On Air with BBC Radio 4 The Verb: Live from the Hay Festival

Nathan will join the guest panel for BBC Radio 4's The Verb on Friday, 22 May 2026, recorded live in front of an audience at the Hay Festival.

Ian McMillan hosts Radio 4's cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance. The conversation will explore the alchemy between poetry and music from a composer's perspective. Drawing on Nathan’s extensive work with poets in the choral sphere, the discussion will cover what composers truly need from a poem, including the textures, rhythms, and sonic architecture that make words singable. Nathan will speak about the magic that happens when music deepens existing meaning and, just as importantly, what tends to fall flat when poetry and score do not quite meet.

Nathan will also bring in one of Welsh literature's most powerful voices: Waldo Williams. Ahead of this year's National Eisteddfod in Pembrokeshire, where his work is the focus of the Medal y Cyfansoddwr (The Composer's Medal), Nathan will recite a stanza from the featured poem, Plentyn y Ddaear, offer its English translation, and briefly discuss its urgent socio-political context.

Join us or tune in

Tune in to BBC Radio 4's The Verb in the near future to hear Nathan and the rest of the panel at the 2026 Hay Festival: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsf The episode will be available afterwards on BBC Sounds.

Alternatively, you can join us live and in the room, by dropping into the Exchange Marque from 5.30pm: www.hayfestival.com/p-25573-bbc-radio-4-the-verb.aspx