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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Arnold Schoenberg pioneered a composition method and style known as "12-tone music". Melodies and harmonies were created from a predetermined sequ...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :23
Caption: Emmanuel Pahud, Credit: Photo by Shelia Rock
Back in the early 1990's, a French researcher introduced a theory known as the "Mozart Effect." It advanced the idea that listening to Mozart's mu...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :23
Caption: Emmanuel Pahud, Credit: Photo by Shelia Rock
There are two types of people; those who go on vacation and take their work; and those who leave their lap top at home. Composer Carl Nielsen wrot...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :29
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Riccardo Muti is the new (named May 2008) Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Previously he led the Philadelphia Orchestra and (the)...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :31
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Knowing the story or its inspiration is one way to get inside the music, but conductor Riccardo Muti says there's a more basic approach. Use this ...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :23
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There's often a story to the music you hear on your station. Conductor Riccardo Muti says you don't have to know the story to hear and feel what t...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :24
Caption: Emmanuel Pahud, Credit: Photo by Shelia Rock
Carl Nielsen's music is filled with great sweetness and sweep, but the composer also liked to insert conflict and drama into the music by pitting i...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :25
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When violinist Hilary Hahn recorded the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1, she went against a long standing tradition with the concerto. Most violini...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :28
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In classical music, labels and categories can provide a helpful context and entry point to enjoying a composer or composition. But they can also b...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :29
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From a bone chilling graveyard scene, to the sound of a heart beat that slows down and finally stops beating, Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata has j...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :23
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Sergei Prokofiev has no bigger fans than Gil and Orli Shaham. Though Prokofiev's place in musical history is guaranteed by a relatively small numb...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :24
Caption: Emmanuel Pahud, Credit: Photo by Shelia Rock
When the soloist and orchestra are playing a concerto, who's in charge? Is it the soloist, the conductor - the orchestra? Someone has to make sur...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :20
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Photo by Christian Steiner
When it comes to talking to members of your immediate family, can you be direct, or do you need to walk on egg shells? Brother and sister musician...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :18
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The soloist faces a number of temptations in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, especially the magical moments at the beginning. For Hilary Hahn, the t...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :27
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Photo by Christian Steiner
Being a jack of all trades has its advantages, but as the saying goes, it doesn't necessarily make you a master of anything. A musical exception t...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :22
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Like many Russian musicians in the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev's music was under the direct supervision of the Russian government. Pianist Orli...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :24
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Something unthinkable and unimaginable recently occurred in the classical music world. The Violin Concerto by the often maligned Arnold Schoenberg...

  • Added: May 31, 2008
  • Length: :25
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The young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen is getting a lot of attention for her recordings and concert performances. Riccardo Chailly conducted her ...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :26
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One of the most talked about musicians these days is Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. Riccardo Chailly conducted an early recording of hers that fea...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :29
Caption: Orli Shaham, Credit: Photo by Christian Steiner
There's often a story behind a story behind the music we love, but not always. Mozart never really tells us how he came to write his Violin Sonata...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2008
  • Length: :28