Setting Standards for Performance, Composition and Broadcasting since 1925
Host, Bill McGlaughlin
Produced by the Music Division, Library of Congress in cooperation with CD Syndications
Airing now in 180 cities around the country, the Concerts from the Library of Congress radio series continues a distinguished broadcast tradition of more than eight decades. Launched with the first concert in the Library’s historic Coolidge Auditorium--October 28, 1925-ours is the oldest classical music broadcast series in America.
With an intimate, 500-seat concert hall admired worldwide for its acoustics, a notable collection of rare instruments, and the world’s largest music archive, the Nation’s Library is also a major performing arts center with a long track record of media innovation. That first broadcast was carried by a fledgling pre-network group anchored by the Naval Broadcasting Service in Arlington, Virginia, and stations in Schenectady and New York City. Two years before the founding of the Federal Communications Commission, the Library’s pioneering thinkers had already harnessed the astonishing power of what was then a new medium to take its concerts to a broad audience across the American heartland. In the 1930's, entrepreneurial partnerships with the five-year-old National Broadcasting Company, and later, CBS, ensured a national audience for live broadcasts from the Coolidge, drawing millions of listeners.
Today, the Library partners with CD Syndications in creating 13 one-hour programs that showcase superb Coolidge Auditorium performances by legendary stars of the classical music world. With Bill McGlaughlin as an expert guide, the broadcasts open the vaults of the Library’s unparalleled music collections. Special companion Web pages offer a glimpse of the Music Division’s treasures-manuscripts, letters, portraits, and memorabilia-more than 22 million individual items.
Conductor, composer and radio personality Bill McGlaughlin is a master communicator, known for creating the Peabody Award-winning program program "Saint Paul Sunday," and WFMT’s daily national show "Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin," which recently won the coveted Dushkin Award. He has led orchestras throughout the United States, with a 12-year tenure as music director of the Kansas City Symphony. Recent projects have included a commission for Continental Harmony, and a work written for Garrison Keillor, "Surveying Lake Wobegon," which has been performed by orchestras from coast to coast.
CD Syndications is a leading producer of classical music programming for the national market. Headed by Victor Muenzer and Noel Morris, the company is known for creative, innovative programs like "Indianapolis On-The-Air" and center Stage from Wolf Trap, produced in assocation with WETA-FM. Vic Muenzer is the founder of two record labels and a production company; he has produced over 70 recordings, winning a Grammy for a 1994 recording of the Mozart and Beethoven wind quintets with Daniel Barenboim and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Award-winning producer Noel Morris, recognized for productions with a casual but informative style, breaking down barriers for new listeners, while continuing to entice the classical music veteran. She is the producer for "Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin."
Last Updated: 10/06/2008