BBC Learning English
People and Places
Alexandra Kloss [bad word] 
SIG
William: Hello and [bad word] to People and Places, the programme from BBC Learning
English that introduces you to interesting people from around the world.
TAG
Today you're going to meet a very talented young musician, Alexandra Kloss.
Alexandra is living in London and studying at the prestigious Royal Academy
of Music. You’re going to listen to Alex talk about her life and as you listen I
want you to try to answer four questions. You can see these questions on the
People and Places webpage on bbclearningenglish [bad word]  But I’ll also tell
them to you now.
OK? Here are your four questions.
Number one – what [bad word] does Alexandra play?
CLIP
That was a hint!
Number two – What languages does Alexandra speak?
Number three – What project has she been involved in, at the Royal Academy
of Music?
And, last one, number four – What kinds of music can one play on Alex’s [bad word] 
Right – I’ll shut up now, but at the end of the programme [bad word] back to tell
you the answers…
STING
Alexandra: My name is Alexandra Kloss, I’m from Germany, I’m twenty years old, and
since September last year I’ve been studying at the Royal Academy of Music
in London… and I’m playing the recorder in the Early Music Department there.
Fantasia no. 7 (G.P. Telemann)
I’m actually half-German and [bad word]  so my [bad word] from St
Petersburg and my [bad word] from Germany. So I speak both languages…
English is also my first foreign language. Somehow, my two mother languages,
they help me because somehow I understand the languages a bit, yeah, easier.
But maybe also because German is so… yeah, so similar to English.
Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini)
The Royal Academy is really a nice place. There are many different people
there and different cultures, so, yeah, people from everywhere. And um, we’ve
got loads of projects. First of all, I’ve been involved in a very interesting
project, um, with Baroque dance, where um, the students of the Royal
Academy, we had to dance in costumes and play. And it was a very nice
experience to dance in the costumes. Yeah, they are very beautiful, but also
very [bad word]  to be honest!
Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini)
For a very long time, recorder was just an [bad word] for children or for
schools to use it for the music lessons, but um, it’s not an [bad word] like that,
there are loads of different models of recorders, and there is, in fact, loads of
music for it: all the Baroque period, Renaissance, Medieval stuff and now also
lots of modern music [bad word] for recorder. So, I think, yeah, it's getting
better again…
Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini)
STING
William: That was words and music from Alexandra Kloss. She was playing one of the
twelve Fantasias by GP Telemann, and then at the end, F. Mancini’s first
Sonata… and she was playing them on the recorder, which was the answer to
the first question.
How about the second question – what languages can Alexandra speak? Well,
she is bilingual [bad word] and German, because her [bad word] [bad word] and her father from Germany. Of course, she can also speak English, which she
calls her ‘first foreign language’!
Question three: What project was Alexandra involved in? Well, she said she
had to dance wearing costumes, so, clothes, from the Baroque period… and she
had to play the recorder at the same time! The Baroque period, by the way, was
from around 1600 to around 1750.
And, the last question - What music can be played on the recorder? - Alexandra
said that there was loads of music for it, including Baroque music, Renaissance
music and Medieval music. In addition, Alexandra says, lots of modern music [bad word] for the recorder… although I don’t think she’s talking about U2 or
Coldplay!
Goodbye!
The Nightingale in Love (Francois Couperin)