Sam Amidon; US-USSR ballet exchange; music streaming; lockdown postcards

Music Matters

Kate Molleson talks to folk singer songwriter Sam Amidon about his new album and breathing new life into his American folk heritage. We hear from the author Anne Searcy, too, about her new book on the role ballet played in US-Soviet Cold War relations. And Kate is joined by Allegra Kent, one of the prima ballerinas of New York City Ballet who toured to the USSR at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Aidan Moffat, vocalist and one half of the band Arab Strap, and songwriter Crispin Hunt, chair of the Ivors Academy, join Kate to discuss the economic impact of music streaming. . As this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival adapts to lockdown, we’ve a series of postcards from new music programmers across the UK who describe how COVID-19 has affected the contemporary music scene. And we speak with the folk artist Martha Wainwright, who tells us about her new music venue in Montreal.