Monthly Archives: December 2009

Improv Handbell on the streets of NYC

We received this link to a fun video (from our friends at Minnesota Public Radio)…. it features a 13-member handbell choir providing some unexpected accompaniment for a Salvation Army bell-ringer on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.  It’s fun to watch people’s reactions, including the Salvation Army bellringer, who seems to be caught by surprise himself…

Watch the video by clicking this photo:

Festival of Carols is in full swing!

 

KMFA’s annual Festival of Carols is on full swing, including several holiday specials that have become a welcome tradition on Classical 89.5:

  • Bach’s Christmas Oratorio: 12/22 at 8pm
  • Handel’s Messiah: 12/23 at 8pm
  • A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols: Live broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge, England. 12/24 at 9am
  • Leroy Anderson Christmas Special: 12/24 at Noon
  • Echoes of Christmas, the Dale Warland Singers: 12/24, 7pm
  • The Nutcracker: 12/24 at 8pm
  • A Chanticleer Christmas: 12/25 at Noon
  • A Harpist’s Christmas with Yolanda Kondonassis: 12/25 at 7pm
  • St. Olaf Christmas Festival: 12/25 at 8pm

If you want to post these on the fridge like we do, here’s a nice schedule you can download and print:

KMFA Christmas Specials 2009  (in PDF format)

Best Wishes and from all of us at KMFA!  We wish you peace, comfort, joy, and beautiful classical music throughout the season.  🙂

TCC gives us our our “Choir Fix” for the season

(photos by R. Sweeney)

Last weekend we enjoyed our Christmas choir “fix” for the season: several of us attended the Texas Choral Consort annual Christmas event,  this year titled: Winter on the Wing.   

KMFA’s daytime announcer, Dianne Donovan, introduced the event on Friday evening, and our very own Phil Pollack (Technical Operations Manager) was one of the performing tenors. There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd (I went to the Sunday performance) and I recognized several friends and members of KMFA.  

As usual, there was a diverse sampling of musical treats, ranging from an early-music German piece by Buxtehude, to a contemporary piece by jazz musician Vince Guaraldi. The Director, Brent Baldwin, even participated in an early Spanish piece, “Riu, Riu, Chiu”… sample some short videos below… fun!).  

For a choral layman like me, it’s always entertaining to enjoy the relatively obscure alongside the comfortably familiar.  🙂  

~ submitted by Alison @ KMFA  🙂