Controller Of BBC Radio 3 To Step Down

Alan Davey, Controller of Radio 3, BBC Proms, and BBC Orchestras and Choirs, has announced that he will leave in March 2023 after over eight years in post.

He leaves his role to concentrate on his work supporting arts and music organisations, and to pursue his academic interests.

Alan began his post as Controller in January 2015 and, in addition to his main role, he is the sponsor for the ambitious BBC Music Studios project, positioning the BBC at the heart of London’s brand new cultural quarter in Stratford. He is also champion for socio-economic diversity at the BBC and serves on the European Broadcasting Union Classical Music Committee.

During his tenure, Alan has increased and stabilised Radio 3’s audience at over two million weekly listeners. He has introduced a number of themed seasons across the network, starting from 2015’s Northern Lights, a three-week festival inspired by the anniversary of the birth of Sibelius, to a season devoted to Twilight in October 2021.

New music has been cemented at the heart of programming, from Breakfast to Night Tracks. Radio 3 and the Proms have commissioned a wide range of new works, from composers ranging from Harrison Birtwistle to Anna Thorvaldsdottir. Series such as Open Ear, Exposure and The New Music Show have made contemporary music and the work of small venues accessible. In drama and speech programming, Alan has brought new strands such as The Listening Service to the station, and a dramatisation of the medieval Saga Of The Volsungs when the network broadcast Wagner’s full Ring cycle.

Alan has also been committed to audio innovation, and has developed a new strand of adventures in sound. Listeners of ‘Slow Radio’ have followed cows in Connemara, a day in the life of Honey the dog, and a series of sound-walks, including tracing Bach’s journey on foot across north Germany.

Alan has ensured Radio 3’s position and visibility across BBC Sounds, commissioning separate playlists for younger listeners, such as Classical Focus and the popular Mindful Mix, and introduced a number of mood-based programmes such as the forthcoming Ultimate Calm, fronted by Grammy-nominated Olafur Arnalds, which airs in October 2022.

Radio 3's well-established New Generation Artists Scheme has been close to Alan’s heart, nurturing young talent and offering broadcast opportunities to artists at the beginning of their international careers. In 2021 the scheme saw a record number of participants, with a new cohort and an extension for those already on it, in response to the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alan was a key player in the BBC’s Culture In Quarantine response to Covid lockdowns, commissioning composers to produce new works for Breakfast, putting on plays postponed by Covid-19 and broadcasting live the first music from the Wigmore Hall while restrictions did not allow live concerts.

Under Alan's leadership the BBC’s Orchestras and Choirs have come together for celebrations of their unique collective power, and have expanded both their repertoire and their reach, now performing throughout all corners of the UK, as have the BBC Proms. The Performing Groups have focused on unfairly forgotten works, and the BBC Proms committed to programming 50 percent female composers by 2022.

Alan Davey will continue as Controller of Radio 3 and the Proms until next spring. The BBC will appoint his replacement in due course.