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

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Violinist Gil Shaham is spending much of this year playing Brahms. Whether it's the Sonatas, the Violin Concerto or the Double Concerto, it's alwa...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 30, 2007
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
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Violinist Gil Shaham says Prokofiev "never wrote a bad note." But in Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata, Shaham is drawn more to the Sonata's back st...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 30, 2007
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
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Violinist Gil Shaham became an overnight success when he filled in for Itzhak Perlman at the last moment. Excited after a champagne sipping flight...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 30, 2007
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
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Who comes first, the composer or the performer? Despite his best intentions, violinist Gil Shaham says it's impossible to stay personally detache...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 29, 2007
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
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When violinist Gil Shaham plays recitals with his sister Orli Shaham, members of the audience are often the victims of an innocent case of mistaken...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 29, 2007
  • Length: :18
  • Purchases: 1
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Prokofiev's two Violin Sonatas, in music and mood, represent the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Violin Sonatas. The first is dark and even contains a ...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 29, 2007
  • Length: :18
  • Purchases: 1
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The First Violin Concerto by Prokofiev is not the traditional concerto where the soloist dominates the stage with long romantic melodies and show s...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: May 11, 2007
  • Length: :19
  • Purchases: 2
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At times, Vivaldi is the "Rodney Dangerfield of composers." He gets no respect from the many pundits and experts who say he wrote the same concert...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 11, 2007
  • Length: :25
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman's two children both grew up to pursue musical careers. It's not something he pushed, but music was one of the parenti...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
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With concertos, it's completely natural to focus our attention on the soloist. But while it's important to hear the solo part, violinist Cho-Liang...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :18
  • Purchases: 2
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Huge. Blockbuster. Larger than life. Those are just a few of the ways you could describe the Piano Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt. Awadagin P...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :22
  • Purchases: 1
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Performers like to put their individual stamp on a piece of music, especially in a concerto, where the solo part is the star of the show. Violinis...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 1
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Pianist Awadagin Pratt likes to play music loud. Unlike most piano students, Pratt didn't spend hours studying the recordings made by famous piani...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :27
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
Johannes Brahms came out of retirement to write four major works for the clarinet, including a quintet for Clarinet and Strings. Clarinetist Richa...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
The "what if" question game is always an interesting game to play. What if Leonard Bernstein had pursued composing over conducting? What would he...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
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Richard Stoltzman is one of the most recognized solo clarinetists in the world, but he's never been officially welcomed into the Clarinet Fraternit...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
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It may sound like Mozart is easy to play, but just about any performer will grimace and tell you his music is about as tough as it gets. In the Vi...

Bought by WHRV and WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :29
  • Purchases: 2
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When you've played a piece of music for 20 or 30 years, it's easy to fall into old habits and the old ways of doing things. Clarinetist Richard St...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 1
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It's always tempting to fill up your plate at the Sunday buffet table or at the salad bar. You know you can go back for seconds... or even thirds....

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :20
  • Purchases: 1
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Athletes are often role models, as are some politicians and teachers. And musicians, like pianist Awadagin Pratt, can be considered role models as...

Bought by WITF


  • Added: May 01, 2007
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1