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 spoken language of classical music is filled with foreign names and phrases, and even conductors like Marin Alsop find it challenging to be mul...

  • Added: Apr 01, 2008
  • Length: :22
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Today's movie stars and star athletes have it rough, between the paparazzi, critics, reporters and all the others who sit and judge. It's not a ne...

  • Added: Apr 01, 2008
  • Length: :26
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You may have heard of Brahms' several attempts to write his first symphony as he struggled to come out from behind Beethoven's shadow. Conductor Ma...

  • Added: Apr 01, 2008
  • Length: :22
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At the heart of Brahms' first two symphonies, conductor Marin Alsop hears great joy, especially at the end, where both symphonies finish with a tri...

  • Added: Apr 01, 2008
  • Length: :21
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There are trends and fads even in classical music. One of the trends conductor Marin Alsop finds a bit disturbing involves Brahms. Use this 27 se...

  • Added: Apr 01, 2008
  • Length: :27
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The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra goes conductor-less. Multiple players lead the orchestra in any given piece. When they're joined by a soloist, like...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :28
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The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performs without a conductor. They make all musical decisions as a group. In the business world, decision by consen...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :25
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The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra goes conductor-less; they determine their musical interpretations amongst themselves. While that approach is somethi...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :21
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The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performs without a conductor. We know they make it work, but how do they make it work? Long time Orpheus violinist ...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :23
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The amount of new music for the Brass Quintet is growing, and has grown considerably. But this is a relatively recent development. Trumpet player...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :23
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Working without a conductor creates both creative and practical challenges for an orchestra: how do you get the music started? For the conductor-...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :32
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The amount of new music for the Brass Quintet has grown considerably. But this is a relatively recent development. Trumpet player Rolf Smedvig sa...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :24
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Christian Steiner
Pianist Orli Shaham says Dvorak's music is like a beautiful onion - every time you peel off a layer, or look beyond the surface of the music, you a...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :25
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Before composers recognized the trumpet's capabilities as a solo instrument, it was mostly used to add reinforcement to the main musical themes and...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :25
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Christian Steiner
Pianist Orli Shaham dreams of playing in front of the enthusiastic and traditionally very responsive audiences that attend the figure skating compe...

Bought by Northwest Public Broadcasting


  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: 01:31
  • Purchases: 1
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Trumpet players thank their lucky stars every day for Telemann and Purcell. In their day, they added dozens of new works to the repertoire. When ...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :23
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Christian Steiner
The trouble with cliches is that they tend to lose meaning after the 15th hearing. So instead of saying Mozart brilliantly practiced the art of "l...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :25
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Listening to brass music by Giovanni Gabrieli is a lesson in rich harmonies and inventive melodies. Gabrieli's music is also a lesson in sound, as...

Bought by KVLU


  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 1
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When pianist Orli Shaham walks on stage to perform, she always says the same two words to her musical partner before playing the first note: "Have...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :21
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Composer Robert Schumann had many admirers, but his critics said he did not know how to write for the orchestra. Gustav Mahler made some adjustmen...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :23