Zeb Soanes Narrator
Edition Peters Artist Management is delighted to represent Zeb Soanes for musical narration and concert work. Zeb has earned a reputation as ‘the go-to person for music narration’ (Daily Telegraph) with the UK’s leading orchestras, ensembles and choirs.
Zeb Soanes is the presenter of Smooth Classics at Seven on Classic FM, the UK’s most popular classical music station. For over 20 years he was a 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 and the election of Donald Trump to the unfolding of the Coronavirus pandemic. He was a regular fixture on The News Quiz, reported for From Our Own Correspondent and presented Saturday Classics on BBC Radio 3. 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, the 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.’
He has earned a reputation as ‘the go-to person for music narration’ (Daily Telegraph) with the UK’s leading orchestras, performing favourite works for children including Babar the Elephant, Paddington’s First Concert and Peter and the Wolf. He was the Voice of God in the Aldeburgh Festival production of Noye’s Fludde to conclude the 2013 Benjamin Britten Centenary with Dame Felicity Palmer and Andrew Shore and is a frequent reciter of Walton’s Façade, including a critically acclaimed recording conducted by John Wilson. Premieres include: Ben Palmer’s Eggs or Anarchy based on William Sitwell’s award-winning book about the wartime Minister for Food, Lord Woolton; Beethoven, Wordsworth and the French Revolution with the pianist David Owen Norris (for the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth); and the first live performance in over 30 years of Banana Blush, John Betjeman’s verse set to music by Jim Parker in a gala at St Martin in the Fields. During the coronavirus pandemic he recorded Knee Play 2 from Philip Glass’ opera Einstein on the Beach with the violinist Vicky Sayles for Classic FM and made a guest appearance with The King’s Singers. He is the narrator for the choral ensemble Opus Anglicanum and in 2020 was appointed patron of the Thaxted Festival.
His best-selling first book for children, Gaspard the Fox, inspired by his remarkable encounters with an urban fox, was published in May 2018, illustrated by James Mayhew. It was followed by Gaspard Best in Show (2019). The third adventure, Gaspard’s Foxtrot (2021), was conceived as both a book and narrated concert work, composed by Jonathan Dove, which received its world premiere at the 2021 Three Choirs Festival. Zeb and Jonathan collaborated again on an orchestral adaptation of the fourth book, Gaspard’s Christmas (2022) which premiered with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh in December 2022.
“The go-to person for musical narration, specialising in children's concerts.” —Daily Telegraph