Meet our new classical music reviewer Ed Ayres

Music has provided the rhythm of his life. Now Ed Ayres will document the rhythm of others as he enters a new role.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Ed Ayres picked up his first instrument aged six. Picture: David Kelly

Music has provided the rhythm of his life. Now Ed Ayres, the host of Weekend Breakfast on ABC Classic, will document the rhythm of others as he enters a new role as The Australian’s Brisbane classical music reviewer, a responsibility he undertakes with passion.

The presenter, musician, teacher and author grew up in the English town of Shrewsbury, surrounded by countryside, where major concerts seldom took place. For Ayres, reading music reviews was “almost like listening to a live broadcast of the concert”.

“You want to capture the mood and give the kind of essence of the occasion, and also have descriptions of the music that would be such that it would encourage people to go and listen to the piece on their own,” he said.

“It’s those details I used to ­really enjoy when I was younger … That’s what I want to convey to the readers at The Australian.”

Ayres picked up his first instrument when he was six. Through his late teens and 20s, he became an accomplished musician studying in Manchester and Berlin, mastering the viola and ­violin before playing the cello.

Now he is studying the French horn. “I think it’s sort of happened organically. I certainly can’t ­imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine a world ­without music,” he said. “It fills my day from beginning to end.”

In 2015, Ayres moved to Kabul to teach at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. While security back then “wasn’t great”, Ayres said what’s occurring in Afghanistan now was “unimaginable”, but he was finding light in music becoming a lifeline for some. “I’m just glad music and the learning of music has allowed a few people to leave the country,” he said. “It makes me think how incredibly important music is and that we must continue to hold on to it and make sure it’s properly recognised and properly funded … I believe we all have a human right to music.”

Ayres is confident the crippled music industry will make a full recovery, returning “much, much stronger”, with an impressive season scheduled for 2022.

“One of the great things that has happened during Covid is that orchestras, ensembles and individuals have focused on the audience beyond the concert hall.

“It’s meant we have now started to focus more on the local ­musician and what concerts they’re doing, ” he said.