Paul presents Afternoons Monday to Friday, 1.05 - 5.00pm.

‘All good communication is storytelling, whether it’s current affairs radio, singing the role of the evangelist in the Bach Passions or talking about music on ABC Classic FM’. Paul’s had plenty of opportunities to tell stories over the last 20 years.

As a performer, Paul loves the challenge of taking the audience on a journey, leaving behind the daily grind, as though parking the ‘everyday’ vehicle and setting out at a different pace. He’s performed as a tenor soloist in oratorios, masses and the Bach Passions, mainly in his home town of Newcastle NSW, but also in Sydney and regional NSW. His own passion though, is performing in a vocal quartet with good friends Jennifer Barnes, Rosemary Saunders and Christopher Allan. Recently they’ve performed the Liebeslieder waltzes of Brahms at Newcastle Conservatorium.

On ABC Classic FM Paul has the opportunity to explore music he hasn’t heard before, or great performances that breathe new life into old favourites. ‘It’s always fascinating. I find my tastes have changed since I started presenting here at Classic FM. I’ve particularly found a new source of inspiration in 20th century Russians from Stravinsky to Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and 21st century Australians like Graeme Koehne. As long as the composer has something to say to me directly, I don’t mind how spiky and weird the journey, we all still end up on the same bus at the end. I’ve found some new young performers too, like Pekka Kuusisto and Simon Crawford Philips who’re challenging the way we think about programming music… intelligently mixing genres in a way that illuminates ideas.

‘One of the wonderful things about life now is that I get to play in so many great sandboxes.’ Since presenting Afternoons on ABC Classic FM, Paul’s also had the chance to indulge his love of interviewing on ABC local radio, and now he’s also presenting the hugely successful game show, Treasure Hunter on 1233 ABC Newcastle. Life’s full.

Listen to the latest Afternoons program

Audio usually updates after 6.00pm Sydney/Melbourne time. Unfortunately due to rights issues, only the last hour of Afternoons can be made available as audio-on-demand.