Three In A Bar

This week’s guest is Viola player, Negroni specialist and potential pilot of the future, James Flannery.You may well recognise James’ dulcet tones as he has previously guest hosted the podcast for an Ivor Novello Awards special. This was a baptism of fire due to some speed guerilla reporting and Verity’s technical inabilities. It felt only right that we get James back for a full episode to banish the memories of his chaotic first appearance and restore his faith in podcasting! We chat to James about some of the extraordinary, weird and wonderful gigs he has experienced already in his career - think wedding on a runway, tours with a questionable vocalist, a BBC Christmas special and countless other scrapes along the way.James also reveals a childhood passion for planes which got him into hot water with his family and airport security. And to think James was concerned he wouldn’t have enough to talk about!You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com

It’s round two of our new feature where we throw extra questions at our poor, unsuspecting guests!This week it’s our guest from the main episode, cellist Stephanie Cummins sitting in the hot seat.If you would like to send over any questions for future guests either DM us on Instagram (@threeinabarpod) or email us at hello@threeinabar.com. Thanks!

In this week’s episode we chat to cellist Stephanie Cummins.Having spent many years working as a freelance cellist in New York Stephanie relocated to London and has since been working in the West End on shows including Aspects of Love and Hello Dolly as well as various solo and chamber projects.We spent a lovely morning with Stephanie discussing growing up in a musical family, highs and lows in her cello studies and how things don’t always work out the way we expect them to.Stephanie talks about working on Broadway and the similarities/contrasts with the West End. We discuss audiences in 2025, shows that have been particularly special to her and what drew her back to theatre after swearing off it!We also chat about exciting future projects and falling back in love with music.You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com

Road testing our ‘Petit Trois’ bonus feature is our guest from this week’s main episode, Ian Wilson.We throw some quick fire questions at Ian and he responds appropriately…If you would like to send over any questions for future guests either DM us on Instagram (@threeinabarpod) or email us at hello@threeinabar.com. Thanks!

We are joined for episode 132 by recorder player supremo Ian Wilson.Ian is the principal recorder professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Head of Woodwind at Eton College and is the visiting recorder specialist at the North East of Scotland Music School in his hometown of Aberdeen. We were so pleased Ian agreed to come back to chat to us again having originally joined us last April. Due to various Three In A Bar style holdups we never managed to release that episode so have a brand shiny new chat with Ian for you!We talk to Ian about his extensive recorder selection, how the sound of a great recorder ensemble is definitely not what you remember from Primary School days but also a harrowing experience involving  hundreds of renditions of the Mexican Hat dance - something surely no one should ever have to experience? Ian demonstrates his quite astounding knowledge of bird song with a starting resemblance to a British countryside stalwart. We chat about the use of recorders in various film and TV scores and its renewed popularity. Anyone preparing for auditions listen up! Ian gives some excellent advice on preparations for scholarship or Music college auditions. He gives insightful information from a panelist’s point of view - what they are looking for might not be what you’d think…To find out more about Ian take a look here; https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/staff/professor-ian-wilson-bmus-pgdipmus-lgsm-fhea You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com

What, another one?! Yep…it’s mid week bonus time!In the first of our new bonus episodes we are basically road testing quickfire/emergency questions on each other to see if this hastily planned format will work. Over the coming weeks the guests from our main podcast with feature in the bonus episode answering some intellectual and insightful questions such as ‘what is your karaoke song of choice’ and ‘what’s in yer bag’. Hard.Hitting.Journalism.Warning: there is some excruciating singing at the end of this episode for which Verity would like to offer a full apology.

Our guest for episode 131 is composer, arranger and musical director Jordan Li-Smith. On a music theatre bingo card we are looking at an impressive full house for Jordan - as a child he performed in West End productions of Oliver and Les Miserables, He's MD'd a huge number of shows including an international tour of Titanic and he's written a couple of shows to boot! Oh, and the crowning glory...Jordan was a finalist on the Andrew Lloyd-Webber/BBC talent show, I'd Do Anything. What a blinkin' legend.We chatted to Jordan back in 2024 as he was about to embark on a national tour of Here We Come Again, a show crammed with Dolly Parton hits. We talk about the wonders of Dolly and the resurgence in popularity of Country music. We also cover touring in China, click issues, meeting Angela Lansbury and the mammoth role of an MD.Jordan talks about his (brilliant) first full length musical The Boy Who Sailed an Ocean in an Armchair and the many stages he's been through to get to a fully staged production. He has some excellent advice for budding young musical composers and very kindly recorded a little catch up segment to make up for our tardiness in releasing this wonderful episode! You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com

We’re back again with a string of great guests to get in yer lugholes! Kicking off this season it’s trombone titan, singing sensation and all round good egg Emma Bassett.Emma has performed and toured with a vast number of orchestras including LSO, LPO, RPO and Aurora. She can currently be found performing on MJ the Musical in the West End - in the depths of the theatre in a bijoux brass box!We were so delighted to finally get Emma round for a chat as she’s a joyous person with many a tale to tell…amongst other things we covered ultimate stress situations, the pitfalls of holding up a bass trumpet for an unreasonable amount of time, becoming Norma Desmond every night on Sunset Boulevard and some serious musical theatre appreciation.As a proud Cornish woman, Emma talks about her roots in brass banding, the prestige involved in the Helston Floral dance and teaching her English husband how to carol Kernow style!You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com

Hello dear listener! Welcome to our first episode of 2025, in which you find us having a much needed catch up in the foyer of the National Theatre. We really had not chatted for ages, so before we get going with interviews again, we had a lot to get through. And we basically covered every topic, from Verity's current job playing in Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 at the Donmar Warehouse, to Seb's Christmas gig with Rob Brydon, to New Year's resolutions, both of their marathon journeys, and plans for the podcast this year.You can find us on the socials here;Instagram @threeinabarpodTiktok @threeinabarpodThree In A Bar on YoutubeAnything you’d like to share with us? Any guests you’d love to hear or anything you’d like us to do better? Drop us a line at hello@threeinabar.com