KPAC Blog

Not just a concert, but a service too

Already in their third season, Musica Sacra SA will perform Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. at Our Lady of Atonement. The program follows the Second Sunday of Advent - both musically and literally.

Robert Finster says there are familiar composers and one you might not know. "David Briggs is a great improviser for the organ, and has transcribed all of the Gigout solos! He works in London at a church, plus he composes very original pieces. I first heard of him on your radio station [KPAC] with Heart and Voice!"

Few, if any, operas can bear comparison with the gestation, preparation and final execution of Giuseppe Verdi’s "Un Ballo in Maschera." It is the work that definitively closes his middle period; preceded by "Traviata," "Rigoletto," and "Il Trovatore" and followed by his supreme masterworks "Don Carlo," "Aida," "Otello" and "Falstaff."

Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” continues to be a source of inspiration for filmmakers, having been adapted over a dozen times in different forms by directors all over the world. Joe Wright’s feature film boldly breaks from tradition, confining most of the plot on a single soundstage.

Thanks to my Facebook friend Lauri Pearson for setting me up for today's Alternate Routes. Lauri is a real listener, a true fanatic of music who does the mid-day shift at Magic 105.3 FM. Although she and I do most of our listening within different genres (there's more overlap than most might imagine), Lauri's observations about music are almost always spot on.

Craig Hella Johnson returns with Company of Voices to Laurel Heights

Craig Hella Johnson adds new flavor to Conspirare’s annual collage of music and poetry,  mixed to "contemplate and celebrate," with music such as Felix Mendelssohn to Mos Def, and Leonard Bernstein to Leonard Cohen! Favorites from Richard Rogers and Eric Whitacre are also on tap.

Violist is joined by Carolyn True in romantic favorites

Each season, Camerata San Antonio features one player in concert for the "Camerata Recital." This year will be the first for co-founder  Emily Watkins-Freudigman, who will play music by Benjamin Britten, Darius Milhaud, Robert Schumann, and Sergei Prokofiev.

In 1982 I was pushed into a chair in front of a microphone to back announce Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3."  Back then, KPAC was brand new, and had four turntables, reel to reel machines, and a small staff. With no university or college to support us, bringing classical music to San Antonio was a gamble from the get - go. Here are some of my favorite musical moments of the last three decades.

Franz Schubert had great friends, and he needed them. His father wanted him to teach school, but Franz was built to compose music, and what started as a family hobby turned into an all consuming passion. Giving up his teaching job, Schubert turned to his friends, and with their help he was allowed, slowly and painfully, to become the artist he knew himself to be.