Morphed

Still no sign of a replacement for Roger Wright, either as Controller of BBC Radio 3 or Director of the Proms. He bowed out after the first night this season - it featured Elgar's biblical oratorio, The Kingdom, probably selected way before he decided to leave Auntie's bosom, so we can't read too much into that.

Edward Blakeman, Proms Editor, is minding the rest of the season. He combines this with the role of Director of Music for St Mary's Church in Wendover, Bucks, where he is also on the committee of Wendover Music. This charity produces an annual season of concerts, of Proms-like ambition - featured artists over the past couple of years: The Academy of Ancient Music, Stephen Hough, The Brodsky Quartet and Angela Hewitt.

Roger announced his resignation the day before Bob Shennan was unveiled as the BBC's first Director of Music. Bob's been sharing his musical insights with the Los Angeles Times this week, on the growing popularity of country music worldwide. ...

"It's a phenomenon that probably started half a dozen years ago when Taylor Swift emerged as a major international artist," said Bob Shennan, director of music for three BBC Radio stations. "She came to the U.K. being very much a country artist, then came back and came back and grew a real fan base and now has morphed into the biggest pop act on the planet at the moment."