Speaker Biographies
Roger Wright - Controller, BBC Radio 3 & Director, BBC Proms
Roger Wright took up the post of Controller, BBC Radio 3 in November 1998 and, in October 2007, also became Director of the BBC Proms. Roger also co-ordinates the BBC’s classical music output across all BBC platforms.
As Controller of BBC Radio 3, Roger is in charge of its editorial strategy, commissioning, and scheduling policies. He is also responsible for four of the BBC’s performing groups: the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers. The BBC Proms is one of the world’s greatest music festivals.
Under Roger’s leadership, BBC Radio 3 has increased its commitment to live music both throughout the UK and internationally in addition to strengthening its support and encouragement of young artists. The station continues to be the world’s largest commissioner of new music, broadcasting works by a wide range of composers. Roger has also been the driving force behind composer-focused seasons such as The Beethoven Experience, A Bach Christmas, Webern Day and most recently, The Tchaikovsky Experience in addition to The Ring in a Day, when the BBC Radio 3 schedule was cleared to broadcast Wagner’s entire 18-hour Ring cycle. In 2009, Radio 3 won the Sony Award for UK Station of the Year.
He was educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, and later took a music degree at the University of London, where he also became President of the Students’ Union the year after graduation.
After finishing his music degree he became Director of the British Music Information Centre, running the world's largest collection of British contemporary music.
Roger was Senior Producer of the BBC Symphony Orchestra prior to working as Artistic Administrator of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1989 to 1992.
From 1992 he was Executive Producer and then Vice- President, Artists & Repertoire, at the classical recording company Deutsche Grammophon (DG), where he managed the artistic planning and production of all DG’s audio and visual output.
He returned to the BBC as Head of BBC Classical Music from March 1997 and took on the post of Controller, BBC Radio 3 in 1998.
Roger has been a member of the Music Advisory Panel and Recordings Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Music Panel of the Greater London Arts Association; Chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music; and Chairman of Contemporary Concerts Co-ordination. He has also edited books on new music for Oxford University Press.
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, a Fellow of the Radio Academy and an Honorary Fellow of Royal Holloway.
In 2005 he received the Association of British Orchestras Award for his outstanding contribution to orchestral life in the UK.
