In the Studio

Author Sofi Oksanen shares with Olga Smirnova how she begins a new novel. Olga witnesses how Sofi painstakingly gathers details for the lives of her characters, from choosing the colour of their nail varnish, to the perfumes they prefer, and the difference in the smell of Estonian and Soviet women. Olga visits Sofi’s writing studio in a bohemian quarter of Helsinki where they both listen to the silence which is so important for Sofi to write. We discover why sometimes kneading dough and chopping carrots or onions can help the process. Having an Estonian heritage, Sofi is fascinated by Soviet history. The theme of war in Ukraine is never far from Olga's conversations with Sofi as they discuss how it impacts upon the writing process.

Faig Ahmed is one of Azerbaijan’s best-known contemporary artists, and has won international acclaim for his fantastical woven artworks. Based on Azerbaijan’s ancient carpet weaving traditions, his pieces explore the visual language of classic rug design to radical effect. Pieces can distort and bulge, grow deep-tufted pelts or rise off the walls into the gallery space overhead. His work has been described as psychedelic, surreal, even iconoclastic. Speaking from his weaving workshop in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Faig Ahmed talks to broadcaster and artist Bidisha Mamata about the process of making these pieces, working with a traditionally all-female team of carpet-weavers who use centuries-old techniques to create his intricate designs. Ahmed also works in other mediums including painting, video and installation, all fed by a restless curiosity and experimental zeal. So we also hear about one of his current works-in-progress: A large-scale performance piece, through which he is exploring the fundamentals of social interaction.

A poet can’t sleep. She sits at a desk in a wooden house at the heart of a palm forest, watching the night sky through the window. The full moon lights up the palm fronds, which dance in the wind. She has been tasked with writing a poem that will be sent into space, to another planet’s distant moon. What should she say? What is the message in a bottle that she should launch out into the solar system? How can she begin writing a poem that speaks of the fragile wonders of our home planet? That expresses our hope that there might be other life out there somewhere, in the stars? In the Studio follows US poet laureate Ada Limón as she crafts an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon. Her poem will be engraved on the Clipper spacecraft, which will launch in 2024 and travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Europa - a journey that will last six years. We follow Ada’s creative process over several months, from her first meetings with the NASA team, through many drafts of the poem and a visit to NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory in California to see the Europa Clipper under construction.

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning Vietnamese writer whose debut novel The Mountains Sing, published in English in 2020, won the International Book Awards in 2021 and was runner-up in the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. It portrays the lives of four generations of a Vietnamese family enduring many hardships, something she understands well from her own upbringing. In conversation with presenter Felicity Finch, Quế Mai shares her writing process as she works on her second novel Dust Child, which is about Amerasians, children of American military men who were abandoned during The Vietnam War. Meetings with her New York publisher and editor Betsy Gleick help guide her through the many months of development as well as her desire to retain the Vietnamese-ness of her prose. This programme was first broadcast in May 2022, but for this version, as dust Child is about to be published, Felicity takes the opportunity to catch up with Quế Mai, to find out how that feels.

Restaurateur Keith McNally is a 71-year-old Londoner, the son of a longshoreman and office cleaner, who moved to New York in 1976. Forty-five years later, he is one of the most celebrated restaurateurs in the city. In 2004, The New York Times dubbed him “the restaurateur who invented Downtown.” In this episode of In the Studio, we get a glimpse into the mind of this unique creative talent, who used his early career in film and theatre to dominate an altogether different stage. The flagship of his New York restaurants is Balthazar, which is packed day and night and has been in operation for more than 25 years. But who is Keith McNally, and how has he created such an iconic success in such a cutthroat business?

Sydney’s main public art museum, the Art Gallery of NSW, recently completed Sydney Modern, a massive expansion project ten years in the making. Almost doubling the existing exhibition space, the new building was designed by the Pritzker Architecture Prize winning Japanese firm SANAA. Positioned within verdant parkland, yet a mere stone’s throw from the city centre, the new gallery is a series of interconnected glass–encased pavilions that seem to cascade down an incline towards Sydney Harbour. With its landscaped terraces and courtyards, the new gallery almost merges with its surroundings, inviting visitors to experience art as part of the environment. Join Masako Fukui as she follows the final stages of this construction project, and talks to some of the key people who have contributed to the creative vision, including the Director of the Art Gallery of NSW, Dr Michael Brand, the architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, as well as artisans, artists and the structural engineer on the project.

Denise Mina meets comic book artist Frank Quitely in his Glasgow studio. Frank is one of the biggest names in the comic world, responsible for drawing superheroes like Superman and Batman & Robin alongside his latest collaboration with writer Mark Millar “Jupiter’s Legacy”. Starting on Scottish underground cult comic 'Electric Soup' he progressed to working for Judge Dredd magazine and then The New X-Men gathering an international reputation. As he completes the final few pages of comic book 'Jupiter's Legacy 2', artist Frank explains his artistic process as he completes the project that took over 3 years of his life. He will explain how he turns the written concepts from writer Mark Millar into a coherent visual story and finally put pencil to paper to painstakingly produce his signature style. Denise follows his pencil strokes as he explains artistic and cultural influence as well as soaking in the landscape and atmosphere of his hometown of Glasgow. A real Superhero master class in storytelling, lines and shapes perspective, space and most importantly colour as he creates these last few pages. They cross to the Glasgow Art Galleries where Frank’s career retrospective exhibition is being held and meet up with his writing partner Mark Millar. We’ll learn about their working relationship in this competitive industry of graphic storytelling. During the conversation, Frank discusses with Denise the thoughts that go through his mind in these final stages and talk us through the pressures of creating, plus making, and breaking, deadlines.

