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WaKBAQ 89.5 fm v KJZZ e 91.5fm l e n g tSpring h 2007 $3.95 U.S.

ChangeOrchestrating KBAQ Music Director Sterling Beeaff’s Modern Take on the Classics

Spring issue sponsored by NIRENSTEIN RUOTOLO GROUP Family Law A taste for excellent performances and a deep knowledge of the repertoire inform Beeaff’s work at KBAQ. “The A Classic grand statement doesn’t necessarily impress Sterling. He likes the quieter, more direct artistic disclosures,” Contradiction says his friend, the composer By Darin Trimillos Kenneth LaFave. Photography by Art Holeman KBAQ music director Sterling Beeaff embraces a new world.

Sterling Beeaff has his music all mixed up—with his life. “Last Sunday, Dave Brubeck was the ‘CD of the Maybe that’s because KBAQ’s music director started Week,’” exclaims Janine Miller with a laugh. “And it reading music before he could read words. In fact, wasn’t Dave Brubeck trying to be classical—it was he’d just mastered speaking in sentences when he fairly jazzy.” Miller, who’s worked for seven years as started violin lessons at 3. Once he finished his twice- an announcer and KBAQ’s music librarian, Sweekly session, he hurried home to continue practicing. admits that Beeaff isn’t the typical classical music No surprise then that he went on to win The director. His juxtaposition of classical and contem- Phoenix Symphony Orchestra’s Young Persons Musical porary engages listeners in unusual ways, filling Talent Auditions at 12, and played in The Phoenix the airwaves with a musical discourse rather than Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphonette a survey of classical standards. and the Phoenix Boys Choir. Later, he published Every morning, before his stint as disc jockey, songs and poems and scored music for both film Beeaff scours piles of music for the day’s catch. Atop and stage productions. his cluttered desk, disheveled towers of CD cases So perhaps the way music has permeated every resemble postmodern architecture. A few framed aspect of his life accounts for the odd and entertaining posters line the walls, along with some nature shots way he now crosses boundaries, mixes sounds and he took with his digital camera. “I printed those at brings his own, unpredictable aesthetic to his job home,” he beams. picking music for the state’s preeminent classical For his scheduled airtime, Beeaff moves into the music station. studio. In front of him sits a large production board Beeaff spends three hours every weekday morning adorned with computer monitors constantly feeding giving listeners their daily dose of the great composers: him traffic and weather information. The microphone Bach, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Chopin and others. But hovers on a metal arm, begging him to speak. From then, you also never know when he’ll feature the work here, Beeaff addresses his listeners, serving as an of someone completely unexpected—like the eclectic intermediary between the digital present and the British alternative-rock band Radiohead. classical canon.

22 Wavelength Spring 2007 23 Sterling recommendations

What’s in Beeaff’s CD Player Now • His own songs for review and production/arrangement ideas • Alison Krauss and Union Station – Lonely Runs Both Ways • – Hearts and Bones • Concerto Köln and Sarband – The Waltz: Ecstasy and Mysticism

The Dozen Titles He’d Be Lost Without • Leonard Bernstein / New York Philharmonic – Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite • – take a decent picture. So to really take a magical photo- graph, you’ve got to have a much better eye. The • Glenn Gould – Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier downside is that you’re just that much further removed.” • Gordon Lightfoot – Old Dan’s Records As for music, Beeaff holds similar concerns. Years ago, people purchased music to play on a given • Václav Neumann / Czech Philharmonic instrument, to experience it in the first person. As music Orchestra – Dvor˘ák Symphonies 1-9 technology has developed, it’s become increasingly • Nat King Cole – The Magic of Christmas “The stereotype of a classical music director is avoided this mode of thought. detached. “It made sense somehow, even though it somebody who’s so up in an ivory tower,” says Miller. “I remember when rap came out,” he recalls. “I was still mysterious—you put this big black disc on a • Sir Alexander Gibson / Royal Scottish “But Sterling is very in tune with what else is going thought, Wow, finally something new. Later, I realized turntable, you dropped the tone arm on, and you could National Orchestra – Holst: The Planets on.” For the station’s spotlight on Radiohead, Beeaff it was doing what has done for the last 30 A multifaceted artist, hear that it started deteriorating immediately … but it • Harryin the Nilsson Night – A Little Touch of Schmilsson featured virtuoso pianist Christopher O’Riley instead years—recycle what it did last week and fall apart.” Beeaff plays several made sense.”With today’s MP3 technology, he explains, of the band’s own recordings. O’Riley, the host of In his spare time, Beeaff writes and records music instruments, writes music is accessible but therefore underappreciated. NPR’s From the Top, is known for arranging the on his Apple G5 setup, with multiple monitors and poetry and composes Still, Beeaff believes technology will benefit music • Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra – music of contemporary musicians for solo piano every electronic gizmo he can afford. From the his own music. Inter- rather than destroy it. Through online music services Orff: Carmina Burana and has released two featuring the work of comfort of his home, he can record digitally, mix estingly, his songs are such as iTunes and Napster, people can easily seek out • CarlosGuitar Paredesof Carlos – ParedesThe Magnificent Portuguese Radiohead. By choosing O’Riley’s arrangements, tracks, burn CDs and even print art. Gone are more in the tradition of music, whether contemporary or traditional. “One Beeaff found the perfect balance between contemporary the days when a musician needed a record company’s Harry Chapin than of my goals is to get younger audiences listening to “I don’t just music and the classical element central to KBAQ’s resources to produce an album. Frédéric Chopin. KBAQ. It’s in fact helping me that they have access • Carlos Kleiber / Vienna Philharmonic – listen to programming. “When I was trying to get a record deal 30 years to things they didn’t have access to before.” Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 Mozart and “I listen to all sorts of stuff,” says Beeaff, although ago, they wanted your arm and your firstborn son,”he On the other hand, he’s also keen on opening musical • Matthew Best / Corydon Singers – Bach remains his favorite composer. “I don’t just jokes. “It was a horrible business. It’s not great now, doors for his older, more established listeners. So he still Fauré: Requiem Beethoven. I listen to Mozart and Beethoven. I love that music, but it was a terrible place to be. I wanted to create savors one recent call from a listener who wanted to talk but there’s a lot that I enjoy.” stuff. I didn’t want to be touring 300 days a year and about his insistence on interjecting non-classical music love that Beeaff’s diverse tastes grew from his love of learning locked into a record deal where, if I didn’t make it, into his playlist. “My guess is that she was getting close music, but and an inquisitive personality. Instead of reveling in I’d owe my left nostril.” to 80,”recalls Beeaff. He braced himself for a complaint. the familiar, as many people do, Beeaff has remained Technology has given Beeaff what it’s given many Instead, she pressed sweetly to find out where she could there’s a lot open to emerging trends in music and technology. other artists: an accessible environment for creation. buy the in question. that I enjoy.” “You get to a certain age and, depending on the It’s also given him perspective on the nature of art “She said, in this wonderfully broken but great kind of person you are, you might not want to and its consumption. voice, ‘You shrivel up and die if you don’t keep explore anymore. Times are busy, you’re getting older “There’s always a price to be paid for digital con- looking for new things.’ And I told her, ‘I want to and you know what you like … if it’s not among venience,” he says. “Take digital photography—it’s be you when I grow up,’” Beeaff says with a smile. those things, then why revisit it?” But Beeaff has great, but it also means that just about anybody can “I still want to be that woman when I get to be 80.”

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