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 Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg fulfills her life-long dream to turn the holiday music memories of a child into her own Christmas Music CD. She...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Nov 30, 2006
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 2
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The power of music is so strong for some it takes on religious proportions. That's the case for violinist Joshua Bell. Music IS his religion, whe...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Nov 30, 2006
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 2
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Classical Music isn't always SO SERIOUS. Pianist Stephen Hough has made a specialty of playing little novelty works, known as "miniatures." They'...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Nov 30, 2006
  • Length: :32
  • Purchases: 2
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Clarice Assad is a composer, singer, arranger, and her musical arena includes classical music, Jazz and Brazilian Pop. When she was asked to write...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :34
  • Purchases: 2
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The Stradivarius Violin is the gold standard when it comes to violin making. Although violinist Joshua plays a Strad today, he remembers his very ...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :20
  • Purchases: 2
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Sometimes music is not just about melody, it's about creating a scene or portraying a character that often redefines the boundaries of "beauty". G...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 2
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"Asturias" is one of those rhythmically passionate Spanish guitar pieces you've heard a hundred times, but may not know by name. But when you've h...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 2
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Sergie Rachmaninoff's music has been called everything from sappy and sentimental to over-done romantic gush. Pianist Stephen Hough strongly disag...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :29
  • Purchases: 2
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Before Madonna, Brittany and Paris, there was Godowsky. Leopold Godowsky was a piano virtuoso who dazzled audiences around the world in the early ...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :35
  • Purchases: 2
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Certain pieces of classical music are known to be soothing and even healing for the listener, but it can have similar effects on the composer who a...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :32
  • Purchases: 2
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Pianist Stephen Hough talks about his approach to making transcriptions of well known music. It's a long-standing tradition that often got out of ...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :32
  • Purchases: 2
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Violinist Joshua Bell speculates he's performed Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto a thousand times. And each time he plays it, he's reminded of why it...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 2
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Violinist Joshua Bell was excited when his record label asked him to record music by two "great melody writers," Leonard Bernstein and George Gersh...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 01, 2006
  • Length: :36
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman talks about the evolution of his interpretation of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Putting old recordings by his clari...

Bought by WHRV, WITF, and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 21, 2006
  • Length: :21
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman calls composer Aaron Copland on the phone to ask his permission to bring a more jazz-like sensibility to the composer...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 21, 2006
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Richard Stoltzman
No matter how much you practice and prepare for a concert, anything can happen on stage, like the time pieces of Richard Stoltzman's clarinet fell ...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 22, 2006
  • Length: :31
  • Purchases: 2
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No matter how much you practice and prepare for a concert, anything can happen on stage, like the time a bottom section of Richard Stoltzman's clar...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 22, 2006
  • Length: :43
  • Purchases: 2
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Good News: you don't need an advanced degree, or have even played an instrument, to enjoy classical music. Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman passes o...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 23, 2006
  • Length: :29
  • Purchases: 2
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Conductor JoAnn Falletta talks about the mostly positive changes that have taken place in the classical music, particularly the new face and image ...

Bought by WITF and New England Public Media


  • Added: Dec 25, 2006
  • Length: :39
  • Purchases: 2
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What's an effective way for a guest conductor to get to know a new orchestra quickly. JoAnn Falletta says a version of the silent treatment works ...

Bought by WITF, New England Public Media, and WFSU


  • Added: Dec 26, 2006
  • Length: :31
  • Purchases: 3