Since the 1980s, composer Kaija Saariaho has been lauded for her explorations of sound and music, from tape and live electronics mixed with layered orchestral textures, to opera, song cycles and smaller scale pieces. In the BBC Music Magazine’s top 20 composers of all time, Kaija Saariaho is the only one alive today; as she moves into her eighth decade, there’s no sign that she wants to stop creating the magical sounds she has become known for. Kaija was born in Helsinki in Finland, but since 1982 has spent most of her time living and working in Paris. Keval Shah meets Kaija in Helsinki just as her most recent opera Innocence is having its Finnish premiere - part of her 70th birthday celebrations. But there’s not much time for Kaija to rest after the conclusion of this huge, 10-year project. A text message prompts her to start thinking about a new work and a new challenge: a trumpet concerto. We visit jazz trumpeter Verneri Pohjola on a grey Helsinki day (with plenty of candles) to find out how Kaija’s composition process develops through collaboration with the musicians who will be playing or singing her music. And we hear some unexpected trumpet techniques that may find their way into the new concerto - from flap tonguing to what Verneri calls ‘white noise'.

It's estimated that over one billion people worldwide watch the Sydney fireworks display every New Year's Eve. Regina Botros goes behind the scenes of this global event, finding out about the process of putting on an unforgettable light show and the pressures of living up to the expectations of a mass audience. She learns why the team think of the Sydney skyline as their canvas.

Follow renowned theatre and opera director Richard Jones as he creates a brand new production of Handel’s magical opera Alcina for the Royal Opera House. When Handel composed this opera, he was inspired not only by the possibilities of a new theatre in the heart of London, but also by his collaborator John Rich, who encouraged him to incorporate magic and dance into this new work. Nearly 300 years on, Richard Jones is also inspired by the possibilities of this opera, and with the opportunities created by his many collaborators too. We join Richard at his home to explore his thoughts on the opera, including his ideas for the set design. Further discussions then follow at the Royal Opera House once rehearsals are underway, and we delve into the changes now being made as this new production comes to life on the stage. Movement director and choreographer Sarah Fahie discusses her intensive collaborative journey in assisting in the creation of this new work, whilst soprano Lisette Oropesa, who sings the title role of Alcina, also chats about working alongside Richard Jones.

David Galullo is the world’s leading designer of futuristic workspaces for the forward-thinking tech giants of northern California. But in a post-pandemic world, how will our homes and work co-exist? Nick Duncalf follows Galullo and his team as they create inspirational new work environments that keep pace with our new lives.

Looking back over a year of In The Studio, we consider the role of the artist's muse. Why does one subject suggest itself above all others, how does an artist then go about incorporating that subject into their work, and what, if any, are the pressures they feel? From Nitin Sawney’s latest work marking the 60th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem; through Sally Beamish, whose Proms composition was inspired by bees; to Yuri Herrera’s historical novel about Mexican leader Benito Juarez, and Stephen Page, whose aboriginal-heritage inspired his dance work for Sydney Festival; to Elizabeth McGovern who took Ava Gardner as her muse for her latest theatrical performance. We explore how each of these artists used their muse to create a work of art.

Žygimantas Kudirka is Lithuania’s leading spoken-word artist and agent provocateur. A prolific writer and creative artist, he has won Europe’s Best Slam Poet as well as multiple hip-hop awards, blending satire and social critique with dystopian and futurist themes. Žygimantas, who goes by the alias MC Messiah, is shaking up the scene with a new libretto for the opera Brave New Body, teaming up with avant-garde composer Arturas Bumšteinas. Kudirka’s texts play with the idea of the human body as a machine, not without his trademark satire, and sets them to the sutartinė, an ancient polyphonic form found in Lithuania which has Unesco status. Is it possible to combine centuries-old traditional music with hyper-modern dystopian themes? We sit in on rehearsals with the Lietuva Song and Dance Ensemble leading up to the opera’s premiere, commissioned by the Operomanija festival in Vilnius.

Sean Rafferty spends time in the company of the pianist Lang Lang, one of the most famous classical musicians in the world today. He has had a hugely creative, successful and glamorous career, performing all over the world and collaborating with musicians from Herbie Hancock to Sir Simon Rattle. But during his private time, Lang Lang has spent 20 years of deep study and personal reflection on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s Goldberg Variations is the musical peak that many major pianists have attempted to scale over the course of time. Sean meets Lang Lang at the piano, where he plays and talks about his personal journey towards performing and recording J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations – one of the most mysterious, complex and rewarding pieces in all music. Along the way, Sean meets Lang Lang’s wife, Gina Alice, as they perform an informal duet, and Lang Lang opens up about the very personal struggles he faced as a child prodigy, and talks about how the power of music now inspires his work and commitment to young people and music education.

In 2009, Jessie Burton visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where she saw something that went on to transform her life. Petronella Oortman's doll's house became the inspiration for Jessie's debut novel, The Miniaturist, which was published five years later and went on to become an international bestseller. Eight years on from this success, as its sequel is published, Jessie takes Vic James back to the days when she began writing it. A time when she was doing office jobs by day, whilst trying to build a career as an actor by night. She reveals how seeing that doll's house sparked a story that explores feminism, racism and homophobia, in the form of a thriller intricately laced with a bit of magic. And she discusses the development of the key characters within - not least Petronella Oortman, whose doll's house it was.