Messiah Watch 2012

AP/George Kochaniec, Jr.

It's time for our annual Messiah Watch! Each year, VPR Classical tracks performances and sing-alongs of Handel’s Messiah in the VPR listening area.

Performances begin this weekend with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus in Montpelier.  Visit VPR.net to find a performance near you, or to add your own to the list!

Need your Messiah fix now? Check out this Burlington Free Press video of a Messiah flash mob and see if you can spot the VPR Classical host!

Our Newest VPR Classical Fan

Caroline Anderson is only two and half weeks old, but she's been listening to VPR Classical for months. Congratulations to Karen and Seth Anderson! Karen is Traffic Specialist in VPR's Operations Department.

Caroline is a proud Walter Parker and Joe Goetz groupie.

VPR Classical Photo Caption Contest II

By now you may have seen our series of VPR Classical posters online or in your community! Just how do Walter Parker, Joe Goetz, and Cheryl Willoughby come to look so perfect and warm and fun-loving, you might ask?

They don't. Well - not right away. As even the most casual photographer knows, getting the right shot - especially with a group of people - usually takes a bit of time. We eventually got our shot, but not before we got some hilarious outtakes! What a fun afternoon. Check out the photos below, courtesy of the VPR's lovely and talented Ty Robertson.

Then, hop on over to VPR's Facebook page where we're having a caption contest! Add your caption to the comments under the photo, and the caption that gets the most "likes" from your fellow Facebookers wins a new VPR stainless steel travel mug.



























(If you haven't seen the final product, check the posters out here, where you can also download some to post in your community!)

Join The VPR Classical Street Team!

If you're a VPR Classical listener, you already know how great our 24/7 classical music service is. Will you help us share the love with your community?

We're trying to raise awareness and listening to our many VPR Classical stations, including WOXR 90.9 FM in the Burlington area, and our two newest stations, WVXR 102.1 FM in central Vermont, and WOXM 90.1 FM in Addison County.

To help with this effort, we've produced a series of posters featuring VPR Classical’s local weekday hosts – Cheryl Willoughby, Walter Parker, and Joe Goetz. If you listen to VPR Classical, please download and print a few posters and hang them at your workplace, library, neighborhood coffee shop, general store, community bulletin board, or anywhere else people will see them! There are four versions of the poster to download and share: one for 90.9 FM Burlington/Plattsburgh, one for 102.1 FM in central Vermont, one for 90.1 FM in Addison County, and one featuring all of the VPR Classical Frequencies.

We also have some pre-printed posters at our Colchester studios in Fort Ethan Allen. If you're in the area, please feel free to come pick up a few!

Not sure of your VPR Classical station? Check out our coverage map to the left, and thank you so much for your help!

There's a New Fest in Town

Two years after his exile from the Soviet Union, Russian author/historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his family moved to Cavendish, VT. It was 1976 and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, the middle son of the family, was four years old.

Since then Ignat has emerged as a remarkable musician with credits including an Avery Fisher Career Grant; a position on the piano faculty at the Curtis Institute; prominent conducting residencies in Russia and Philadelphia; and guest engagements with numerous other major North American orchestras.

When Mr. Solzhenitsyn appears as a guest at the inaugural concert of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival this Wednesday night he'll take on another role: as the featured pianist in works by Dvořák, Schubert, and compatriot Dmitri Shostakovich.

Today at 1 he'll join Walter Parker and violinist/LCCMF Artistic Director Soovin Kim in the studio for conversation about his new Brahms recording, his career, and the new chamber music festival that brings together some of the finest artists in the area for a whole week of live music and musical learning.

That's the way to bring summertime to a fine fine!