"Celebrating the Art of Song"
VoiceBox is a weekly public radio and podcast series dedicated to exploring the art of singing and the best of the vocal music scene.
An independent project launched under the auspices of KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco in January 2010 and now available on several stations throughout California as well as via a free weekly podcast on iTunes ('kalwvoicebox'), VoiceBox seeks to highlight and contextualize the work of singers, songwriters and vocal music experts from across a wide range of backgrounds, while stimulating in-depth, high quality discussion about the human voice and encouraging listeners to both broaden their musical horizons and participate in singing activities of their own.
VoiceBox capitalizes upon the tremendous popularity of vocal music in the United States and beyond.
According to a recent study by Chorus America, an estimated 32.5 million adults regularly sing in choruses today, up from 23.5 million in 2003. There are more than 500 choral groups in the Bay Area alone and more than one in five households nationwide have at least one singing family member, making choral singing the most popular form of participation in the performing arts for both adults and children. In recent years, singing has lately become the subject of a number of mainstream television shows such as American Idol, The Sing-Off and Glee.
Yet despite the great artistic, social and health benefits of singing and its popularity among specific sectors of the population, there seems to be no place for people who love listening to vocal music or participating in singing activities to go to get focused, contextual reflection about their passion.
In response to this woeful state of affairs in the media and the public%u2019s obvious passionate engagement with singing, VoiceBox aims to celebrate vocal music artists in the same intelligent, wide-ranging and in-depth manner as Terry Gross and Michael Krasny highlight authors, filmmakers and other cultural figures on national and Bay Area public radio respectively.
Each hour-long, thematically-organized show in the VoiceBox series is dedicated to exploring a particular vocal music topic such as why we sing, children%u2019s choruses, and sea chanteymen. The project also aims to reach broader audiences through the development of an accompanying podcast series and web portal.
Listen in on Fridays on KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco (10-11pm) and KZSU 90.1 FM Stanford (5-6pm), or via on-demand webstream at www.kalw.org. VoiceBox is also available as a weekly podcast via iTunes ('kalwvoicebox') and on Los Angeles' KUSC 91.5 FM website (kusc.org.)
