Local classical musicians will be heard throughout the country, starting on Oct. 6th.
WGTE will be producing a new radio program called “New Music from Bowling Green.” The program will feature musicians from town who play and conduct contemporary classical music.
The Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra will be one of the groups that will be heard on the radio program.
Not only will the program be played in Toledo, but in cities throughout the country such as Dallas, St. Louis and Atlanta.
Brad Cresswell of WGTE collaborated with Dean of Musical Arts Jeffrey Showell. The two met when Cresswell came to the University with Toledo Blade reporter Sally Vallongo.
“She happened to bring along Brad, her friend,” Showell said. “After the interview finished, we started talking and found out we both wanted to do the same thing.”
Showell describes the program as a “brainchild” between himself and Cresswell.
Cresswell originally wanted to do the program with Oberlin College, but it never came to fruition. He said that Oberlin College was too far away from Toledo for him to effectively communicate. He instead turned to campus, which was “right in our own backyard.”
One of the reasons Showell wanted this program to happen was to bring recognition to the University and to its musicians.
“I’m sure that it’ll help to increase the number of graduate and undergraduate applicants here, and their quality,” Showell said.”[It will] make this an even more desirable place to be a faculty member,” he said.
Showell added that the University deserves to be well known because of its great musical program.
“We have one of the few degrees in the county in contemporary music,” he said. “So it seemed natural, and also Bowling Green already has a fine reputation internationally as a music school, but I don’t think it has as much exposure as it deserves.”
Showell wants to make contemporary classical music more accessible by adding interviews with performers and composers of the music.
“I think a lot of people hear contemporary music and just think it’s weird,” Showell said. “I think that’s been happening since the 1800s.”
Recording Engineer Mike Bunce is involved with the program through The New Music Festival that takes place at the University. Showell said a variety of international musicians perform at the festival as well.
Live recordings of the Festival produced and edited by Bunce will be featured on the program.
Bunce said the editing of the festival requires hard work and is glad the University is working with Cresswell, who will help with the editing.
Even recording is a complex process, as Bunce explained. One must take into account the venue, the level of the microphone and the size of the group being recorded.
“One recording may be the Philharmonia, well that’s a very large group so the mic is a little bit further away,” he said “Where as there may be a small group with just piano, violin and clarinet and that has to be much more intimate sounding and much closer.”
Bunce hopes the hard work he and his colleagues put into the program will be heard widely throughout the country.
“I hope that it’s a really successful series and that it actually gets some play around the country,” Bunce said.
