NEW! ‘John S. Beckett: The Man and the Music’ by Charles Gannon is available from our website NOW! Beckett was a cousin of Samuel, and enjoyed a distinguished and varied career in the BBC.

Remembered in his native Ireland primarily as a harpsichordist and interpreter of Bach’s music, and in the UK as a conductor of the ground-shaking early music group Musica Reservata, John Beckett also composed avant-garde incidental music, and performed on several instruments. Music was not his only passion: he was interested in films, the theatre, art and pottery, and loved to travel. His varied career included devising music programmes for Radio Éireann, writing for The Bell  magazine, working in Dublin’s Pike Theatre, presenting and performing for the BBC Third Programme, composing music for his famous cousin Samuel Beckett, founding Musica Reservata, conducting Bach cantata concerts in Dublin over a ten-year period, and working as a producer and presenter for BBC Radio 3. The book also examines the development of Musica Reservata, and contains excerpts from unpublished letters written by Samuel Beckett.

Get your hands on it here!