Steve Race

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Steve Race, OBE (born April 1, 1921), is a British composer, musician and radio and television presenter.

Race was born on April 1, 1921, in Lincoln. He was educated (1932-39) at Lincoln School, where he formed his first jazz band, which included a young Neville Marriner. Subsequently he attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Harry Farjeon and William Alwyn.

He joined the RAF in 1941, and formed a jazz/dance band quintet. After World War II he began a long and fruitful career with the BBC, where his ready wit, musicianship and broad musical knowledge made him much sought after as a musical accompanist for panel games and magazine shows, such as Whirligig and Many a Slip. From the 1950s to the 1980s he presented countless music programmes on radio and television. Additionally, in 1955, he was appointed the first Light Music Advisor to the early independent television company Associated-Rediffusion. During this period he continued to front small traditional jazz ensembles. He is probably best known as the chairman of the long-running light-hearted radio and TV panel game My Music from 1967 to 1994. He presented and wrote most of the questions for all 520 episodes broadcast. Away from music, for two years from 1970 Race co-presented (with William Hardcastle) the BBC Radio 4 "drive-time" news magazine PM.

As a composer, he has produced a number of pieces in the classical, traditional jazz and popular idiom. One of his better-known compositions is the short piano instrumental "Nicola" (named after his daughter), which enjoyed some chart success in the 1960s, (as did his catchy Pied Piper), but his best-known and, according to his autobiography, his most lucrative composition is his music for the Birds Eye frozen peas jingle "Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop".

His autobiography, Musician at Large, was published in 1979.