I want to offer a musical hug
Good Morning Britain and Classic FM presenter Charlotte Hawkins tells MARION MCMULLEN about her uplifting new playlist
You must be delighted your new podcast Last, Past & Blast has topped the podcast charts?
IT’S been brilliant. I absolutely love it. Working with Classic FM, I am massively involved in classical music.
I put together a classical playlist called Charlotte Hawkins’ Mindful Moments featuring 50 of my favourite classical pieces and it’s meant to be a musical hug for everyone. For the podcast, I ask guests three questions - the last piece of classical music they listened to, the piece from their past that means the most to them and their favourite guilty blast of music... and that can be from any genre, just one they love playing. Some of the answers have been surprising.
Sometimes you do things and you are never quite sure how they are going to be received but I am absolutely thrilled at the reaction there has been to the podcast.
Your guests have included Alexander Armstrong, Myleene Klass and composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. Who else would you like to have on?
I’M going to be speaking to Piers Morgan for the podcast as well. Everyone has got a story about what a piece of music means to them and it takes you back in time to when you were a child.
Alexander Armstrong remembered how his parents would get ready to go to the opera and it was a big night for everyone. He imagined it as this big party and the first live musical performance he went to he was completely blown away.
Eric Whitacre said he would be in a shower and he would hear the music that the shower made when the water came out and he would be singing along with the shower not just in the shower. It’s an amazing idea.
Did you grow up surrounded by music in your house?
CLASSICAL music has always been important to me; it was the soundtrack to my childhood as I listened to my Dad playing his favourite pieces, and it has always been a part of my life from learning instruments as a child, through to encouraging my five-year-old daughter to brush her teeth while we hum The Flower Duet together.
I remember my Dad used to hum music all the time, especially when he was doing the dishes. I want my daughter Ella Rose to embrace all different types of music – pop music, songs from films – and she listens to Classic FM. She helped me put together my Mindful Moments playlist.
I had a long, long list and I wanted to include music that was really calm and happy. She would give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down or a thumbs in the middle. Sometimes she would say a piece was a bit creepy or a bit mournful. I think the final list offers a really uplifting vibe, but I can’t take all the credit. Ella Rose helped.
I hope people can go outside, maybe find some trees, and just enjoy the playlist.
Is Ella Rose showing a talent for music?
WE have a piano and I’ve been trying to teach her, but I’ve found it hard. She’s quite happy to make up her own tunes. (Laughs)
In my mind, I had this idea of getting her ready for Christmas and how we would wow everyone by playing a duet of Jingle Bells together. I’ve not given up hope just yet.
How is your own piano playing progressing?
(LAUGHS) It was my New Year’s
Resolution to re-learn to play after about 30 years, and I was playing during lockdown. Alexis Ffrench, my musical hero, was a guest on Good Morning Britain, and they said ‘How about you play a duet with Alexis?’
I was so thrilled to play with him, to have that opportunity, but I was terrified.
My hands were shaking, and not in a good way. He was lovely though and very, very kind and made me feel a lot better.
Have you missed presenting conductor and violinist André Rieu’s famous Maastricht concert this year?
I WENT to Maastricht and the Sqaure and did an interview with André from a distance looking at some of the amazing performances over the last 15 years and it went out in cinemas.
It was great to do, but it was strange to see the Square empty when it is usually bustling with people.
■ New episodes of Last, Past & Blast are released every Tuesday on all podcast platforms. Charlotte Hawkins’ Mindful Moments playlist is available on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.