On 27 September 2017, the F.M. Dostoevsky Library hosted a public lecture by UK music journalist Paul Lester.
Paul Lester began his career in the 1990s at Melody Maker, during Britpop’s heyday. He later launched monthly music and film magazine Uncut with Allan Jones, where he worked as Deputy Editor until 2006. He has since contributed to The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, MOJO, Q and Record Collector. For the last decade, Paul has been a permanent columnist for the Guardian (New Band of the Day and New Band of the Week) and for the past four years has been running his own new music show on Amazing Radio.
Paul has interviewed hundreds of musicians, most notably Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Mick Jagger and Snoop Dogg He has written over a dozen pop and rock biographies, including a number of Meldody Maker books on Oasis, Blur, Pulp, The Prodigy and the Spice Girls.
Since 2016, Paul Lester has led the Music Journalism course at BIMM, where he teaches modules in music journalism technique and journalism in the music industry.
Selector PRO 2017
Selector PRO is a music forum of events and activities bringing industry professionals from the UK and Russia together with a wider audience. Now in its third year, it grew out of The Selector, an award-winning London-based radio show featuring the best in contemporary UK music, across all styles. Produced by the British Council, the show has an audience of over three million listeners in 40 countries around the world.
Selector PRO 2017 features a brand new format, and will run as a professional development programme for the music industry. Selector PRO 2017 aims to create links between UK and Russian industry and entrepreneurship, provide training and support for developing Russian musicians, managers and journalists and share professional expertise and showcase new talent from the UK.The British Council has curated the professional development programme, consisting of four short-courses, in partnership with the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), a higher education institution in the UK specialising in contemporary music.The courses ran in for a week in September and November 2017, as well as in January 2018. They will continue in March 2018 and will include:
- an intensive seminar led by a BIMM tutor and a local partner;
- a public lecture by an industry insider from the UK;
- a music studio residency with musicians from the UK and Russia;
- Selector LIVE parties with live music from the UK.
