Tom Service
{{Short description|Scottish classical music presenter and journalist (born 1976)}}
{{distinguish|Tom Serviss}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Tom Service
| image = Tom Service.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1976|03|08}}
| birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
| nationality =
| other_names =
| education =
| alma_mater = University of York, University of Southampton
| occupation = Writer, journalist, radio and television presenter
| years_active = 2001–present
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = {{marriage|Alina Ibragimova|2015|2018|reason=divorced}}
}}
Tom Service (born 8 March 1976) is a Scottish writer, music journalist, and television and radio presenter. He has written regularly for The Guardian since 1999 and presented on BBC Radio 3 since 2001. He is a regular presenter of the Proms for Radio 3 and has presented several documentaries on classical music.
Early life
Service was born in Glasgow and attended Kelvinside Academy, where he learned cello and piano.
Service studied music at the University of York, then studied for a masters in music at the University of Southampton. He wrote his PhD thesis on American composer and musician John Zorn.
Career
=Broadcasting=
Service joined BBC Radio 3 in 2001 presenting Hear and Now, and from 2003 he has presented Music Matters. From 2016, he started presenting a weekly show also on Radio 3, called The Listening Service, which drew comparisons to David Munrow's programme Pied Piper, which aired on the same station in the 1970s
Since 2011 Service has presented the Proms,{{cite web|title=The Real Brahms|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0138ycf|website=BBC Proms|accessdate=9 January 2018}} broadcast on Radio 3, from the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall,{{cite web|last1=Breckenfield|first1=Nick|title=Prom 10: Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon – Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen & Beethoven's Eroica Symphony|url=http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_prom_review.php?id=14683|website=Classical Source|accessdate=9 January 2018}} as well as presenting special editions of The Listening Service in 2017 exploring the musical pathways between featured composers and the BBC Proms Guide.{{cite web|title=The Listening Service at the BBC Proms 2017|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5pvdQLdM1lwhyfxQbzDwVsj/the-listening-service-at-the-bbc-proms-2017|website=BBC.co.uk|accessdate=9 January 2018}}
In 2014 Service made the first of a series of documentaries with historian Amanda Vickery, produced by Reef Television for the BBC, titled Messiah at the Foundling Hospital. The programme received mixed reviews with The Daily Telegraph criticising the delivery of both presenters and its inaccuracies{{cite web|last1=Lawrence|first1=Ben|title=Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, review: 'worthy but lacked nuance'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10775086/Messiah-at-the-Foundling-Hospital-review-worthy-but-lacked-nuance.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=19 April 2014 |accessdate=10 January 2018}} and The Arts Desk being very positive.{{cite web|last1=Rees|first1=Jasper|title=Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, BBC Two The story of Handel's oratorio and Coram's charity seductively told|url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/messiah-foundling-hospital-bbc-two|website=The Arts Desk|date=20 April 2014 |accessdate=10 January 2018}} A second film, La traviata: Love, Death and Divas followed in 2016.{{cite web|last1=Billen|first1=Andrew|title=TV review: Black Work; La Traviata: Love, Death and Divas|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-black-work-la-traviata-love-death-and-divas-cbj3qscn7h9|website=The Times|access-date=10 January 2018}} The third film, also in 2016 with Amanda Vickery, was the documentary Leningrad & the Orchestra that Defied Hitler for BBC Two about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the performance of Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad Symphony) by Dmitri Shostakovich.{{cite web|title=Leningrad and the Orchestra That Defied Hitler (2016)|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/56ab77070f9ba|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180110070140/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/56ab77070f9ba|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 January 2018|website=British Film Institute|accessdate=10 January 2018}}{{cite news|last1=Farndale|first1=Nigel|title=Shostakovich's Leningrad: The symphony that brought a city back to life|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/shostakovichs-leningrad-the-symphony-that-brought-a-city-back-to/|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=21 December 2015 |accessdate=10 January 2018}}
In 2015 Service wrote and presented The Joy of Mozart, a documentary for BBC Four, which The Daily Telegraph described as "joyous" and "richly enjoyable".{{cite web|last1=Tate|first1=Gabriel|title=The Joy of Mozart, review: 'richly enjoyable'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11351944/The-Joy-of-Mozart-review-richly-enjoyable.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=18 January 2015 |accessdate=9 January 2018}} The film aimed to deconstruct some of the myths surrounding Mozart and the romanticism that has been built around his life and relationships.{{cite web|last1=Templeton|first1=Hannah|title=Tom Service's 'The Joy of Mozart'|url=https://www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/tom-services-the-joy-of-mozart/|website=British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies|accessdate=11 January 2018}} This was followed in January 2016 by The Joy of Rachmaninoff, featuring Vladimir Ashkenazy, Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough.{{cite web|title=Television debut – The Joy of Rachmaninoff|url=http://www.epiphoni.org.uk/2016/01/06/television-debut-the-joy-of-rachmaninoff/|website=Epiphoni|date=6 January 2016 |accessdate=9 January 2018}}{{cite web|title=Department alumnus Tom Service presents new documentaries for the BBC|url=https://www.york.ac.uk/music/news-and-events/news/2016/departmentalumnustomservicepresentsnewdocumentariesforthebbc/|website=University of York|accessdate=9 January 2018}}
Also in 2016 Service presented a documentary film tribute to Peter Maxwell Davies for BBC 4 called Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Master and Maverick, described by David Chater of The Sunday Times as “memorable” and with a “lucid commentary”.{{cite web|last1=Chater|first1=David|title=What to watch and when|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/what-to-watch-on-tv-tonight-bkqxm2j72|website=The Sunday Times|access-date=11 January 2018}}
=Writing=
Since 1999 Service has written about classical music for The Guardian newspaper.
