Tom Service is a familiar voice to BBC Radio 3 listeners, the station on which he has presented Music Matters since 2003 and his own programme The Listening Service, in which he breaks down how music works. He is also a monthly columnist for BBC Music Magazine. For many years, Service wrote for The Guardian, where he was chief classical music critic. In 2012, he released two books published by Faber: Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras and Thomas Adès: Full of Noises, a series of conversations with the great composer and conductor. His PhD, undertaken at the University of Southampton, was on the music of contemporary composer and musician John Zorn.
