Every year it seems Beethoven’s mighty 9th Symphony conquers the KDFC Top 100 Classical All-Stars.  Can you predict what will be #1 when we reveal your absolute favorite soundtrack this Friday at 5p?  Check out the list so far here and see if your fave has already aired.  Will the Top 10 be dominated by John Williams? Will one of the younger film composers prevail, eg. Alexandre Desplat, Randy Newman, James Horner? How important is a great soundtrack to a movie?  Tell us which movie score should win and why.  Predict the winner right here with a comment to this blog.

Will Max Steiner's greatest score be #1?

Our next KDFC at Yoshi’s concert is coming up this Monday March 1 and it will feature the guitarist Gyan Riley.  I caught up with Gyan by phone yesterday in L.A.,  recording a new CD with the Falla Guitar Quartet.  The first thing I asked him about was his unusual name.  Was I pronouncing it correctly?  Apparently he always tells people to think “Gyan with the Wind”, so it’s almost one syllable.  Got it!

Click below to listen to my interview:

Yes, that’s what they’re calling it, the historic snow storms that have socked the Mid-Atlantic,  including Washington D.C.   Most years this would be of mild interest to me.  Just something to make me feel grateful for living in the Bay Area but this January, my daughter Monica transferred from UC San Diego  (where it is always sunny and never even rains!) to George Washington University, smack dab in the middle of D.C.  I’m one of those moms who worries over the littlest things so you can imagine my level of anxiety when I read about how these storms are worse than anything anyone’s seen since the days of Washington himself.  Remember Valley Forge? Anyway, she’s absolutely fine and actually enjoying the novelty of snow.  She even participated in a midnight all-campus snowball fight.  Now that’s something that would be hard to duplicate in San Diego!

And New Zealand is even more “under” than Australia!  Among other things, our trip was one big geography lesson for me.  Below the equator and across the International Dateline for the first time in my life and we had a great time.  This was really my husband Jim’s dream vacation.  He figures he only has so many years left when he can still do crazy things like canyoning, sledging, street luging, white water rafting, black water rafting, exciting jet boat trips up and down beautiful rivers and swimming with the dolphins. Believe it or not, we did all these things.  We did draw the line at bungy-jumping.

Here are my Top 3 NZ highlights: the people, the scenery, the food.  The Kiwis were friendly, kind and helpful to a person.  The landscape, especially in the South Island, was stunning and the food surprised us.  Breakfasts were generous and scrumptious at the fun and luxurious B & B’s where we stayed and we ate at amazing restaurants everywhere we went.  Plenty of lamb of course, venison and great beef but also delicious vegetables and fruits (it is summer down there right now).

Here are a few photos of our adventures:

Rippon Winery on Lake Wanaka

Down the 7 meter waterfall in the Kaituna River

The exquisite Milford Sound

My crazy husband "canyoning"

Whenever tragedy strikes, we look for ways to help and the San Francisco Boys Choir is putting together a benefit concert that gives us all a chance to do something positive for Haiti.  On Sunday January 24 at 5pm, the choir will be joined by the great Frederica von Stade (who it seems never tires of donating her time and talent to worthy causes).  The concert also features members of the SF Opera Chorus and organist Rudy de Vos.  The setting is the stunning new Cathedral of Christ the Light on Oakland’s Lake Merritt.  Click here for all the details.

…plus Baby Newsom sighting.  ACT celebrated the 100th anniversary of its home on Saturday with an open house that attracted hundreds of folks throughout the day.  The cutest participant of the day was Montana Newsom (below), making her media debut.  (Mom Jennifer is an ACT graduate).  The day was such a success that ACT is extending their Phedre ticket deal to tomorrow.  You can buy tickets for just 19.10 for any performance of Phedre.  1910 was the year that the theatre opened.

KDFC welcomes Quartet San Francisco to Yoshi’s SF on Monday January 25.  Be there!  I introduced these guys at the Oakland Yoshi’s a couple of years ago and it was such a great show.  It’s amazing how many different things a string quartet can be!  The Quartet SF is famous for their tango playing (award-winning in fact) but they do it all.  Straight ahead classical, TV show themes, jazz and now they’re nominated for 2 Grammys for their Dave Brubeck CD. Another great reason to join us on the 25th is that the tickets are a steal at just $10 in advance.  Here’s a link to buy them now at kdfc.com.

Selecting the Top 10 CDs of 2009 was tough ‘cuz there were so many outstanding possibilities.  My thoughts on the final  KDFC line-up:

1.Homage:James Ehnes-Canadian violinist Ehnes is a kid in a candy shop as he gets to play on some of the world’s most valuable violins and violas.

2.Mahler/MTT-Our hometown band hits it out of the park with this stunning recording. 3 Grammy nominations!

3.Bach:Brandenburgs-My first thought, “Not another set of Brandenburgs!” but this one is different. With just one instrument per part, the sound is very crisp and light.  Love it.

4.Dudamel Discoveries-As much as I try to avoid jumping on bandwagons, I love me some Gustavo!  His endless enthusiasm makes him pretty much irresistable.  And then there’s the hair.

5.Catrin Finch:Goldberg Variations on Harp-Proving once again that Bach’s music can be stretched and arranged in a million different ways.  New and nice.

6. Sharon Isbin:Journey to the New World-The gifted American guitarist is all over the map with this collection.  From Renaissance stuff to new music inspired by Joan Baez.

7.Stephen Osborne:Rachmaninoff-Sometimes a recording captures your heart and you’re not sure why.  This one is like that.  We all wanted copies!

8.James Rhodes:Razor Blades- This young Englishman is a Twitter friend of Hoyt’s!  An exciting debut from a guy with a harrowing story.

9. Alexander Tharaud: Satie-After you have fun reading the titles of Satie’s works, listen to these insightful performances from this popular French pianist.

10.Beethoven for Cello and Piano-Both Zuill and Simone are alums of our KDFC Casual Concerts and together they bring something extraordinary to these venerable pieces.

Simone Dinnerstein and Zuill Bailey

For some reason there’s never any leftover pumpkin pie but a seemingly bottomless pile of leftover mashed potatoes showed up this year post-Thanksgiving at my house.  I put out the call to our KDFC listeners.  What to do with a surplus of  mashies?  I knew you guys would come through for me!  Lots of great ideas.  From Shon Miller, a yummy-sounding recipe for a potato bake.  Kathy Chelini sends along a great looking potato soup,  kind of like a warm vichyssoise.  Big thanks to Anne, Camille, and Linda for reminding me about that homey stand-by, Shepherd’s Pie!

While I’m one of those people who thinks that classical music is the perfect soundtrack for all aspects of life, some folks think it is particularly well suited to Halloween.  Join the super-scary Linda Bruno for an hour of spine-tingling favorites this Saturday night at 7:00.  The trick-or-treaters will get a kick out of Night on Bald Mountain, Toccata and Fugue in d minor, Funeral March of a Marionette,  the Dies Irae from Mozart’s Requiem and so on.  A spooktacular program of great classical music guaranteed to raise the little hairs on the back of your neck.  Happy Halloween from KDFC.

My Top 5 Spooky Movies:

The Shining

The Others

Rosemary’s Baby

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Don’t Look Now