In his 2012 book Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras, he examined music through studies of and interviews with six conductors, each preparing a performance with their orchestra. In a four-star review in The Daily Telegraph, Sameer Raham described the book as "excellent" and an "enthralling study". Suzy Klein of New 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". The Economist found the interview portions "not particularly rewarding" but said "the book's strength is in its mix of stories and perspectives".
In 2013, Service collaborated with composer and conductor Thomas Adès to write the book Thomas 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". Classical Music magazine described the conversations as “a great battle of wills and provokes an unapologetically complex book”.{{cite web|last1=Plumley|first1=Gavin|author-link=Gavin Plumley|title=Conversations with Tom Service, Thomas Adès: Full of Noises|url=http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/conversations-with-tom-service-thomas-ades-full-of-noises/|website=Classical Music|publisher=Rhinegold Publishing|accessdate=9 January 2018}}
=Teaching=
Service was Professor of Music from 2018 to 2019 at Gresham College and has taught at Trinity College Of Music.{{cite web |title=Tom Service's Gresham Lectures |url=https://www.gresham.ac.uk/series/tom-service/ |website=Gresham College |accessdate=15 October 2020}}
Personal life
In 2015 Service married Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova, whom he first met while interviewing her for The Guardian. They lived in Greenwich, London.{{cite web |last1=Duchen |first1=Jessica |author-link=Jessica Duchen |title=EDITOR'S TEA: ALINA IBRAGIMOVA |url=http://www.amati.com/magazine/153-interviews/editors-tea-alina-ibragimova/ |website=Amati.com |accessdate=12 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112160238/http://www.amati.com/magazine/153-interviews/editors-tea-alina-ibragimova/ |archive-date=12 January 2018 |url-status=dead}} The couple divorced in 2018.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite news|last1=Furness|first1=Hannah|title=Mozart to Beyonce: a lesson in classical music by Radio 3|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/16/mozart-to-beyonce-a-lesson-in-classical-music-by-radio-3/|accessdate=9 January 2018|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=16 April 2016}}
{{cite news|last1=Chisholm|first1=Kate|title=If you want to know how music really works listen to Classic FM not Radio 3|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/if-you-want-to-know-how-music-really-works-listen-to-classic-fm-not-radio-3/|accessdate=9 January 2018|work=The Spectator|date=7 May 2016}}
{{cite news|last1=Rahim|first1=Sameer|title=Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras by Tom Service: review|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9362321/Music-as-Alchemy-Journeys-with-Great-Conductors-and-their-Orchestras-by-Tom-Service-review.html|accessdate=9 January 2018|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=28 June 2012}}
{{cite news|last1=Klein|first1=Suzy|title=Music as Alchemy – review|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/culture/2012/07/music-alchemy-review|accessdate=9 January 2018|work=New Statesman|date=18 July 2012}}
{{cite news|title=Conjurors|url=http://www.economist.com/node/21557301|accessdate=9 January 2018|newspaper=The Economist|date=23 June 2017}}
}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|3558564|Tom Service}}
- [https://www.hayfestival.com/p-4518-simon-rattle-talks-to-tom-service.aspx Recording] from Hay Festival 2012: Simon Rattle talks to Tom Service
{{Chief classical music critics}}
{{BBC Radio 3}}
{{portal bar|Classical music|Biography|Music}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Service, Tom}}
Category:Academics of Trinity College of Music
Category:Alumni of the University of Southampton
Category:Alumni of the University of York
Category:BBC Radio 3 presenters
Category:British classical music critics
Category:Musicians from Glasgow
Category:People educated at Kelvinside Academy
Category:Scottish music critics