Wendy Thompson (Executive Director) trained as a violinist at the Royal College of Music before taking a postgraduate degree in musicology from King's College London. She went on to work in publishing and in the BBC Music's Division. From 1986 to 1991 she was Editorial Director of Faber Music Ltd.

She founded Classic Arts in 1993. She has contributed articles and programme notes to many publications and organizations, and has published 12 books on music, including Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds, biographies of Handel, Mozart and Grieg, six titles in the Faber Composers World series, and an anthology, The Great Composers.

Chris Marshall (Executive Producer) was educated at Reading University and Goldsmiths College, London. During 18 years at the BBC in London and Birmingham Chris produced hundreds of programmes for Radio 3 from talks and features to CD programmes and live concerts. He produced the Proms, many studio recordings and live relays - including the opening night of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and dozens of subsequent concerts by the CBSO and Simon Rattle, including the Towards the Millennium series. Chris devised and launched two programmes for younger listeners on Radio 3: The Works and The Music Machine. In 1995 he produced Bernstein Day live from New York. He ran the Music Department for the BBC in Birmingham, which made hundreds of hours of programmes for BBC Radios 2 and 3, and was Editor of Factual and Music programmes: in 1999 his department won four Gold Sony Awards.

Since going freelance Chris has produced programmes for Radios 3 and 4 (Private Passions, Performing Verdi, Composer of the Week, Bach Year, Opera in Action, Days that shook the world, A Good Read), for BBC2TV (Voices of the North for Music Live) and teaching videos for the Open University.

Richard Denison (Producer and Programme Manager) studied at Colchester Institute and Reading University. He worked with Mentorn Productions (as researcher on BBC Radio 3's Masterworks), before moving to Classic Arts to work on Radio 3's top-rating CD Masters.

After a spell as producer on BBC Radio 3's popular drivetime shows Morning on 3 & In Tune, Richard returned to Classic Arts to produce an evening celebrating Schumann & Heine, and in 2008 helped devise and launch Radio 3's top-rating Classical Collection.

Recently, Richard has produced two outstanding documentaries for Radio 3: Burney & Hawkins, A Tale of Two Histories was presented by the early music historian and performer Peter Holman, with the two protagonists played by Simon Callow & John Fortune; The Real Karajan, presented by Gramophone magazine Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, was a major element in Radio 3¡¯s Karajan Centenary celebrations.

Alex Anderson (Development Producer) studied at Birmingham University and the Royal College of Music during which time he gained experience as a sound engineer, chiefly for the independent recording company Ninth Wave Audio. In 2003 he joined Classic Arts to work on BBC Radio 3¡¯s daily strand CD Masters, and at this time he also completed an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths College, London. In 2007 he helped launch Classical Collection on Radio 3 and continues to work as a producer on the programme.

Nick Morgan (Associate Producer) discovered classical music as an expatriate child by listening to his parents¡¯ LPs and then, at boarding school, to Radio 3. Joining the BBC straight after graduating in Classics and Russian, he produced science programmes (another hobby) and then music programmes, including Record Review and Vintage Years.

Leaving in 1998 to become a freelance, he still makes music programmes for Radio 3 as well as appearing on it and on Swiss Radio as a broadcast critic; he also writes for International Record Review. Today he might be listening to Bach, tomorrow Chabrier and the day after that, Birtwistle.

Sarah Devonald (Associate Producer) has won several awards for her work on Radio 3. Over the years she has worked on programmes as varied as Mixing It to Brian Kay¡¯s Sunday Morning and Private Passions, from producing Proms to a weekly music quiz. She has also worked extensively in the music recording studio and has produced many sessions with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Nash Ensemble and countless chamber groups, plus a ground-breaking CD of Shostakovich¡¯s Cheryomushki for the BBC Music Magazine.

Sarah currently works as a freelance producer and writer.

Sarah Cropper (Associate Producer) is a freelance Radio and Concert Producer and professional musician. As well as Private Passions, her radio work includes Neneh Cherry¡¯s World of Music, Courtney Pine¡¯s Jazz Crusade and Billie and Me: A Celebration of Billie Holiday for BBC Radio 2, Guy Barker's World Caf¨¦ for World Service, Jazz Lineup and The Dark Keys for Radio 3, and Behind the Mask with Alison Moyet for Jazz FM.

Sarah¡¯s production of the staged version of ¡®Billie and Me¡¯ at the Barbican in 2005, starring Dee Dee Bridgwater, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde, Lalah Hathaway and others was nominated for the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation and is set to tour the United States this Autumn with Dianne Reeves headlining.  Sarah¡¯s latest production was ¡®Magdalen¡¯ at the Barbican in April 2006.

As a professional pianist, Sarah has her own Brazilian jazz trio featuring Neville Malcolm (bass) and Eduardo ¡®dudu¡¯ Marques (drums).

David Dwight (Associate Producer) studied music at Bristol University and Universität Regensburg, Germany. He joined the BBC in 2002 as a broadcast assistant for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, where he produced two series of classical music programmes for BBC Radio Wales and the acclaimed BBC Radio 3 Proms interval programme Dvorak the Trainspotter (2006).

Working in the BBC Wales Music Department, David produced popular Radio 3 series including 3 For All with Brian Kay and The Choir with Aled Jones. He also produced many editions of Composer of the Week with Donald Macleod including the imaginative Handel in London: 5 Musical Walks and Elgar¡¯s Landscapes, both recorded on location.