DA CAMERA AND KUHF PODCAST STANDS OUT WITH DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMMING AND RECENT WORKS

Houston, TX, May 1, 2009 – The classical music podcast produced by chamber music presenter Da Camera of Houston and Houston NPR affiliate KUHF stands out from the crowd. Upcoming podcasts feature extraordinary repertoire reflecting Da Camera Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg’s distinctive programming, performances of entire works, and new and recent works not typically featured in most podcasts, which stick to the standard repertory. The first of its kind in Houston, the Da Camera podcast reinforces the organization’s standing as a national leader in its field.

The May podcast features Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time – a significant work that is not exactly standard fare -- performed by the all-star ensemble of David Shifrin, clarinet; Vera Beths, violin; Desmond Hoebig, cello and Sarah Rothenberg, piano. The performance is excerpted from a May 2008 concert exploring Music and the Relativity of Time and linking Albert Einstein with Mozart (whose music the physicist loved and performed as an amateur violinist) and Messiaen.
The June podcast features Chinese American composer Zhou Long’s 2007 work Farewell for pipa, erhu and chamber orchestra and Mahler’s The Farewell from Songs of the Earth, to which Zhou’s work is a response. The performers from this January 2009 concert were soprano Susanne Mentzer and a Da Camera Chamber Orchestra including several principals from Houston Symphony.
In July, podcast subscribers are set to hear excerpts from the February 2009 concert Poetry and Music, Immigrants and Exiles. The concert included Kurt Weill’s Walt Whitman Songs, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon and Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue, Op. 133. The performers were the Brentano String Quartet; baritone Leon Williams and pianists Sarah Rothenberg and Rodney Waters.

Future podcasts include excerpts from 2006’s The Musical World of Paul Klee, one of Rothenberg’s concerts exploring links between music and the visual arts and inspired by exhibitions at the world famous Menil Collection museum; composer Richard Lavenda’s recent String Quintet: Thoughts Fly, which had its world premiere at an April 2009 concert by the Chiara String Quartet; excerpts from 2008’s Exiles in Paris featuring works by Virgil Thomson and Paul Bowles and selections from 2004’s Preludes and Fugues: Bach and Shostakovich featuring John Gibbons, harpsichord.

Da Camera and KUHF are long-time collaborators, with the public radio station recording Da Camera’s concerts for broadcast. Recently, the two organizations extended the collaboration and introduced a series of monthly classical music podcasts. The podcasts feature highlights from Da Camera chamber music concerts. St. John Flynn, host of KUHF’s The Front Row, and Da Camera Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg introduce the podcasts. To subscribe or to stream individual programs, go to www.dacamera.com or www.kuhf.org.

Da Camera podcasts are made possible in part by a generous grant from the Arthur Judson Foundation, a private foundation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded over 40 years ago by the noted orchestra manager and impresario Arthur Judson, the Foundation concentrates its grants in support of professionally performed music, both classical and contemporary. The Foundation’s mission is to support and develop serious music that will be enjoyed as broadly as possible. Projects which involve performance in mass media, particularly through innovative uses of such media, are favored.

The podcast is also made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.

KUHF Houston Public Radio is a fully professional radio service affiliated with National Public Radio (NPR) and certified by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The station broadcasts on 88.7 FM, three channels of HD Digital and two online streaming options. KUHF is supported financially by its listener-members, and by gifts from the greater Houston community, through the Association for Community Broadcasting. KUHF is licensed to the Board of Regents of the University of Houston and is operated in the public interest as a community outreach of the University. More information is available at www.kuhf.org.

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