WQXR’s Music In Schools

WQXR chose six elementary schools to participate in a series of themed interactive chamber music concerts in Spring 2018. Two concerts were presented in each school in partnership with Decoda, an affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall. All six schools previously received over 10 instruments through the WQXR Instrument Drive and have well-established, rigorous elementary level music programs.

HPPR Radio Readers Book Club

HPPR Radio Readers Book Club is an on-air, online community of readers exploring themes of common interest to those who live and work on the High Plains. This free book club allows readers from throughout the High Plains to read books with related themes and discuss them online and, at the end of each book series, live on the radio. This project is a significant collaboration among 50 volunteers. Currently, the club has 175 members from 15 states.

Classical: BTS

Classical: BTS is a six-part webseries devoted to revealing the lesser-seen — and heard — stories about classical music in central Illinois.

Versify Podcast & Community Events

WPLN News’ Versify bridges the many communities of Middle Tennessee. The podcast team works hand-in-hand with the community to enable personal narrative storytelling and the documentation of local histories through poetry.

Live at Howard’s

As a kid, I used to watch PBS late night programming in which grungy music shows would come on. I took that memory and tried adapting it to our community. We partner with a great dive bar to create a new show that brings local area talent “to the masses” at a state-wide level. The first pilot aired in December and have been shooting episodes for the past few months with the first season set for the first of September.

Baltimore Band Block Party

The Baltimore Band Block Party is WTMD’s signature fund-raiser. Each year, 15-20 local bands are given the tools to raise money for WTMD in the form of ticket sales and donations. The station provides exposure to these local bands by putting them in heavy rotation. This on-air support builds familiarity among our listeners. At the end of three weeks the station holds a BBBP concert…the top ten fund raising bands play live with the top three winning substantial prizes.

Radio Boise Tuesday

Every Tuesday night Radio Boise hosts national, regional or local bands at Neurolux, Boise’s most popular music venue which donates 20% of drink sales to the station. The event features a Radio Boise DJ who spins before and after each show, promoting the station. Each show is broadcast live. The goal is to raise awareness about Radio Boise and raise funds, but also to provide a strong off-night show in the Boise market for emerging touring bands and indie headliners.

The KVIE Art Gallery

KVIE has been doing a live televised art auction (245 plus pieces over 3 days) for over 30 years. To support all the artists who donate work for the auction, we decided to open an art gallery in our station. We remodeled unused lobby space. Artists now show and sell work through 6 exhibitions each year. The gallery, open Mon- Fri, requires no additional staffing.

WNIN Summer of Music

WNIN broadcasts a Summer of Music series each of the last eight years with the goal of celebrating the rich heritage of live music in the area. We visit major music festivals to record performances and broadcast live or air the following week. We also produce a retrospective program with audio from all the festivals on Labor Day to conclude the series.

Skyline Sessions

Collaborative, digital first effort to produce local music acts. Used for radio, TV and digital. We tapped into local interest in behind the scene music to be delivered to phones, iPad and laptops. “Skyline Sessions is a web series showcasing exceptional music performances by artists based in Houston and beyond. Our state-of-the-art George B. Geary Performance Studio hosts musicians in an intimate setting with an emphasis on capturing the unique experience of live studio recording.

Lost River Sessions

Lost Rivers Sessions started as a musical TV program and expanded to a monthly radio and live concert series showcasing emerging artists in Bowling Green.

Poetry Sunday

At Poetry Sunday, local poets reads a poem in a cutaway to “localize” and serve a deeply-committed following.

Instrument Drive

With the help of our partners at Sam Ash Music Stores, Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, and the NYC Dept. of Education, WQXR asked people to donate their gently used instruments which would then be repaired and distributed to public schools throughout the five boroughs. With the support of our community and sponsors, they hoped to collect 1,000 instruments. The drive was successful beyond their wildest dreams. Over 2,000 generous music lovers joined in the effort and donated nearly 3,000 instruments.

School of Jazz

School of Jazz has existed for 12 years. Each year we select a dozen middle/high school jazz bands. We pair each band with a local music professional. We host a live studio recording session with a videographer, photographer, and post taping production. The video is posted on our YouTube Channel. Some student become guest DJ’s. We include SOJ stories in our news programs. This year we followed three students as they performed at the Essentially Ellington Competition in New York.

KUTX Live at Mueller

KUTX Live At Mueller is an outdoor music series that makes music events accessible to families with children.

WCRB Sounder Project

To create a distinctive sound, we partner with the Boston Conservatory to compose and produce “sonic signatures.” 20 composition students competed to create the winning sounders, one winner. The winners created 115 variations, which were recorded with the full Boston Conservatory Orchestra at our WGBH studios. These Sounders are now central to the WCRB sound.

Bridge of Song

Collaboration between MPR and KERA that marked a moment of crisis in both communities, after the shootings in St. Paul and Dallas. A live choral event for people in both cities to sing together and find solace after these painful events. Read Current’s story.

WAMU/Capital Soundtrack

WAMU debuted Capital Soundtrack in 2016, a project that creates a daily music playlist with tracks from local musicians that is played as interstitial material throughout the day. Each day, a WAMU staffer makes a playlist of 20 musical segments of varying lengths and stocks it with a variety of musical genres to accommodate varying moods following stories. The station tries to limit previously played material to 1/3 of the list and posts the playlist to the website.

WMRA’s Books & Brews

WMRA partnered with a local micro-brewery to host an evening of conversation with a published—often local—authors. Each person with a member card gets a free beer. These events proved were so successful that we had to limit crowds by offering on our website. Since the brewery does not offer complete dining, we also helped local restaurants and a food trucks who made their services available to the attendees.