Making airwaves

NEW INTRODUCTIONS Producer David Polk hopes the show will catch on with Chicago’s precollegiate players.

Photo: Courtesy of David Polk

“Kids today and their classical music”: It sounds like some crack in a B-list comedy club. But tune in to WFMT (98.7 FM) each Saturday from 11am to noon, and you’ll see no one’s joking.

The Chicago classical station’s executive producer Steve Robinson and producer David Polk spearhead Introductions, a weekly radio program featuring Chicagoland’s precollegiate classical-music stars. If that seems a lot like pianist/NPR-host Christopher O’Riley’s hit national program From the Top, that’s because Polk has consulted with that show to craft this one. Which isn’t to say Introductions won’t stand apart.

“We’ll be way more low-key,” Polk tells us by phone, adding that his show is hosted by Raja Burrows and Lisa Brownstone, student musicians from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, respectively, and offers an informal feel: more music, less chatter. In addition to solo instrumentalists, Introductions will feature larger ensembles, symphonic bands and choruses. While From the Top does select a large amount of talent from the Chicago area, it can’t possibly feature everybody—a prime reason, Polk says, for starting a new, locally based show to throw a more complete spotlight on Chicago’s young classical-music talent.

The first show, on April 5, featured Molly May Manarchy, a classical guitarist from the Chicago Academy of the Arts. To get on air like Manarchy, applicants send in a tape with two contrasting pieces that, to keep things fair, are evaluated by a secret screening committee. It doesn’t all have to be classical music proper, either. Most symphonic band music crosses over into classifications such as movie music and marching themes.

Robinson, the station’s general manager, has been a vital figure in supporting young talent; last year, the Merit School of Music honored him and WFMT with the first Merit Champion Award. Yet he felt he could do more than feature young artists once every six weeks or so on WFMT. “I see it as a mandate,” Robinson says about starting Introductions, a project he felt was owed to the public.

With his support, Polk brings the conviction that classical music is more popular than ever among teenagers—and he should know. “I am the über–band geek,” he jokes, unabashedly admitting that he’s attended band camp seven times. Before arriving at WFMT, he interned with NPR’s Car Talk, the Ravinia Festival and the Paris Orchestra. A recent graduate of Tufts University, Polk, 25, seems to be the ideal guy to steer the show wherever it may go.

One direction is the show’s interactive website (wfmt.com/introductions), which will play a significant role in what goes on air. Local classical musicians can start their own blogs and are encouraged to share personal musical experiences and write program notes. The hosts will then drop in the various anecdotes during the broadcast. “We don’t want to tell people how to use it,” says Polk, who hopes the web users will feel free to experiment as they go. Introductions also will link to its own Facebook page to expand its rapidly growing social network.

Polk is especially excited about developing a regional high-school arts calendar that will be appended to the website. “Sports and athletic departments never have to work to get media coverage,” he laments. “Yet music students work just as hard as athletes.” By announcing some of the calendar’s events on air, Introductions looks to promote younger arts communities. But that’s only the beginning: “I have lots of other ideas I’m developing, too,” says the eager producer. “You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what they are.”

Introductions airs Saturdays at 11am on WFMT.