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: Misha Dichter, Credit: Stefan Cohen
You can make the piano sound loud and thunderous in two ways. There’s the “pounding and banging” school, but that can create a kind of musical mus...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Misha Dichter, Credit: Stefan Cohen
The term “virtuoso” has come to mean many things over the years. These days, it seems to describe someone who can play very, very fast, but not ne...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :28
Caption: Misha Dichter, Credit: Stefan Cohen
You don’t usually see a lot of extra physical gestures or exaggerated facial expressions when pianist Misha Dichter is on stage. But there was a c...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :23
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
Recordings serve as a permanent record, and most musicians only want their best performances preserved for a lifetime. While some seek perfection ...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :19
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
Brigg Fair is one of the shining musical lights from the composing pen of Frederick Delius. Mark Elder loves his music, but says it needs a little...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :28
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
How does a conductor or any musician for that matter, choose the right tempo. How fast, or how slow, should the music go? Conductor Mark Elder fi...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :23
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
One of the things you might notice in recordings conducted by Mark Elder – especially with English music – is tempo. He plays British music faster...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Midori
Violinist Midori has two powerful loves in her life: music and children. She leads two foundations that seek to improve the quality of life for c...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :27
Caption: Midori
For most musicians, Bach is more than just music. For violinist Midori, Bach is a way of life. Use this 26 second clip to introduce Midori playin...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :26
Caption: Midori
Violinist Midori is celebrating her 28th year of music making – and one of her recent projects includes playing more contemporary music. Playing n...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :21
Caption: Frank Peter Zimmermann
Musicians often become “one” with their instrument – it’s not just an expensive and valuable piece of equipment they use on the job. For some, lik...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :21
Caption: Frank Peter Zimmermann
The organic food market has a musical equivalent: according to violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, it’s called “Mozart.” Use this 22 second clip to ...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :22
Caption: Frank Peter Zimmermann
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “opposites attract.” That’s the case for violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann when he’s asked to name his two favorit...

  • Added: Oct 27, 2010
  • Length: :28
Caption: Zuill Bailey, Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Cellists lament the fact that Mozart did not write a solo sonata or concerto for their instrument. Zuill Bailey says cellists got the next best th...

Bought by KUHF


  • Added: Sep 29, 2010
  • Length: :25
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Zuill Bailey, Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Cellists thank their lucky stars for the wide range of music written for their instrument. The cello is often the composer’s voice for a variety o...

  • Added: Sep 29, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Zuill Bailey, Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
The Nocturne by Tchaikovsky lives at the intersection of melancholy and beauty – you can hear and feel both. And for cellist Zuill Bailey, it’s mu...

  • Added: Sep 29, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Zuill Bailey, Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
It’s part of a musician’s job to guide us through the music. It’s a task cellist Zuill Bailey relishes when he plays the Bach Cello Suites, especi...

  • Added: Sep 29, 2010
  • Length: :19
Caption: Gil Shaham
On his new CD, violinist Gil Shaham is joined by members of the Sejong Soloists. They’re a mini-chamber orchestra that got started when the player...

  • Added: Jul 30, 2010
  • Length: :25
Caption: Robert Spano
When asked to write music for the first anniversary of 9-11, composer John Adams wrote a work for orchestra and chorus - and included everyday soun...

  • Added: Jul 30, 2010
  • Length: :23
Caption: Kim Kashkashian, Credit: courtesy of WGBH
In addition to being the butt of musical instrument jokes, the viola suffers from “lack of solo music syndrome.” Violist Kim Kashkashian says that...

  • Added: Jul 30, 2010
  • Length: :14