Script for WFMT Announcer Audition

In 2015 WFMT (Chicago FM classical music radio station) posted an online application for the position of Part-time Announcer. In addition to various questions which were to be answered in writing, this audition format included the requirement that the applicant record and submit a reading of a script (obviously intended to test his/her ability to cope with specialized terminology and names needed for the unique content of the classical music broadcasts). As part of my application for this position (which was not accepted), I present here my recorded submission. Before listening to the recording, you may wish to read the script drafted by WFMT.

The WFMT announcer’s lot is not a happy one. In addition to uttering the sibilant mellifluous cadences of such cacophonous sounds as Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Carl Schuricht, Nicanor Zabeleta, Hans Knappertsbusch and the Hammerklavier Sonata, he must thread his vocal way through the complications of L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and other complicated nomenclature.

However, it must by no means be assumed that the ability to pronounce L’Orchestre de la Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris with fluidity and verve outweighs an ease, naturalness and friendliness of delivery when at the omnipresent microphone. For example, when delivering a diatribe concerning Claudia Muzio, Beniamino Gigli, Hetty Plumacher, Giacinto Prandelli, Hilde Rössel-Majdan and Lina Pagliughi, five out of six is good enough if the sixth one is mispronounced plausibly. Jessica Dragonette and Margaret Truman are taken for granted.

Poets, although not such a constant annoyance as polysyllabically named singers, creep in now and then. Of course Dylan Thomas and W.B. Yeats are no great worry. Composers occur almost incessantly, and they range all the way from Albeniz, Alfven and Auric through Wolf-Ferrari and Zeisl.

Let us reiterate that a warm, simple tone of voice is desirable, even when introducing the Bach Cantata “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” or Monteverdi’s opera “L’Incoronazione di Poppea.”

Such then, is the warp and woof of an announcer’s existence “in diesen heil’gen Hallen.”

To hear the audio of the audition please click on CD disc symbol below.
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