Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
We are committed to presenting music from across the UK, including concerts and events from a broad range of venues and festivals, such as the Edinburgh Festival, WOMAD and the London Jazz Festival. We also broadcast every concert in the BBC Proms.

We collaborate closely with a range of partners, including the BBC’s own performing groups and independent orchestras, festivals, and other arts organisations, in order to make many performances available to our listeners.

We will continue to place a large emphasis on new classical music, both as commissioner and broadcaster.

Speech output will cover a range of arts and culture-related topics and will explore the world of ideas. Drama and other commissioned writing will remain a vital component of the station’s programme mix.

This year:

• In broadcasting the whole of Wagner’s epic Ring cycle in a single day, Radio 3 will build on its complete works initiatives to give extra impact to its classical music output.
• During the year, the network will have a special emphasis on British music, focusing on some neglected areas of UK musical culture.

Promoting education and learning
In addition to broadcast programmes, Radio 3 introduces listeners to a wide range of music through its outreach and educational projects, and its interactive services.

We aim to give context to our live music output, for example during the annual BBC Proms we will produce supplementary programming and supporting content for our website.

We are committed to amateur music-making and encourage our listeners to explore their own creativity, providing music-making technologies for them online.

We will once more help young musicians and other new and emerging artists through the New Generation Artists scheme and the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year competition.

This year:

• We will continue to extend the reach of the Making Tracks concerts for young people using the BBC orchestras.
• In combination with the new choral programme, The Choir, the Radio 3 Choir of the Year competition will encourage amateur music-making.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
All of the BBC’s orchestras and the BBC Singers are involved in outreach work, bringing live orchestral and choral music to a variety of communities and age groups across the UK, and encouraging community involvement in music.

We continue to create opportunities for listeners to interact with us and give opportunities for them to express their creativity on air.

This year:

• Listen Up! will play an important role in the autumn schedule, reflecting and celebrating the work of orchestras, both professional and amateur, throughout the UK.

Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world
Radio 3 is committed to presenting its listeners with a vision of music and the arts which extends beyond national boundaries. We work actively with partner broadcasters across the world to present highlights of musical life from outside the UK.

This year:

• Radio 3 will continue to make UK musical events available to partner broadcasters in the European Broadcasting Union.

Sustaining citizenship and civil society
We take the opportunity to address contemporary issues in programmes such as Night Waves, Music Matters and lebrecht.live, giving opinion formers the space to express views and debate issues from a cultural perspective.

This year:

• We will promote a weekend of speech events based around major contemporary issues; the public will be involved in defining the key questions to be examined.

Building digital Britain
We are streamed online, and much of our content is available on demand in a post-broadcast window via bbc.co.uk/radio3. The website and on-demand service enable us to bring the best of world performance to UK listeners and give people extended opportunities to listen.

We encourage our listeners to interact with us and to explore their own musical creativity online, giving them tools to enable this.

This year:

• Radio 3 will enhance and make accessible the Ring cycle broadcast by providing English text translations on digital platforms, including DAB.

Last year Radio 3 met or exceeded all its programme commitments around live music, musical performance, new musical works and documentaries, and regional spend. In particular, there was a positive audience reaction to the broadcast of the complete works of both Beethoven and Bach – providing distinctive focal points to our schedules at different points in the calendar.

The principal challenge facing Radio 3 continues to be maintaining its distinctive remit while engaging with a broad listener base.

During the year ahead:

• Following the extended Beethoven and Bach seasons, Radio 3 will continue creating special broadcasts to attract attention to its output, including Wagner’s Ring in a Day, a complete day of English music on St George’s Day, Wilfred Owen’s war poems, and a Delius festival in Bradford.
• Radio 3 will offer an improved text service on its digital platforms, create appropriate packages for the BBC podcasting pilot, and by use of the internet will encourage a greater sense of listener community around performances and recordings.

We remain fully committed to our voluntary pledge that at least 10% of eligible hours on our national analogue radio networks will be made by independent producers.