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I’d like to take a moment on this, my favorite holiday of the year, to pay tribute to you. I am grateful and thankful every day to the KDFC Listener Family. We are more than half a million strong here in the Bay Area and countless thousands more around the world thanks to the Internet. We all belong to a special community brought together by our love of timeless music. On behalf of all of us here at KDFC, Happy Thanksgiving, John.
I’m just back from some islands in eastern Thailand near the Cambodian border and having relaxing classical music was icing on the cake. I thought you might be interested in what CDs really added to the relaxation.
First and formost was the "KDFC Islands of Sanity 4" with it’s signature blend of very relaxing music.
I found it especially nice sipping that first cup in the morning sitting on the deck overlooking the gentle waves at Koh Mak.
A similar CD is "Adagio Chillout", a compilation from Naxos.
Guitar music can be so restful and one of my favorites for a while now has been "Air on a G String" By David Russell
For meditative moments I turned to a surprise hit on the U.K. charts called "Chant – Music for the Soul" by the Cistercian Monks. I must admit I couldn’t get into the Gregorian chants sitting around my house in SF, but floating over the water in a hut in Thailand it worked just fine.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to thank our great KDFC listeners. Thanks for making KDFC the most successful classical station in the country. Be sure to have KDFC on during your turkey feast on Thursday. The wonderful Linda Bruno will be filling in for me from noon to 4:00 and you can hear Ray White in the morning with Nicole LaCroix bringing you great music in the evening hours. I also want to thank my neighbor and friend Sandy van Broek for sending me the photo of my own personal theater in Italy! Obviously that double "c" was one of those pesky masonry typos!
It’s been wonderful reconnecting in person with several KDFC listeners at recent listener events. In late October we hosted the first ever full scale classical event at Yoshi’s new San Francisco location in the heart of the old jazz district in the Fillmore. Yoshi’s SF is beautiful and the concert featuring Angele Dubeau and La Pieta from Montreal was amazing. Here’s to the success of Yoshi’s SF as it makes its mark on the San Francisco nightclub scene as Yoshi’s Oakland has done.
This past week, KDFC presented the Bay Area concert debut of Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi. As Dianne Nicolini and I said from stage before the concert…we first discovered Ludovico’s music 5 years ago. Our programming team of Bill Lueth and Rik Malone singled out one of his songs and Bill played it for me one afternoon before my show. We made the decision to present it on air that day. The response then and since is nothing short of phenomenal. His CDs are among the best selling at kdfc.com. Back in May Einaudi came to the KDFC studios for a private "Intimate Lobby Concert" for about 50 listeners (Club KDFC members).
He told us then that he was about to embark on his first tour of America and the sold-out show at Bimbo’s in North Beach on November 20th brought down the house. He played several KDFC listener favorites including the first work of his we ever played on KDFC…"Two Sunsets", or in Italian, "Due Tramonti." You can find that song on his collection titled, "Echoes" or on the original CD from 1999, "Eden Roc."
KDFC flipped the switch on the holidays Friday night at the Embarcadero Center in the City. Dianne Nicolini and I MC’ed the building lighting festivities at the ice skating rink at Justin Herman Plaza and then went indoors for the Hyatt Regency’s atrium/tree lighting where we were joined by Rik Malone and Ray White. It’s wonderful reconnecting with listeners every year and meeting new ones. It was a beautiful and festive November evening. I had quite a jolt though as I navigated through a sea of people in the lobby. When I passed Santa Claus. He looked me right in the eye and said, "Well, hi John Evans!" He really does know whether you’ve been naughty or nice!
On a somber note…
This marks the 30th anniversary of two tragedies that devastated the San Francisco Bay Area. People’s Temple/Jonestown and the City Hall Murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien reports a riveting feature on Jonestown. It’s a must-see. And this week, the movie "Milk" opens at the Castro Theater. I have tickets to see it this holiday weekend. I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts about the film. Email me.
