[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-30011206m26sculturefile-pid0-386304.mp3]

Composer and @Ergodos co-founder, Garrett Sholdice, explains how classical music embraced the DIY spirit.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-27011206m00sculturefile-pid0-360648.mp3]

Where is the biggest collection of Robert Burns material outside Scotland? Why, in the Linenhall Library, Belfast, of course. We meet the woman who looks after it, Deborah Douglas.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-25011207m36sculturefile-pid0-456216.mp3]

What exactly goes into your favourite classical sausage? Virtual choir leader, Eric Whitacre hazards a guess…

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-26011208m03sculturefile-pid0-483792.mp3]

How is the sound of one hand clapping like the music of John Cage? Composer, John Godfrey attempts to explain, with the help of the I Ching.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-24011206m43sculturefile-pid0-403032.mp3]

Do you know your kozoechizen washi from your mitsumatagami? Painter, Richard Gorman on the ancient art of Japanese paper making.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-23011207m15sculturefile-pid0-435408.mp3]

How is composing a concerto like creating an African textile? Kevin Volans explains ahead of his Horizons 2012 concert at the NCH.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-19011207m37sculturefile-pid0-457944.mp3]

Barber’s Adagio for…saxophone? Jane O’Leary guides us through the unexpected delights of the Intimate Voices concerts series in Galway this weekend.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-20011207m36sculturefile-pid0-456576.mp3]

Singer, Sarah Savoy, of Savoy, Louisiana, tell us about what makes Cajun music great: the cooking!

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-18011206m54sculturefile-pid0-414336.mp3]

Culture File grapples with the wigs at rehearsals for Handel’s little seen opera, Semele, at St Werburgh’s Church in Dublin.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-17011206m48sculturefile-pid0-408840.mp3]

Culture File heads to an imaginary Donegal country pub, The Mother’s Arms, in the company of Little John Nee and his Caledonia Highly Strung Orchestra

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-16011206m28sculturefile-pid0-388968.mp3]

Culture File goes Skypeabout once more, to ask some of the nearly 100independentbooksellers around the island: “What was the last book you sold?”

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-13011206m42sculturefile-pid0-402720.mp3]

Composer and jazz bassist, Ronan Guilfoyle talks about his new work for electric guitar and orchestra, about how Jimi Hendrix made the guitar safe for the orchestra.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-12011205m40sculturefile-pid0-340800.mp3]

What are Apple up to now? Digital academic, Aisling Kelliher, reads the runes of the California technology company’s latest invitation to journalists.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-11011206m24sculturefile-pid0-384120.mp3]

Just be yourself, but make it good! As their show, The Family, opens @projectarts, we hear about @THEATREclub’s unique approach to making plays.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-10011206m11sculturefile-pid0-371856.mp3]

Why has the world of 2012 fallen in love with a silent movie? Luke Clancy attempts to understand Michel Hazanavicius’ film, The Artist.

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Does Margaret Thatcher retain the power to stir deep emotions? Culture File takes an exit poll at Dublin screening of The Iron Lady

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-06011206m58sculturefile-pid0-418800.mp3]

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be talking to composers in the Horizons 2012 Contemporary Music Series at the NCH. This week we talk to Karen Power, who will premier her new work, no chaos: only organised panic for orchestra and live electronics.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-05011206m56sculturefile-pid0-416136.mp3]

Feeling open to an empathic response? First Fortnight Festival might just be for you! We meet director,Una McKevitt and retired schoolteacher-turned-performer, Marie ORourke, who are reviving their collaborative show, 565+ for First Fortnight 2012.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-04011206m48sculturefile-pid0-408672.mp3]

Got baggage? We meet Alan O’Regan, whose new play, Those Sick and Indigent, tells the story of a homeless man via a suitcase of keepsakes.

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-26121207m09sculturefile-pid0-429360.mp3]

Hugh Tinney talks Luke Clancy through one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written, Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, as well as the pianist’s dreams of emulating Freddie Mercury. (repeat from April 2011)

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-27121205m18sculturefile-pid0-318624.mp3]

Culture File goes to Wexford: In which we leave the opera house, to meet some of Wexford’s tree population… (repeat from October 2011)

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-28121207m32sculturefile-pid0-452448.mp3]

Luke Clancy discovers how Opera North changed the meaning of the word ‘Leeds’. (repeat from November 2011)

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-29121206m23sculturefile-pid0-383640.mp3]

Liam Ó Maonlaí, Michael Keegan Dolan and Donnacha Dennehy help us assess the impact of composer, Sean Ó Riada. (repeat from October 2011)

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-30121207m18sculturefile-pid0-438456.mp3]

We meet those behind Music Generation, an ambitious U2-funded project to broaden music access in Ireland. (Repeat from September 2011)

[audio http://culturefilepod.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/pod-v-02011206m45sculturefile-pid0-405072.mp3]

Culture File meets illustrator, PJ Lynch, and hears the golden age of illustration, and about creating images for Dickens’ spectres of Christmas Future…