2024) was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as "a powerful corrective to the ‘Great Man’ theory of history." As a pianist, Samantha made her Barbican debut in 2021 with a ‘vivid, revelatory recital’ (iNews) in which she gave the UK premiere of Vítězslava Kaprálová’s Sonata Appassionata. She has performed across the UK, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. She has also played with orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, Oxford Philharmonic, Oakland Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and Yale Philharmonia.

Samantha’s debut album was the 2018 Four Women: Music for Solo Piano by Price, Bilsland, Kaprálová, and Bonds ("Ege is our trusted guide" – BBC Music Magazine). Her second was the 2021 Fantasie Nègre: The Piano Music of Florence Price ("Triumphs indeed" – New York Times).

www.samanthaege.com

Resonus Classics, Partner Label

Launched by Adam Binks in the spring of 2011, the award-winning classical label Resonus Classics has a growing reputation for high resolution classical music recordings supporting diverse and eclectic repertoire with artists from across the globe including the UK, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Australia and the USA. In 2015-16 Resonus won both a Gramophone Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award for its highly-regarded recording with David Watkin of J.S. Bach’s oft-recorded Cello Suites. Further award nominations have followed and Resonus won the Opera category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards with Malcolm Arnold's The Dancing Master in 2021, again in 2023 for J.F. Lampe's The Dragon of Wantley, and they won the prestigious Premiere Award in 2023 for their recording of Maconchy, Lutyens & Wallen: Works for Piano & Orchestra.

Releasing at least 25 albums each year in wide range of genres and periods, Resonus has a constantly expanding catalogue of albums with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, including an increasing number of world premieres. Resonus focuses on high-end artists and appealing, challenging repertoire that aims to satisfy the hardened collector and audiophile and those beginning their interest in classical music. Since it was founded, Resonus has garnered much critical acclaim with a growing number of five-star reviews and editor’s choices.

www.resonusclassics.com

Our Collaborators

Alexandra Dariescu

Alexandra Dariescu is redefining what it means to be a soloist in the 21st century. With fearless curiosity, innovation and deep artistic integrity, she creates programmes that connect past and present, bringing new meaning and relevance to the concert experience.

A sought-after soloist worldwide, Dariescu has performed with leading orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen Philharmonics and the Sydney, Houston, Detroit, Seattle and Vancouver Symphonies working with conductors such as Ádám Fischer, Cristian Măcelaru, Alain Altinoglu, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds, Fabien Gabel, Vasily Petrenko, Ryan Bancroft, James Gaffigan, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Recent seasons have been marked by a series of landmark performances and premieres. These include the UK premiere of Dora Pejačević’s Phantasie Concertante with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the world premiere of James Lee III’s piano concerto Shades of Unbroken Dreams, written for her and performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic. She has also championed rediscovered works such as the piano concerto by Leokadiya Kashperova, alongside important revivals including Nadia Boulanger’s Fantaisie variée and Doreen Carwithen’s Piano Concerto.

Dariescu is Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is the founder of the Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition, the first prize of its kind to recognise the performance of a work by a female composer. Through her performances, projects and advocacy, she continues to champion a more inclusive, imaginative and forward-looking future for classical music.

www.alexandradariescu.com

Manchester Camerata

Whether performing with the Pet Shop Boys live on MTV to over 300 million people worldwide, or touring international concert halls with the greats of classical music, Manchester Camerata exists to transform lives through exceptional music.

Led by their Music Director, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and their artistic partners, they have hosted orchestral raves, brewed beers, released award-winning short films, made sportswear, and have attracted millions of streams worldwide. They are also proud to be Classic FM’s only partner in Greater Manchester.

At the heart of all their work is an orchestra of exceptional musicians. Led by Caroline Pether, their players are known for their incisive empathy, which they apply to every aspect of their work.

Through their wide-ranging work, Camerata break down barriers and make orchestral music more accessible, connecting with people from all walks of life and creating new ways to engage with the art form.

www.manchestercamerata.co.uk