Monthly Archives: April 2010

Choir of the Future

This video has been making the rounds of the choral music networks. Eric Whitacre conducts a virtual choir of singers located in 12 different countries.

Brian Newhouse, the host of SymphonyCast, wrote: “You probably know the music: the Dale Warland Singers, Cantus, and just about any college choir worth its salt have made Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” its own. And every one of these groups knows how hard it is to make it sound beautiful and easy. But how the producers of this video got every singer to enter and exit on cue, keep the pitch up, and make a beautiful sound—with none of them in the same room? Well, my hat is off to them!”

There are a series of these videos, but this piece might be the most famous… enjoy!

 

Brian Satterwhite’s own film score

I know that KMFA has lots of fans for Brian Satterwhite’s show, Film Score Focus. Brian is the host and producer of the show… but did you know that he is not *just* a fan of cinematic music, he’s actually a composer of film scores, by profession. 

Maybe you heard about one of his recent film scores: Artois the Goat. (You can click on the photo above to view the trailer.) But unless you were on the Indie Film circuit, or were able to acquire tickets during SXSW last year (it sold out all three screenings), you had to settle for those teasing trailers…. until now! It just came out on DVD!

Here’s a review from the Austin Chronicle that I particularly liked: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=756702 (It speaks to the Austin creators and local talent, as well as the quality of the movie.)  I think it even says it’s “cheezy, but in a good way.”  😉

And there’s one more connection KMFA celebrates with this wonderful film score: Brian Satterwhite performed several of the pieces himself, and our sound engineers, Jeffrey Blair and Phil Pollack, recorded some of the cues (about seven or eight pieces I think) for the film right here in KMFA’s Studio 2000.

~posted by Alison @ KMFA 🙂

*** UPDATE!***  I just got a note from Brian:

Greetings,

I just wanted to send you a quick note that this week on Film Score Focus I’ll be playing music from ARTOIS THE GOAT with the filmmakers as my guests. The DVD just came out a month ago. Check out the FSF blog post and tune in if you can. It’s on 89.5 KMFA Friday night at 8PM or Sunday at 7PM. You can even tune in via the internet at http://www.kmfa.org.
Thanks!
~BMS

Anton Nel and Bion Tsang visit KMFA during our Spring Pledge Drive!

In the middle of our Spring Pledge Drive, we welcomed two more celebrities from the classical music world: although they would never boast about it themselves, Anton Nel and Bion Tsang are world-renown for their talents on the piano and cello, respectively. (You might remember their musical collaboration referenced in previous blog entries.)

Mr. Tsang visited us on Wednesday morning. He chatted with hosts Jeffrey Blair and Sara Hessel, and while they were all on the air, he told us that he and his wife and children all enjoyed listening to KMFA at home, and emphasized how lucky Austinites are to have a full-time classical music radio station, commercial free. 🙂

Mr. Anton Nel came by on Thursday morning and gave us props for our wonderful library of CDs, many of which are now sadly out of print. Although his distinguished career as a concert pianist takes him all over the world, he loves living in Austin and said that KMFA is one of the assets that makes Austin a great place to live.

Thanks so much, Mr. Tsang and Mr. Nel, for your support of KMFA! 

~posted by Alison @ KMFA  🙂