Monthly Archives: June 2011

KMFA Radio Summer Camp calls it a wrap

[UPDATE: the interviews and recorded music that these great kids compiled during their summer camp week has culminated into a radio show! Tune in to hear their show August 20th at 10am and August 21st at 3pm.]

 

~ posted by Kelsey Padgett, KMFA Production & Development Associate

I can’t believe KMFA’s Summer Camp has already come and gone – the KMFA staff and I absolutely loved having these great kids here in the studios for a full week! They were all amazing students for our first ever radio-production camp.

During the second week of June, six lucky 8th and 9th graders participated in “Kids Recording Kids,” learning on-air speaking techniques, how to record musicians performing live, radio interviewing skills, and editing and audio production techniques.

These kids are smart, fun, and enthusiastic!

Young musicians from the Austin Classical Guitar Society and the Austin Chamber Music Center were the recording subjects for the project, and by the end of the week, they had created their very own radio show!

We took lots of photos, and even turned them loose with the video camera a couple of times. We’ll be posting more photos soon… In the meantime, here’s a great video with highlights of teaching, learning, and fun!

Here’s a blog entry written by one camper, Nate:

KMFA’s summer camp, “Kids Recording Kids,” has been a great experience. I have learned so much about music and radio over the process, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves listening to radio, who is interested as to how radio works, and is interested in interviewing.

Nate sits in the "hot seat" in Master Control

One of the things I got the most out of is getting to meet all of the KMFA staff, getting the chance to ask questions, and knowing that I would always get a fantastic answer. All of the KMFA employees are laid back and fun to get to know. From the staff in the office to the radio hosts, our camp counselors to the radio engineer Phil, they all rocked my socks! I even got to sit in the radio control room while Diane Donovan did her radio show. I think I overloaded her with questions by asking her, “What does this button do? What does this switch do?”

I also enjoyed getting to learn about audio production, interviewing techniques, how to speak on the radio, getting to know more about classical music, learning how broadcasting and radio frequencies work, and of course getting to know how a radio station works and operates.

And last but not least, our camp counselors, Carmel, Lauren, and Kelsey were terrific. For the first year of this camp, they did a fantastic job of creating it and making it happen. Not to mention the fact that Carmel and Kelsey were really good at making awkward situations not so awkward. In the end, I can say that Kids Recording Kids has been terrific!!!  ~Nate Z.

and here’s Hunter’s blog entry:

At KMFA’s summer camp, there was a lot for us as a group to learn and enjoy.  Starting out, we got to have a tour of the studio by Phil Pollack, and although it maybe didn’t all make sense it was still interesting to see how the station ran.  The next day we learned about microphone and also enjoyed informally recording each other.  We continued throughout the week to enjoy interviewing and recording a quartet of the Classical Guitar Society, and Nate and I got to have some fun watching Dianne Donovan “live” on air in the control room. 

My personal favorite so far, however, has been learning things from Jeffrey in the control booth during interviews.  There are so many interesting buttons and knobs to learn about, as well as various types of electronic equipment.  Second on my list of favorites was recording a video tour with Nate of KMFA studio. As the week comes to a close, I as well as the other campers are looking forward to editing recordings as well as learning other interesting “finishing” techniques here at KMFA.  ~ Hunter A.

It was so successful, I hope that we will be able to keep this program going and growing for many years to come.


~posted by Kelsey Padgett, Camp Counselor and KMFA Production Associate

And the Beat Goes On …

We all know that Dianne Donovan, KMFA’s mid-day announcer, is a classical-music lover. But did you know she sings in a jazz trio?

That’s right, Dianne is one of The Beat Divas. Famous for their singing/cooking classes at Central Market, they recently celebrated a new CD release, called Dishin’ With the Divas: Songs of Food, Love & Mayhem, and they presented several of these songs during the opening ceremonies of the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference. They caught the attention of a New York Times’ writer… and they were featured in yesterday’s edition! You can read the whole article by clicking here.

They were also just featured in the Austin Chronicle, and that article is also on their website.

Here’s their new video for the song “Sweet Treat,” featuring Central Market Chef Robert Jenkins. 🙂

Our KMFA arts partners score big at the 2011 Austin Critics’ Table Awards!

~posted by Sara Hessel, KMFA Music Director

KMFA congratulates our cultural partners who were honored at the 2010-2011 Austin Critics’ Table Awards:

Ballet Austin (Best Ensemble for Kai)

Austin Symphony Orchestra (Best Symphonic Performance for Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with Pepe Romero)

Adam Holzman, guitar with the Miro Quartet (Best Chamber Performance for Austin Goes Classical)

Texas Early Music Project (Best Chamber Performance for Convivencia)

Conspirare (Best Choral Performance for Renaissance and Response: Polyphony Then and Now)

Austin Lyric Opera/Austin Chamber Music Center (Best Opera for The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat)

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin (Best Instrumentalist for Anne Akiko Meyers with the Austin Symphony)

Miro Quartet (Special citation: Inimitable FourPlay Award for 15 years with Sandy Yamamoto)

Texas Performing Arts (Special citation: Ears Wide Open Award for adventurous bookings of classical music)

Congratulations, and thank you for all of your efforts in making Austin such a rich artistic environment to live in!

 See the full list of winners here.

Blast from the Past: hear a familiar KMFA voice on Classical Guitar Alive this weekend!


Russell Sarre, Australian composer (and former host of KMFA)

If you’ve been listening to KMFA since the 1990s, you’ll remember an announcer named Russell Sarre. His distinctly Australian accent, coupled with an irrepressible sense of humor, made him a popular host on KMFA. The show he was most remembered for was “Mind Your Music,” co-starring David Ford. It was so successful, they even beat the famous NPR show “From the Top” one year for a national radio award!

Russell is a classical composer, and he and his family now live in Hamburg, Germany. Luckily for his Austin fans he was interviewed by Tony Morris (host of the popular show, Classical Guitar Alive) about the premiere of his most recent work: Lyric Suite for Guitar and String Quartet.

To hear the whole episode, tune in tonight at 9pm, and again on Sunday at 11am, on KMFA 89.5.

Here’s a quick preview:

~posted by Alison @ KMFA  🙂