Category Archives: Uncategorized

Photos from the 2010 KMFA Young Musicians Competition

KMFA recently hosted its annual Young Musicians Competition. This year, 15 young violinists, cellists, bassists and viola players from 7 Austin-area schools participated in this special performance competition, performing three short musical selections for a panel of esteemed competition judges who graciously donated their time and expertise for this event. For more information about this wonderful collaboration of young Austin musicians with local classical-music educators and professionals, you can visit the KMFA Young Musicians Competition page on our website.
Here are some fun photos from the competition:

~posted by Alison @ KMFA 🙂

Texas Early Music Project welcomes Spring

 

The Sweet and Merry Month of May

~posted by Sara Hessel, KMFA Music Director

“In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote that in the 19th century, but it was hardly news then, as Texas Early Music Project reminded us in their delightful concert “Spring Rites: The Lark in the Morning.”

T.E.M.P. drew a capacity crowd to First English Lutheran Church to hear songs of love lost, love found, love made and love despaired of. Artistic Director Daniel Johnson’s lively and varied program also included English madrigals, French folk songs and some fun surprises, such as an anonymous 16th century song called O Lusty May that morphed into Lusty Month of May from Camelot, sung very saucily by soprano Kathlene Ritch. (Early music all sober chant sung by monks in robes? Not a bit of it!)

Other personal favorites included Landini’s rousing welcome to spring Ecco la primavera, a tenderly melancholic troubadour song by Bernart de Ventadorn, performed by Daniel Johnson, a riotous French drinking song called Amis, buvons! and recorder pyrotechnics by Jacob van Eyck, brought to life by soloist Victor Eijkhout.

The ‘orchestra’ was in great form — we were treated to excellent violin and vielle playing by Laurie Young Stevens, along with other fine performances by John Walters (viol), Elaine Barber (harp) and James Brown (bass viol). The band had their chance to shine in an instrumental rendering of the Scottish song The Day it Dawes.

Sadly, this was the last concert in T.E.M.P.’s season, and we have to wait until September for more. But it will be worth the wait! In the first concert of the new season, the group revisits one of its greatest hits: Convivencia: The Three Worlds of Renaissance Spain, September 24-26, with special guest artists Tom Zajac (historical winds and percussion), Annette Bauer (recorders) and Kamran Hooshmand (santur and ud). At least we’ll have fond memories of fresh and springy early music to get us through the long, hot summer.

~Sara Hessel is KMFA’s Music Director, as well as producer and host of Ancient Voices. You can hear Ancient Voices on KMFA 89.5,  Sundays at 9am and 4pm.

Miró Quartet visits the KMFA studios

Today we welcomed Austin’s own Miró Quartet into our recording studio in preparation for this Wednesday’s airing of Classical Austin (with host Dianne Donovan). They are just the nicest! Here are a few photos I took as they were warming up their instruments.

Tune in this Wednesday, May 5th , at 8pm to hear these talented musicians chat about their upcoming performance on May 9th at the Texas Performing Arts Center (with guest cellist, the famous Lynn Harrell).

~ posted by Alison @ KMFA 🙂

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  🙂

Kevin Patterson gives a shout out to KMFA supporters (literally)

This afternoon we welcomed another famous Austin Arts personage: Kevin Patterson, General Director of the Austin Lyric Opera!

Kevin visited us during the 9th day of our Spring Membership Drive. He shared several meaningful insights about why he feels it’s important to support and nurture an all-classical community radio station; the one reason that particularly struck me was how Austin’s Opera and KMFA are complementary partners in our wonderful Arts community!  KMFA exposes all varieties of opera to Central Texas, and recently, the partnership that we enjoy allows us to live-broadcast the ALO season premiers. Thank you Kevin for your support of KMFA!

~ posted by Alison @ KMFA 🙂

Matthew Hinsley lends a hand to KMFA

Dr. Matthew Hinsley, Executive Director of Austin Classical Guitar Society, stopped by on Monday to lend us a hand during our Spring Membership Drive. He and Dianne Donovan talked on the air about the importance of preserving a local, member-supported classical music radio station… and from a personal perspective, he reminded listeners that KMFA doesn’t just broadcast classical music, but also promotes the study and practice of performing it. (For example, KMFA is a media sponsor for the McCallum Fine Arts Academy, as well as primary sponsor for the KMFA Young Musicians Competition.) 

Thank you, Dr. Hinsley, for your support of KMFA!

~posted by Alison @ KMFA  🙂