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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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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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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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: :41
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On the surface, it may seem like there is a world of difference between Beethoven's lighter, and light hearted Symphony No. 8 and his monumental Sy...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :20
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With Peer Gynt, composer Edvard Grieg did not write in the big orchestral setting that made Beethoven's symphonies so popular. Conductor Herbert B...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2007
  • Length: :24
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The Finnish Four Seasons are a magnificent gift of nature, according to Finnish pianist Olli Mustonnen. He says that makes him well suited to play...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :23
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How much do you need to know and understand to enjoy classical music? Olli Mustonen is best known as a pianist, but he also conducts and composes ...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :25
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Although Jean Sibelius is best known for his symphonies and his violin concerto, he also dabbled in the world of short piano pieces. Olli Mustonen...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :29
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The Piano Sonata No.1 by Rachmaninoff is, like most of Rachmaninoff's music, robust and hearty in sound. Pianist Olli Mustonen calls it "a symphon...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :25
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As talented and exceptionally skilled as today's orchestra musicians may be, there are plenty of living composers whose music still presents a chal...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
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When composer John Adams attends a concert that features his music, he looks forward to hearing what the audience has to say -- as long as they don...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :17
  • Purchases: 1
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What came first, the chicken or the egg -- the music's title or the music itself? Composer John Adams talks about the origin of his extroverted wo...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :27
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What makes a composer's music resonate with the audience? Composer John Adams offers a starting point to this ultimately unanswerable question. U...

Bought by WETS and Red River Radio Network (E. Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Mississippi)


  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :29
  • Purchases: 2
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"Back Seat Drivers" are bad for those of us in the driver's seat, and they can be just as distracting for composers. Conductor Bernard Haitink tal...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :29
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Anton Bruckner's music is out of place, and maybe out of sync in our current fast-paced world. Conductor Bernard Haitink says Bruckner's luxurious...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :24
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Anton Bruckner's most popular work is his Symphony No.4, but conductor Bernard Haitink says he's under the spell of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. Use...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2007
  • Length: :19
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Many recordings these days are made from live concert performances. The pressure and excitement of a live setting often brings out a more spontane...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: Aug 01, 2007
  • Length: :22
  • Purchases: 1
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Composer Franz Liszt is best known as a composer, virtuoso performer and ladies' man. Pianist Stephen Hough says you could also call him an innova...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: Jul 31, 2007
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 1
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In a song or aria, what comes first - the melody or the words? It depends on whom you ask. A singer is almost guaranteed to say it's the words. ...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: Jul 31, 2007
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
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Chopin's Ballades for piano scale some of the hefty dramatic and emotional heights that personify the "romantic" era of composition from the late 1...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: Jul 31, 2007
  • Length: :31
  • Purchases: 1