First, we’d like to welcome Jeffrey Thomas from the Bay Area’s American Bach Soloists as the new host of Sacred Concert Sunday mornings from 7-9am.
We are going to expand the show a bit to include some other wonderful choral gems alongside the great Sacred masterpieces. He will be asking for your help in coming up with a new name for the show!

We are doing a bit of musical chairs with hosts for the different times of day.  Hoyt is still there Saturday mornings from 7am to 1pm to start of beautiful weekend of music with KDFC.  Our talented Music Director Rik Malone picks it up from there with the Big One @1, and he plays more great music until 6pm.
From there, I’m excited to jump back in behind the mic after a few years behind the scenes, and I’ll hang out with you Saturday nights until about 10.

On Sundays, The Travel Show with Rick Steves continues at 6am, followed by the Sacred Concert at 7 with the our new host, and soon-to-be new name.
Dianne Nicolini moves over to Sunday mornings to help you relax on the commercial-free Big Island of Sanity from 9-noon.  She sticks around through the Big One @1, and then our weekend guy Ray White takes over for your drive home from the barbeque, or the weekend getaway until 7pm when we’re joined by the fantastic kids of From the Top.  No changes in the line up at 8 With the SF Opera broadcasts the first Sunday of the Month, and the concerts from around the world on SymphonyCast the other weeks.

We’re certain a big helping of classical music will make for great weekends all summer long with Classical 102.1 KDFC.

Betsy O’Connor has been back from Hawaii for almost a week and has spent some of that time home reading your wonderful posts on my previous blog about her retirement. She has been deeply moved and here is her response…

Dear Friends:

I have spent the last couple of days wracking my brain, trying to decide how I can possibly express what you’ve given me…..so MANY kind words, good wishes and sweet farewells.  There really are no words.  You’ve touched my heart and for that I thank you…..from the bottom of my heart.

This is going to be an adjustment for sure!  Weaning myself off of radio….wonderful listeners….and my everyday close friendship and
camaraderie with Hoyt is going to be a challenge.  But I leave with a
heart bursting from your wonderful notes.  Thank you……

Sincerely,
Betsy

Two of the Bay Area’s finest arts institutions announced the names of their new (fearless?) leaders this week.  Filling the large shoes of Robert Cole at Cal Performances is Matias Tarnopolsky, currently in artistic planning at the New York Phil and formerly with the BBC and the Chicago Symphonies.  Tarnopolsky, like Cole before him, has been known to wield a baton now and then. And at Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a familiar name to lead the ensemble beginning June 1st, former SF Symphony Executive Director, Peter Pastreich.  Here’s wishing the best of luck to both men,  helming two of our favorite partners in music!

We joked about it on the air whenever the market tanked that we couldn’t afford to retire…ever. Then she called. “Loving Hawaii. Inspired to retire” was her comment, more or less. Actually I knew that she was thinking about it, picking a date, but I didn’t want it to end. Neither did you, so it seems.

We were just thrown together on the air back 2002 as so often happens in radio (or any work environment).  Over time we got to know about our families, our pets, our love of cooking and travel. Betsy said that what she’ll miss the most is just hanging out with me for three hours each morning. We had gotten to a point where I would comment on a news story I had just read and she’d look up and laugh saying, “I’m just typing that up”. Knowing how we both wear our hearts on our sleeves,  a “farewell show” would have drowned in a sea of tears and floated on a cloud of used tissues.

Dan from Richmond called this morning saying he is a big believer in “closure” and wanted to say “goodbye”,  so this is your chance. Leave a comment below for Betsy. Your comments after my heart surgery in ’07 meant so much (and still do), I’m sure these will mean the world to Bets.

One couldn’t have a better partner.

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We say goodbye to our afternoon host of the past 7 years, John Evans. I worked with John in news radio years ago, and I just knew he would make a fine classical announcer in time, and he did! Johnny, you will be missed. You can leave a note for John here by clicking ‘comments.’

Betsy O’Connor, Hoyt’s morning sidekick, is hanging up her mic. She’s going to retire and spend more time with her husband and dog (when she returns from Hawaii!). She started with KDFC as my morning news person around 9 years ago. When she teamed up with Hoyt, the two became fast friends. You can check out Hoyt’s blog to drop Betsy a note. Since there is only one place to find classical music anytime on Bay Area radio, and many places for news and traffic, we’re going to dispense with the news and traffic, and focus on the music all morning.

Here’s the weekday lineup:

5:30-6:30 am
The 5:30AM Wake Up Hour – commercial-free. Set your clock-radio to great classical music.

6:30-am-1pm
Hoyt Smith is there to brighten your morning with classical favorites through the first half of your workday.

1pm-7pm
Dianne Nicolini is with you to finish the second half of the workday staring with the “Big One @1” and during the drive home. That includes The New 5:30PM Wind Down Hour – another great commercial-free hour 5:30-6:30pm. Set a button for Sanity for your afternoon drive and arrive relaxed.

