Classical music radio stations in Kentucky, North Carolina and Texas are expanding their presences in their communities by pushing the boundaries of classical music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The approaches differ. KMFA in Austin<\/a> and Louisville Public Media<\/a> host concerts that go beyond what regular listeners might hear on the radio, with performances of classically adjacent or \u201cindie classical\u201d music. North Carolina\u2019s WDAV profiles artists from underrepresented communities<\/a> and hosts concerts at a brewery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t convince everyone to like classical music,\u201d said Mary Lathem, marketing director for Davidson-based WDAV. \u201cBut there are so many people out there within our market that would love some aspect of classical music, even if it\u2019s just one composer or one piece or one thing that [they] may never know about \u2026 unless we bring it to them where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Classical stations with their fingers on the pulse in their own communities are responding to what goes on there, said Abby Goldstein, president and executive director of the Public Media Content Collective.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t just sit under a broadcast tower and expect people to come to us,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201c\u2026 Radio stations should be focusing on how to build community around their stations \u2014 not just getting more people to listen to radio.\u201d<\/p>\n Take KMFA, which CEO George Preston said started focusing on \u201cindie classical\u201d or classically adjacent music after completing its new building and event space in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The station\u2019s \u201cOffbeat Series\u201d of concerts started in 2023.<\/p>\n Preston describes indie classical as a new classical genre that aligns more with popular forms of music.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re leaning into the strengths of our music community here in Austin,\u201d Preston said. \u201cI think every station needs to figure out what they can do within their specific market to connect strongly with the music community that is there.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent Offbeat Series concert featured Austin Unconducted, a conductor-less orchestra, performing a piece of music created through KMFA\u2019s Draylen Mason Composer-in-Residence program and commissioned by the station for the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n The composer-in-residence program was created in response to a national call for more diversity in classical music, according to KMFA\u2019s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its aim is for composers to create new music for classical radio. Unlike the more genre-pushing Offbeat Series, the pieces produced by the composers fit into what is traditionally expected on radio, Preston said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, the bulk of classical repertoire has been written by Caucasian men,\u201d Preston said. \u201cWe\u2019ve decided, why don\u2019t we just give some traditionally underrepresented groups more of a shot to do this?\u201d<\/p>\n WDAV\u2019s NoteWorthy Stories, meanwhile, profiles musicians of color, women and others from historically underrepresented groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n Approximately 90 of the two-minute features have been produced since the series began in 2023, according to Content Director Rachel Stewart. More than half the time, music by the profiled artist follows the on-air features.\u00a0<\/p>\n Produced by Loki Karuna and distributed by PRX to three other stations, the profiles sometimes go outside the lines of traditional classical music. Karuna is a New York City\u2013based musician, producer, activist and administrator who got his start as an orchestral bassoonist, according to his website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Karuna] is the person that I\u2019m aware of, in our industry, who is trying to push that boundary the most,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cSo he\u2019s aware of all kinds of folks who are doing interesting things that may not have even been considered by a classical station five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n WDAV\u2019s NoteWorthy concert series also paired artists from genres like R&B, pop and hip-hop with classically trained musicians. Now on hiatus, the concert series started virtually during the pandemic and held its most recent show near the end of 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n A collaboration with FAIR PLAY Music Equity Initiative<\/a>, the series was paused as WDAV devotes resources to other initiatives, such as participation in the Recording Inclusivity Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFor at least the last 10 years, most of the period of time where I\u2019ve been general manager, it\u2019s been important to us to redefine our role from presenting classical music to building community,\u201d said WDAV GM Frank Dominguez. \u201cWe wanted to think of ourselves as a media organization that built community and that created relationships with our listeners. And classical music was the medium we used to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n But that work required asking questions about who makes up the community, Dominguez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAre we speaking to everybody in the community?\u201d Dominguez said. \u201cThese Noteworthy efforts are worthwhile because they help us not only make our sound more vibrant and more reflective of the community, but they also have the potential of bringing new people to our station and our content.\u201d<\/p>\n WDAV also hosts concerts at Charlotte brewery Free Range Brewing for its Small Batch Concert Series, which returned with a four-concert series last year after pausing during the coronavirus pandemic. Each concert was sold out or at capacity last season, Lathem said, but she added that tracking specific attendance was difficult due to no- and low-cost ticket options.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really removes the veneer from classical music,\u201d said Lathem. \u201cIt\u2019s something that you can attend with a friend where you don\u2019t have to worry about when to clap or if it\u2019s rude to get up and walk around. You don\u2019t have to worry about what you\u2019re wearing. So it\u2019s been a way for us to really increase access to classical music for folks that might have been tentative about attending a classical music event before.\u201d<\/p>\n The series returns Sept. 18 with five concerts, including a Halloween-themed musical theater show with Theatre Charlotte Oct. 16 and a March 12 concert with Phoenix Down RPG, a wind ensemble that performs music from video games and \u201cnerdy culture,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n Lathem said she asked audience members to raise their hands if the concert they were attending was their first WDAV event and if it was their first time hearing of WDAV. About a quarter of the concerts\u2019 audiences were attending a station event for the first time. Roughly a tenth of attendees said it was their first time hearing of WDAV.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Small Batch Concert Series gives the station the chance to collect attendees\u2019 emails, Lathem said. WDAV can then inform them of other upcoming events and ask them to join newsletter lists, Lathem said. In turn, the new contacts can discover other WDAV offerings, such as podcasts and on-air programs.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we just make sure we don\u2019t lose track of those folks and follow up so that if there are other aspects of what we do here that they find interesting, they\u2019re able to easily access them and start their WDAV journey,\u201d Lathem said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Likewise, the goal of KMFA\u2019s Offbeat series isn\u2019t necessarily to get more radio listeners, even as it makes the station money through ticket sales, donations and sponsorships, Preston said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think of them as part of our audience family even if they\u2019re not traditional radio listeners,\u201d Preston said. \u201cIf they never listen to the radio, if they just keep coming to concerts and buying tickets and maybe make a donation while they\u2019re there, that\u2019s cool. They\u2019re still in our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar story for audience members of Louisville Public Media\u2019s classically adjacent New Lens concert series, which debuted in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cConverting those people to listeners is important, but just as important is for people to see the value in something like this and donate to us because they value this series,\u201d said PD Daniel Gilliam.<\/p>\n Louisville Public Media and its classical station WUOL want to connect with people regardless of whether they are classical music fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I hope that they do is they connect our call letters and our brand with this powerful live experience they\u2019re having, and maybe that materializes into something more for them or telling their friends about it,\u201d Gilliam said.<\/p>\n New Lens is \u201cfinancially stable\u201d with the help of support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Snowy Owl Foundation and the Amphion Foundation, Gilliam said. The 21c Museum Hotel, which hosts the concerts and is a presenting partner, also supports the series, including with in-kind donations.<\/p>\n Gilliam pointed out some of the shows in the series that make New Lens unique for Louisville. In 2022, the series included a performance in which a choir sang the final words of seven unarmed Black men<\/a> killed by police or bystanders. Jole Thompson\u2019s \u201cSeven Last Words of the Unarmed\u201d also featured strings and piano.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo one else was presenting this work that speaks directly to a major injustice in our community,\u201d Gilliam said, citing the deaths of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee in Louisville.<\/p>\nConnecting with the community\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Speaking to everybody in the community\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\u2018If they never listen to the radio\u2026\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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