storytelling in sound
Since 2003 I've produced acclaimed and award-winning radio and podcasts
BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service, NPR WNYC Radiolab + More Perfect, NY Times Podcast. Radio National (Australia) CBC (Canada) Newstalk (Ireland),
I co-founded the co-operative production company Open Audio Ltd in 2012.
as a producer/composer I have specialised in composed features, these can be listened to HERE, and are discussed in my PhD HERE
Shockwaves - BBC Radio 4 - Anoushka Shankar
Anoushka Shankar explores the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on musical creativity.
(a BBC Radio 4 pick of the week)
The Milk Way BBC Radio 3 Between the Ears
This radiophonic poem by Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch and composer Nina Perry explores the sounds and stories surrounding the flow of milk from west Wales as the land flows seawards.
Pursuit of Beauty: Virginia Woolf - Impossible Music BBC Radio 4
Fiona Talkington explores the rooms and gardens of Monk’s House in search of the musicality and sonic landscape of Virginia Woolf’s world,with Tamsin Greig as Virginia Woolf.
The Language of Lullabies BBC World Service
An artistic and curious feature exploring the music and narrative of a vivid selection of lullabies from around the world.
and read the accompanying article for the series
The Universal Language of Lullabies BBC Website
Produced and presented
Lullabies in the Arab World BBC World Service
A look at the unique narratives and symbolism of the lullabies of the Arab world, which are a form of self-expression for women.
and read the accompanying article for the series
The Universal Language of Lullabies BBC Website
The Music Tree (Ireland’s Newstalk, CBC – Canada, ABC – Australia.)
The Mpingo or African Blackwood tree (The National Tree of Tanzania) is under threat from exploitation, because its dark, lustrous heartwood is one of the most valuable timbers in the world. It’s used for making clarinets, oboes, bagpipes and Irish flutes. The Mpingo Conservation Project is working with community groups to conserve these endangered forests by promoting sustainable and socially equitable harvesting of Mpingo. Irish Flute maker Martin Doyle's journey from County Clare to Tanzania, documented in The Music Tree, charts a musical and environmental challenge.
Photo by Martin Doyle
Knickerbocker Glory
Soundproof - Radio National - Australia
Tomassi's Restaurant in the British Seaside town of Southend-on-Sea has been making a particular ice-cream sundae—called the Knickerbocker Glory—since 1932
Layered with fruit, ice cream, syrup and topped with sprinkles and a cherry, it was a childhood favourite of composer Nina Perry.
So she's turned this magical, nostalgic treat is into a composed feature, poetically intertwined with sounds of the seaside, spoken word and music between dollops of ice cream and sauce.
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Message in a bottle - BBC World Service
Nina Perry pulls together stories of communication against the odds, using the most unreliable of methods by sending a message in bottle.
One man, Donald Wylie of Orkney in Scotland, received a response to a long-forgotten message he had sent in a bottle 23 years previously. For isolated communities, such as the islanders who once lived on the now uninhabited St Kilda - one of the islands off the coast of Scotland - sending messages in bottles was a vital means of connection with the outside world.
But even now, tales of messages from the sea continue to intrigue and inspire in an age when we are, as Shetland poet Laureen Johnson describes, "trackable, traceable always contactable".
Mirror Mirror - BBC Radio 4
The eyes might be the windows of the soul, but what happens when they see us from the outside?
Sleepless Night - BBC Radio 4
What keeps you awake at night? Money worries? Your conscience? Traffic? Dogs barking? Or the shrill sound of a stressed robin forced to sing at night to find a mate?
This composed feature for BBC Radio 4 by Nina Perry explores the problem of sleeplessness and the crucial relationship between sound and sleep, all set within a soundscape of noises heard during a sleepless night interwoven with specially composed music.
Sounding Post - BBC Radio 4
In this composed feature we take a musical journey tracing the wood used in the making of musical instruments back to the forest. On the way we hear about the sonorous qualities of different species, the increasing issue of maintaining sustainable supplies of these woods and the people who bridge the music to the tree.