7pm-10:30pm
Music Director Rik Malone is back on nights with “Island at 7” followed by the longer works in the evening.

10:30pm on
KDFC All Night remains the same. Just you and the music.

We will be announcing the new summer line-up for weekends next week soon, so stay tuned.

Thanks for your wonderful support.

If your business, or the businesses that you frequent could benefit from advertising to KDFC’s unique audience of over 500,000 intelligent and sophisticated listeners (so true!), please contact our sales manager Mike Fadelli. We are not looking for donations. We are looking for local business partners who will benefit from our magnificent audience members (like you) and will keep KDFC flourishing.

And don’t forget to patronize the advertisers you hear on KDFC. Let them know you appreciate their support of KDFC.

The KDFC Classical Star Search finals were last night and it was a memorable evening full of highlights and heartbreak. I was way out of my league as one of 3 judges, with cellist Zuill Bailey and SFO music director Donald Runnicles. But let me tell you what these guys were doing before the show. Killing time in the green room, demonstrating the latest “apps” on their iPhones! Zuill was very proud of having downloaded an app. that allows you to wield your iPhone like a light saber, Star Wars sound effects and all. Donald showed us one called iSteam in which the iPhone screen appears to be covered in condensation. Use your thumb to rub it off and listen to the squeaky sounds! I must say I was amazed to see these two world-class classical musicians totally smitten by something so mundane as an iPhone app. Or is it just a guy thing?

It’s interesting how much we can tell about some KDFC listeners by what they offer up in their emails. Sometimes they link to an interesting home page, or their signature discloses a startling job title (rocket scientist!). Recently I heard from a cartoonist by the name of Crow. I have a special appreciation of cartoon art as my grandfather, Dorman H. Smith, was a political cartoonist for Hearst back in the middle of the 20th century. Crow asked if I’d be interested in a cartoon of me and how could I refuse. He graciously consented to letting me post it.

I think I know the show that inspired this. One fateful day, when our big music server froze up and sent me scrambling, has now been immortalized in art. Thanks Crow!

Also after talking about Vivaldi’s many years teaching the women at the orphanage in Venice a listener reminded me of  the book “Vivaldi’s Virgins”, a historical novel by KDFC listener Barbara Quick. Here is a snippet of the Harper Collins website description…

“In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi’s Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi—known as the Red Priest of Venice—is maestro and composer.”

Later this week I’ll post a short video from a listener of her photos set to music from a KDFC listener favorite.  I hope we can continue to be a source of inspiration.

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For 17 years, Donald Runnicles has led the SF Opera Orchestra as conductor and music director.  He will officially relinquish his post at the end of the current season, replaced by Nicola Luisotti.  17 years is a long-time.  An era, in fact, and the Runnicles era has been marked by adventuresome programming,  memorable productions of standard repertory and, above all,  superb musicianship.  Among other topics, we talked about his favorite gigs with SFO and some of his answers would surprise you.  Who would guess that Opera in the Park is as much fun for him as it is for those of us in the audience? Also, Donald weighs in on what he will be looking for when he judges our KDFC Classical Star Search this Monday, May 11.  (Buy your tickets here)

Press play to hear this titan of the opera world who BTW is a really nice guy.

STAR SEARCH
Just a week to go before our second annual KDFC Classical Star Search Finals competition. I am blown away by the quality of the talent again this year, especially in the youth category. It is so phenomenal that we could not pick only three finalists. We are going with five instead. Their will be three in the adult category. Winners from both will get a check for $1500. Despite the outcome of next Monday’s competition, we have a People’s Choice Award will you decide. The winner picks up $500 in cash. See the videos of the finalists and cast your vote for your favorite.

JON NAKAMATSU
Tuesday, May 12, San Jose pianist John Nakamatsu stops by KDFC for an Intimate Lobby Concert for Club KDFC members. It’s be invitation only, at random, from the list of our club members. Jon is an amazing talent who lives here but rarely performs locally. Hoyt and I did see him play a free noontime concert at St. Pat’s on Mission between 3rd and 4th streets a few years ago and we introduced ourselves. We’re thrilled he’s going to stop by here and do a Q&A concert with Dianne Nicolini and then stop by the air studio and chat with me for a few minutes on the air.

SURPRISE AT 5
The feedback continues to be amazing. And we’re getting exciting suggestions for pieces of music to feature. Last week, it was a percussion arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero and a piece written by a local composer, Niall Roche titled “The Cloths of Heaven” inspired by the Yeats poem. Plus we heard a tribute to the late ukulele virtuoso John King as he played Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

Coming up this week, for Cinco de Mayo, we’ll feature a tribute to one of Mexico’s greatest composers, hear a world premier recording of a piano concerto by an English composer which to me sounds like Cinematic Rachmaninoff. And Friday, a Holocaust Remembrance tribute.

MOM
Mother’s Day is coming up this weekend. I’ll be flying my mother down for a week later this month for her bi-annual visit and cherish the time we get to spend together. All the best to you and yours.