Kimberly Powell

Pianist produces local concert broadcasts
Buzz up!
BY RICK ROGERS
Published: August 2, 2009

There was a time when serious musicians had fairly limited career options. One could become an orchestral player, a concert artist, a church organist or a teacher. In recent decades, that list has expanded considerably and now includes such diverse career opportunities as music producers, arts administrators, music therapists and program note annotators.

Kimberly Powell, who holds degrees in piano from Northwestern University in Illinois, spent a number of years coaching and accompanying singers and instrumentalists. But these days, she’s putting her musical training to use as an on-air announcer and as producer of a weekly radio broadcast.

Powell has spent the past several months revamping "Community Curtain Call,” a weekly series that airs at 5 p.m. Sundays on classical radio station KCSC-FM 90.1 in central Oklahoma and KBCW-FM 91.9 in southeastern Oklahoma. Rechristened "Performance Oklahoma,” the program spotlights performances from various local and regional concerts. For the next six weeks, the series will feature chamber music concerts from the 2009 edition of the OK Mozart International Festival in Bartlesville.

"Paul Neubauer (music director of the annual OK Mozart festival) came by our studio to promote a local concert he was doing, and after talking at length about the festival, I had the idea that maybe we could broadcast some of the Bartlesville concerts from the 2008 season,” Powell said. "The success of those programs resulted in this new series from the 2009 festival.”

Rather than just assembling a group of diverse pieces to create a full-length broadcast, Powell wanted to personalize the experience for listeners. For three days in June, she attended many of the festival’s chamber music concerts and then interviewed the artists. Their commentary will become an important component of the OK Mozart radio broadcasts.

"I think letting the musicians speak about their experiences will make for a much better series,” Powell said. "Those who tune in to these broadcasts will get to hear Fred Sherry talking about contemporary music, Wu Han talking about arts administration, Arnaud Sussman speaking about his Avery Fisher Career Grant, Haochen Zhang discussing his Van Cliburn Competition victory and Peter Wiley talking about the Guarneri String Quartet’s last performances.”

The six broadcasts, one each Sunday through Sept. 6, will bring together an eclectic group of works by familiar composers such as Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Elgar along with contemporary composers such as Alan Paul, Philippe Hersant, Elliott Carter and Charles Wuorinen.

"After the OK Mozart concerts conclude, "Performance Oklahoma” will feature concerts by the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble, the Chamber Music in Oklahoma series and some of the University of Oklahoma’s Sutton Concerts,” Powell said. "At some point, I’d like to expand the series to include university concerts and programs by local youth orchestras.

"My hope is to keep the momentum going and the quality of the performances high. I’d also like to encourage other musical organizations to consider participating in this project. I think this series will allow the community to connect more with these musical performances and come away with a greater appreciation of what they’ve heard.”