BBC Radio 3

Louise’s first public musical performance was a rendition of “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins on a coach journey to Spain when she was 5.

After University she sang for her supper with a group called The Swingin’ Chickens. When that left her peckish, she took a job in radio working as a Newsreader for BBC World Service, and her first experience of presenting concerts came with World Service relays of the Proms. Since then she’s become a regular presenter for Radio 3 – combining days in the studio with trips all round the country and abroad introducing concerts – in particular with the BBC Orchestras.

She returns to World Service from time to time to present music features and documentaries, including the award-winning series The Noisy Ape.

Louise was briefly an actress and keeps one toe in the theatre world, working as an audio describer for Vocaleyes and at the National Theatre - adding commentaries to plays to enable blind and partially sighted people to enjoy the productions. She’s described everything from Sizwe Banzi is Dead (two actors and a black box of a stage) to Billy Elliot (a full-blown musical with a huge cast).

She spent a year at the BBC running a pilot project for the audio description of television and she writes audio guides for museums and galleries.

When not in a windowless studio, dark theatre or gallery Louise likes to be out in her allotment – she’s an obsessive vegetable grower and keeps bees.