One weekend, on a long train journey, Zeb began the first story in what has now become the series of much-loved Gaspard the Fox adventures. For more seasoned listeners to Classic FM, too, John (Suchet) unlocks some of the mysteries behind the jargon, with brilliant music and sparkling gems of classical music trivia. Zeb – I very much enjoy the whole Dickensian Christmas: wrapping up against the cold, eating Christmas pudding, carol singing and being with family. Some of the most exciting, dramatic and downright entertaining programmes from over fifty years of broadcasting are brought together in this special event, presented by Zeb Soanes.

Gaspard’s Christmas — Just Imagine Gaspard’s Christmas — Just Imagine

Embraced by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as a lockdown project, their concerts, narrated by Zeb Soanes with a specially commissioned film, projected above the orchestra, have been seen by over 100,000 Scottish school children in the space of a single year — a truly remarkable achievement.There’ll be music from St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, with festive readings by David Bradley, Ruth Jones, and Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh. Zeb Soanes and his illustrator, James Mayhew hold all merchandising rights, so took it upon themselves to develop a Gaspard the Fox plush toy.

Zeb Soanes

Narrated by Zeb Soanes, with music by Jonathan Dove and James Mayhew’s beautiful projected illustrations from the book.Zeb has recorded the first two books in the series as audiobooks, available on Audible — the orchestral concert recordings of books three and four form the audio versions of those stories, available on Apple Music and Spotify. The first in his Gaspard the Fox series of illustrated books appeared in 2018, in collaboration with artist James Mayhew.

Zeb Soanes — Zeb Soanes joins Classic FM

Based on our recently published book of the same name, Tim explores ten orchestral instruments and some of the music that shows them off at their greatest, in a fun and informative guide to classical music for families.

She has been editor of and sat on the editorial Board of English 4-11, led an Open University Reading for Pleasure Teacher Group (TRG) for teachers in Wales and is a Wales representative for the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA). Join Anne-Marie for another special festive edition of Classic FM Requests, on Christmas Day from 10am. Aside from the Gaspard the Fox series, his other titles for independent Welsh publisher Graffeg are: The Knight Who Took All Day (adapted as a work for narrator and orchestra by Bernard Hughes) and illustrations for the M ouse and Mole series (by Joyce Dunbar), animated for television with the voices of Alan Bennett and Richard Briers. My contribution to the evening was a quick live drawing of Gaspard, which was auctioned off to raise further funds for the homeless. As the season turns festive, we cherry-pick 10 unmissable concerts this winter, from Classic FM’s partners across the UK.

Gaspard’s Christmas in Edinburgh | James Mayhew

As a result, Gaspard is firmly established and loved north of Hadrian’s Wall and is now being rolled as an education resource in schools across the UK. Zeb is now the presenter of Smooth Classics at Seven on Classic FM, the UK’s most popular classical music station.Illustration is a huge part of Gaspard’s public life, how would you characterise your relationship with your illustrator? brought the world premiere of The Monster in the Maze, a community operaco-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, BerlinerPhilharmonikerand Festivald’Aix-en-Provence, premieredunder the baton of Sir Simon Rattle in three separate translations and productions. Every piece of music played between 9am and 5pm is taken from the current Classic FM Hall of Fame Top 300, made up of hundreds of thousands of votes each Easter. It’s a more intimate and poignant story than Foxtrot, which is a musical adventure through the city by bus, but Jonathan’s score for Gaspard’s Christmas is so wonderfully rich and heartfelt, matched by James’ extraordinarily sensitive illustrations. These are stories set in London and there are some beautiful double page spreads of the London skyline and streets.