Zeb Soanes
Zeb Soanes is the presenter of Relaxing Evenings on Classic FM, the UK’s most popular classical music station. For over 20 years he was an authoritative newsreader and reassuring voice of the Shipping Forecast to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4. He announced some of the biggest events in recent years: from the final result of the Brexit referendum, to the unfolding of the Coronavirus pandemic. Sunday Times readers voted him their favourite male voice on UK radio. On television he launched BBC Four, where he presented the BBC Proms. On leaving the BBC, Director General Tim Davie wrote, ‘I, like millions of the audience will miss you! Your voice has been a lyrical, clear and reassuring presence — the very heart of Radio 4.’
Since joining Classic FM, Zeb has presented many special programmes, including an Easter interview at home with Dame Judi Dench, where she shared her favourite pieces of classical music; followed by Sir Simon Russell Beale’s Life in Music, with the celebrated actor’s selections performed live by the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Zeb has earned a reputation as ‘the go-to person for music narration’ (Daily Telegraph) with the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles, performing favourite works for children and highly skilled pieces such as Lord Berners’ A Wedding Bouquet and Walton’s Façade, which he recorded to critical acclaim, conducted by John Wilson (Orchid Classics). He is patron of the Thaxted Festival.
Zeb is the author of the much loved Gaspard the Fox series of books and has collaborated with the composer Jonathan Dove to create two new narrated orchestral works from Gaspard’s adventures, that use engaging storytelling to introduce children to classical music. Gaspard’s Foxtrot was premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra at the 2021 Three Choirs Festival; it was followed by Gaspard’s Christmas, commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and first performed in December 2022 at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and broadcast on Classic FM.
In 2021 he began fundraising for a statue of his hometown hero, Benjamin Britten, to be positioned on the seafront opposite the composer’s birthplace in Lowestoft. Sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley, it depicts Britten at 14, the age when his talent was recognised, inspiring future generations of local children to achieve their ambitions. It will be unveiled summer 2025.
In 2023 the University of Suffolk awarded Zeb an honorary doctorate in recognition of his ‘outstanding contribution to education, music, media and literature and very public endorsement and celebration of Suffolk.’