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

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Caption: Robert Spano
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra operates under a management approach known as “collective leadership.” Conductor Robert Spano is clearly in charge,...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM and WETS


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Robert Spano
Perspective – that magical line between the head and the heart. It’s something conductor Robert Spano tries to maintain whenever he conducts his f...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Robert Spano
It started out as the slow movement for a string quartet, but with the help of a major film, and its presence at prominent national events, Samuel ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Robert Spano
The New York Philharmonic commissioned composer John Adams to write a new work for the first anniversary of 9/11. Instead of writing music for tho...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Herbert Blomstedt
There are several ways to approach music by the Swedish composer, Carl Nielsen. Many consider conductor Herbert Blomstedt to be a Nielsen speciali...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM and WETS


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Herbert Blomstedt
Swedish composer Carl Nielsen offers us a vast range of musical colors and tapestries. The music can be beautiful and entertaining, but conductor ...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :25
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Robert Spano
Composer Jennifer Higdon had a secret. When journalists kept writing about the imaginative way she captured the color blue in her composition, “Bl...

  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: Robert Spano
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra operates under a management approach known as “collective leadership.” Conductor Robert Spano says something rare, ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Herbert Blomstedt
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is subtitled the “Ode to Joy.” His Symphony No. 8 doesn’t have a subtitle or nickname, but conductor Herbert Blomstedt ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :22
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Herbert Blomstedt
Percussion brings a certain foundation to the orchestral repertoire; it can also add character, drama and tension. Conductor Herbert Blomstedt is ...

  • Added: Dec 31, 2009
  • Length: :21
Caption: Evelyn Glennie
Percussionist and composer Evelyn Glennie wrote a piece titled, "A Little Prayer" when she was a teenager. At the time, it helped her focus her ca...

  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :23
Caption: Evelyn Glennie
"Everybody's a critic," as the saying goes – and that's true now more than ever, according to percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Use this 24 second cli...

  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: Evelyn Glennie
Percussionist Evelyn Glennie had formal music training all her life, including attending the Royal Academy of Music in London. Still, some of her ...

  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: Evelyn Glennie
"Give 100 percent": that old saying and sports mantra has lost some of its meaning over time, but it's an approach and mentality that's still work...

  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :24
Caption: Evelyn Glennie
Many elements, obvious and not so obvious, distinguish one instrument from the other. But the one thing that makes playing a percussion instrument...

  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :22
Caption: Vadim Repin
The Piano Trio by Tchaikovsky is somewhat bathed in sadness and melancholy – and for understandable reasons: it was written as a memorial for Tchai...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Vadim Repin
Tchaikovsky wrote his piano trio as a memorial tribute to a colleague, friend and mentor – Nicolay Rubinstein. In this musical memorial, violinist...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Vadim Repin
Rachmaninoff is known for writing expressive and engaging melodies. That's certainly the case with his Elegiac Trio No. 1. Violinist Vadim Repin ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :20
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Vadim Repin
Brahms knew how to make an entrance. After a stormy orchestral introduction, the violin enters with plenty of fire and electricity. But like all ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :29
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Vadim Repin
It might not have been a "fly on the wall" moment, but it would be interesting to know who spoke first when three leading classical music soloists,...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Nov 30, 2009
  • Length: :28
  • Purchases: 1