Virtuoso Voices(tm)

Series produced by Listener Directed Productions, Inc.

Series image

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
Caption: Jonathan Biss
As a young man, and a young composer, Beethoven used the piano as a laboratory, where he could experiment and try out new sounds and musical ideas....

  • Added: Jun 27, 2009
  • Length: :26
Caption: Jonathan Biss
We tend to forget that composing requires advanced skills, in addition to its purely creative inspiration. That fusion of skill, craft and creativ...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2009
  • Length: :23
Caption: Jonathan Biss
There are hundreds of lists that designate the Top Ten or Top 100 of anything, from movies to books to restaurants. Classical music has its "best ...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2009
  • Length: :26
Caption: Jonathan Biss
Its subtitle is the "Elvira Madigan" Concerto, thanks to its presence in the obscure 1967 Swedish film by the same name. But Mozart's Piano Concer...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2009
  • Length: :26
Caption: Jonathan Biss
The musical heights reached by Beethoven stretch even higher when you consider the enormous physical challenges he overcame, from total deafness to...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2009
  • Length: :25
Caption: John Corigliano
If you ever enter into a friendly competition over which art form is the most powerful, or holds the greatest potential, you might want to consider...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :27
Caption: John Corigliano
Before a new piece of music is played for the first time – before it is judged either a masterpiece or a disaster, it exists in a state of musical ...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :19
Caption: John Corigliano
The middle of the 20th century saw both enormous growth and struggle for new classical music. Part of the struggle, according to composer John Cor...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: John Corigliano
While some composers are inspired by nature and walks in the countryside, others approach it as a job where they show up and put pencil to music pa...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :22
Caption: Leif Ove Andsnes, Credit: Simon Fowler
The thought of playing a Mozart piano concerto is daunting enough. But playing the solo part and conducting the orchestra at the same time seems e...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :25
Caption: Leif Ove Andsnes, Credit: Simon Fowler
One of composer Edvard Grieg's best known works is his Piano Concerto. While Grieg speaks on a mostly grand scale in the concerto, Leif Ove Andsne...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :22
Caption: John Corigliano
Composer John Corigliano grew up surrounded by music. His father was the concertmaster (1st violinist) with the New York Philharmonic for 23 years...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: Leif Ove Andsnes, Credit: Simon Fowler
Grieg's Piano Concerto has long held its place as an audience favorite and as the calling card for several generations of pianists, including Leif ...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :25
Caption: Leif Ove Andsnes, Credit: Simon Fowler
In almost every profession, some of the best work gets done away from the office. It's true for pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. He likes to work from h...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :23
Caption: Leif Ove Andsnes, Credit: Photo:  Simon Fowler
What do you like about Mozart? There are so many things to like – and choose from. Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes simply likes all the action. Use thi...

Bought by WHRV


  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :18
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: John Corigliano
Composer John Corigliano’s father was the concertmaster (1st violinist) with the New York Philharmonic for 23 years, so violin playing and the viol...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :26
Caption: Anne Akiko Meyers
The name of the piece is "Mirror in Mirror." It's a seven minute work by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers describes it as...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :26
Caption: Anne Akiko Meyers
It was voted the Number One Song on the American Film Institute's list of the "100 Best Songs" used in film. The beauty and autobiographical senti...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :21
Caption: Anne Akiko Meyers
"Sea in Spring" was written by a blind Japanese composer, Michio Miyagi . Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers says this music calls on her to use some spe...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :18
Caption: Anne Akiko Meyers
The music by Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla is often charged with romantic and melodramatic urges. When it comes to playing Piazzolla, violi...

  • Added: May 29, 2009
  • Length: :24