On a brighter note…
ACT’s The Quality of Life was one of the best plays I have ever seen. A star-filled cast including Laurie Metcalf of TV’s Roseanne, JoBeth Williams, Steven Culp of Desperate Housewives and Dennis Boutsikaris. The subject matter rattles on every level. The Quality of Life closed last weekend but add it to your list of must see plays!! And Dame Edna is back. We caught opening night at the Post Street Theater and it was hilarious. The Dame is here through January 4th. We ran into several KDFC listeners in the lobby that night. Finally, I just bought tickets for The View’s Joy Behar who’s doing a New Year’s Eve 10:30pm comedy show at the Castro Theater. What a way to ring in 2009!
Have a Fantastic Thanksgiving!!!!!
US News and World Report just published the names of America’s Best Leaders and our own Michael Tilson Thomas made the list. This will come as no surprise to anyone who is a regular attendee at Davies Symphony Hall or, for that matter, to anyone living in the Bay Area. In his 12 seasons with the SFS, MTT has brought a wonderful excitement and creative innovation not only to the orchestra but to the community in general. And not a little glamor too. Here’s MTT on his musical mission:
"If I had to say, ‘Who am I going to impress from here onward? Am I going to be playing for the experts or the guys at the gym?’ I’ll pick the guys at the gym," Thomas says. "I want them to feel there is something in this music for them. You don’t have to know anything special to love classical music. If you are alive and in tune with your own feelings and the way in which those feelings are changing all the time, then classical music is for you."
Thanks to everybody for their great composer campaign slogans. Here are a few choice ideas:
Bach to Basics
There’s No Bizet Like Show Bizet
Bach to the Fugueture
Smitten with Smetana
Dvorak for the New World
Haydn: No Surprise
Vote Offenbach: Yes We Can-Can
We Love Ludwig!
And don’t forget to vote for the 2009 KDFC Classical All-Stars right now at www.kdfc.com.
As part of our KDFC Classical All-Star voting we’re asking you to provide some catchy campaign slogans for the "candidates". You can send yours here by clicking "Leave a Comment" or just e-mail me at dnicolini@kdfc.com. We’ve already received a good number of really fun ideas. Here’s just a few:
-Hands Up for Handel
James Nemechek
-Tippecanoe and Tchaikovsky Too!
Margaret Winters
-Vivaldi, Man for All Seasons
Gerald Asp
-Ich Bin Ein Beethovener!
James Dorman
Thanks to all our clever campaign strategists. Don’t forget to vote early and often. You’ll automatically be entered to win some All-Star CDs!
*thanks to Martie Muldoon
I just asked a Lunch Box trivia question about the new Secret Service code names for the Obama family. Here they are:
Barack/Renegade
Michelle/Renaissance
Malia/Radiance
Sasha/Rosebud
Anyway, it got KDFC listener Michael Horn wondering "If you were in the White House, Dianne, what would your code name be?" Good question. Well, "princess" comes to mind immediately. And our webmaster, Bob McDiarmid has taken to calling me "Goddess". Also acceptable. ‘Course I wouldn’t have any say in the name the Secret Service chose for me so it would probably be something more accurate like "Pizza Queen" or "Big Whiner". How ’bout you? Any thoughts?
Rosebud and Radiance
I first met Kip Cranna when he and I were judging an opera lip-synching contest years ago at what I think was the SF County Fair. If you attended one of the great SF Opera outdoor simulcasts, you saw the super-fun "Kip-Cam" introductions on screen with Kip interviewing the stars of the opera, the conductor, even the make-up people. Kip has been with the opera for years and just received a special medal from the opera for his long and distinguished service. Here’s a guy who knows everything and everybody in the world of opera. You’ll be able to ask him anything on November 18 at Soluna Cafe and Lounge. He’ll be on hand to prepare us for the performance of Elixir of Love that night. Hope you can join Kip and me for this annual KDFC Night at the Opera. Get great orchestra and dress circle seats at a special discount. Plus we throw in the reception at Soluna! Use this not-so-secret code: KDFC9 Order your tickets now.
Check out our Nemorino, Ramon Vargas, singing the famous tenor aria from "Elixir":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qvhEkOkGgg
I’m off for two weeks for post election rest and recharge.
Here is the first stop. I may never want to leave…
Latitude 12 6’13” N Longitude 102 21’7” E
Back on the 24th of November,
hs
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