Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Classical Radio

Support Classical Music Radio WWFM Needs You

If you contributed to The Classical Network this week during our end-of-the-fiscal-year membership campaign, thank you so much for your support. We deeply appreciate your commitment to and concern for maintaining the best in classical music programming for our community and beyond, in a world where the kind of quality and variety we strive for is increasingly hard to find.

Unfortunately, as of 6 p.m. Friday – the end of our on-air fundraising – we came up considerably short of our goal. We’ll see what comes in over the weekend, in the form of electronic contributions, but talk around the station is that cuts will have to be made. That doesn’t mean we’ll be going anywhere, but some of the shows may have to be put on hiatus. In a worst case scenario, as happened a few years ago, local hosts could be removed from the air waves until we are able to balance our budget. (I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but I speak from experience when I say that it has been done!)

The fiscal year does not end until midnight, the morning of July 1. That means anything you contribute through the time Sunday rolls into Monday will count toward our bottom line. If you haven’t gotten around to doing so, I hope you will extend a hand to help us down from the scaffold in the form of a financial contribution at our website, wwfm.org. Click on the donate tab at the top of the page.

We remain your friends in classical music radio. Thank you for your steadfast support of WWFM – The Classical Network.

June 29, 2019
Autumn Time Music WWFM Classical Radio

“It’s Autumn Time!” I just kicked off this afternoon’s playlist with Leo Sowerby’s organ work of that name. As of 4:02 p.m., we have entered the most glorious season, IMHO. Join me for tea, cookies, and euphoria until 7:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 22, 2017
WWFM Celebrates 35 Years of Classical Radio

WWFM – The Classical Network began broadcasting on September 6, 1982 – 35 years ago today. When I joined the staff in 1995, it wasn’t even a 24-hour station – we signed off at midnight, and the morning host would have to come in before 5:00 to fire up the transmitter – but the programming was always superb.

I especially appreciated the fact that virtually everything that gets played on the station by the local hosts, outside of the broadcast concerts, syndicated fare and special promotions, is selected by the hosts. That is a rarity on any professionally-run radio station. If I receive a CD in the mail today, it is conceivable that I could include it on my air shift this afternoon.

That freedom gives the station personality, it gives the hosts an added sense of purpose, and it allows us to do what we love most – share our enthusiasms with an appreciative audience. It’s been an intimate and exciting voyage of discovery, and I think it’s kept the station vital.

Listen closely throughout the month of September, as, in honor of our 35th anniversary, certain hours will be devoted to music reflective of different permutations of the numbers 3 and 5. That could include a favorite composer’s Symphony No. 35 (or 53), an Opus 35, a Sonata No. 15 (which is 3 x 5), music composed in 1935, or whatever else a given host can come up with.

Tune in and marvel at our ingenuity. Also, consider making a gift to the station in the amount of $35 or more, at wwfm.org, to help us celebrate this momentous occasion. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you for your support, and Happy Birthday, WWFM!

September 6, 2017
Beethoven Birthday Bash on WWFM!

With nine days to go until Christmas, Beethoven’s birthday is the only day on which you reliably won’t be slammed with ho ho ho. Tune in to WWFM – The Classical Network to celebrate “Ludwig van” with nine hours of his music, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.

While you’re there, consider supporting the station and, in the process, pick up a nice boxed set of Beethoven’s complete works on 86 CDs. Details available on the station’s home page, at wwfm.org, or by calling 1-800-232-1212.

December 16, 2016
Women Composers on WPRB

Works by women composers permeate my record collection like so many veins of ore. Women’s History Month provides the perfect excuse to mine some of these and share them with a listening audience, which I will endeavor to do tomorrow morning on WPRB.

However, until the start of the March, I had forgotten all about Marvin Rosen’s annual, month-long “In Praise of Woman” celebration, presented over four Wednesdays on his show Classical Discoveries. In putting together tomorrow’s playlist, I will plan to avoid as much as possible composers from the eras which are Marvin’s principle focus – that is to say, the medieval and Renaissance periods and music of our own time.

All of the composers we’ll hear will have shuffled off this mortal coil, with a great emphasis on artists who lived and worked during the Romantic Era and into the first half of the 20th century. There may be one or two exceptions, but they will all be quite dead.

This will allow me to supplement Marvin with music by a broad array of truly talented and neglected figures that have been eclipsed by even third-rate composers among their male contemporaries. For example, I took down from the shelf yesterday an orchestral serenade by Dame Ethel Smyth that knocked me sideways.

Smyth, born in 1858, was a world-class rabble-rouser who became one of the most vocal advocates of the women’s suffrage movement in England. She overcame early opposition to a career in music on the part of her father to receive the praise of George Bernard Shaw, who called her Mass “magnificent.”

However, her works were often better-appreciated abroad. Her operas, in particular, were embraced in Germany. One of them, “Der Wald,” was the only opera by a woman composer mounted by New York’s Metropolitan Opera for over a century! (Next season, the Met has finally decided to take a chance on another, when it will stage Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de loin.”)

Smyth served time in prison for putting out the windows of politicians who opposed a woman’s right to vote. She also wrote for the cause “The March of the Women.” When Sir Thomas Beecham went to visit her in jail, he witnessed her conducting through the bars of her window with a toothbrush as her associates gathered for exercise in the courtyard.

To my ears, her “Serenade in D” is better than just about anything composed by Sir Hubert Parry (whose music I happen to enjoy) and much more compelling than the symphonies of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.

Tune in tomorrow morning to see if you agree. It’s all music by female composers, from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We take a walk on the distaff side, on Classic Ross Amico.

March 9, 2016

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