Virtuoso Voices(tm)

Series produced by Listener Directed Productions, Inc.

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Virtuoso Voices is a collection of timely and topical sound bites from classical music's leading performers. Each sound bite (or clip) will bring your listeners an insider's perspective to the classical music they enjoy on your station. Virtuoso Voices offers classical music announcers an additional way to enhance their breaks by using the voice of the artist whose recording they're about to play on their shift.

Virtuoso Voices is an interview clip service for classical music stations, presenting today's most influential classical music performers, conductors and composers talking in 20 to 35 second clips.

These topical and evergreen sound bites will enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they play on their shifts.

For example, an announcer playing Joshua Bell's recent recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto could introduce it by using a clip of Mr. Bell talking about how he tries to bring a fresh sound to this very familiar work. After the clip, the announcer returns and segues into playing the recording.

The Virtuoso Voices service provides you a Suggested Host Intro to effectively set up each clip, and includes a brief Outro to help you segue to the music. Your announcers can use this copy verbatim, or as inspiration to write their own version.

Virtuoso Voices clips are versatile. In addition to music intros, you can also use them to enhance forward promotion, create compelling billboards and create content for your website.

Virtuoso Voices provides stations with a new strategy for presenting classical music on the radio by directly involving the performer in the introduction of the music. These topical and evergreen clips enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they introduce and play on their shifts.

Program content is taken from interviews with internationally recognized classical music performers, such as Gil Shaham, Yo-Yo Ma, Marin Alsop, Lorin Maazel, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn and Michael Tilson Thomas.

As of January 2010, we are offering our Virtuoso Voices Performer Clips to all stations for free. We offer three types of distribution.

-- Downloaded off our ftp site: no charge

-- Downloaded from PRX: (triple PRX points) – requires PRX station membership

-- 10 months a year, receive a CD: $100 flat fee to cover postage and handling for the year.

For more information and to see additional ways to use these clips, please visit our website, www.virtuosovoices.org.

Signing up is easy and free. To receive a short subscription form, please send an email to info (at) listenerdirect.org or call (703) 751-0342.

Virtuoso Voices™ Fundraising Service

Virtuoso Voices(tm) is also Public Radio's primary source for classical music fundraising messages.

Twice a year, we provide your station with three types of fundraising messages, with options enabling you to customize each spot to the specific sound and fundraising terminology of your station. These messages, from performers like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sarah Chang and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, follow Public Radio's Best Practices for fundraising.

These produced fundraising messages are distributed in February and September in advance of when most stations fundraise, including the nationally coordinated drives. Stations may request custom fundraising scripts read by the performers we interview. We fill these requests whenever possible and in the order in which they are received.

Our Virtuoso Voices fundraising material is offered as a separate subscription, with fees based on market size (as determined by Arbitron) – and cover a portion of the production expenses for Virtuoso Voices.

This service includes a (minimum) of 40 fundraising messages – a combination of Custom Station Spots, Straight Read Spots, Produced Funders and Unhosted Produced Funders

-- $500 for stations with a market ranking of 1 to 50;
-- $325 for stations ranked between 51-150;
-- $150 for stations with an Arbitron market ranking of 151 and above.

Please visit the fundraising page of our website for further examples and further information. www.virtuosovoices.org/fundraising.

VIRTUOSO VOICES

"Classical Music's Virtuosos Want a Word with Your Listeners."

Virtuoso Voices is a trademark of Listener Directed Productions, Inc. Hide full description

Virtuoso Voices is an interview clip service for classical music stations, presenting today's most influential classical music performers, conductors and composers talking in 20 to 35 second clips. These topical and evergreen sound bites will enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they play on their shifts. For example, an announcer playing Joshua Bell's recent recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto could introduce it by using a clip of Mr. Bell talking about how he tries to bring a fresh sound to this very familiar work. After the clip, the announcer returns and segues into playing the recording. The Virtuoso Voices service provides you a Suggested Host Intro to effectively set up each clip, and includes a brief Outro to help you segue... Show full description


Additional Files

642 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Some composers are influenced by other composers and earlier styles and trends. That was surely the case with Jean Sibelius, but conductor Herbert...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :26
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The word "spiritual" continues to have a wide range of applications when discussing religion and the 21st century lifestyle. Conductor Herbert Blo...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :23
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The clarinet was most likely invented by Johann Christoph Denner in 1690. While Denner may have been the inventor, David Shifrin says it was Mozar...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :26
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You may have heard the story of the young clarinetist who brought Brahms out of retirement to write for the instrument. Fittingly, Brahms' clarine...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :28
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Composer Carl Maria von Weber is a favorite of clarinetists - including David Shifrin. Weber's Grand Duo concertante is, basically, 19th century s...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :20
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If you're a well established performer, writer or artist of any kind, you're likely to have your fans tell you they like your early work the best. ...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :20
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Like many composers Michael Torke worries about coming up with the right titles for his music. When he wrote "Javelin," he wondered if the title m...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :21
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Composer Michael Torke lives and composes in New York. His choice of address and even possibly his writing style can be traced back to an event in...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :28
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Choosing a title for a new piece of music can be as tough as writing the very first note. Composer Michael Torke tries to avoid titles that push l...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :27
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We know that personal and artistic insecurities often accompanied Tchaikovsky's daily composing activities. Conductor Erich Kunzel says there's pl...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :15
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Hanukah music has not always been that easy to find on the radio or on CD in December, but there's never been a Hanukah music shortage with the Can...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :23
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Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops recorded the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. Although it's a staple of the holiday season, conductor Erich Kunzel ...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :18
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Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is a staple of the holiday season, and conductor Erich Kunzel says the music is that perfect mix of heart and skill. Use ...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :18
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The Canadian Brass has dozens of holiday music recordings – in their most recent holiday CD, they continue their tradition of giving some familiar ...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :21
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Holiday music recordings are a dime a dozen, with a few exceptions. Some really stand out, but all holiday recordings, with or without creative me...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :24
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The Canadian Brass knows their way around holiday music – they've made numerous holiday recordings in their 30 plus years. They're the first to ad...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :21
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You can only dress up a well known piece of music so much, whether it's the Star Spangled Banner or the Christmas standard, "Jingle Bells." And so...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2007
  • Length: :25
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Violinist Julia Fischer often finds that she has to defend her age and her generation. The up and coming 24* year old admits she bristles a bit wh...

  • Added: Dec 31, 2007
  • Length: :29
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When you play before an audience, you're focused on reaching the people in the front row all the way to the person sitting in the last seat of the ...

  • Added: Dec 31, 2007
  • Length: :21
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While your spouse or significant other is likely to be your soul mate, you might also have a composer who fills the musical equivalent of a soul ma...

  • Added: Dec 31, 2007
  • Length: :25