Program Hosts

John Pitman
john@allclassical.org

A Portland native and graduate of Benson Polytechnic, John Pitman is Music Director of 89.9. He is regularly heard weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. sharing with listeners his love of classical music. John began part-time at KBPS in 1983 as a "board op," then gradually honed his skills as a classical music announcer and absorbed the knowledge of the two hosts of the time: Darryl Conser and Tania Thompson.

As Music Director, John is responsible for making sure that the enormous body of work we call “classical" is heard with the right balance of all the musical styles, periods and moods that serious music offers. John produces features for All Classical 89.9's weekly arts/music calendar and Northwest Previews (Thursdays at 7 p.m.). He catalogs and maintains the entire KBPS music library.

When not at work, John enjoys attending concerts, fair-weather bicycling with his wife and growing tomatoes, garlic and onions for marinara in the summer. He has recently taken up painting in oils and acrylics (some still-life and landscape subjects).

Christa Wessel
christa@allclassical.org

Classical music has long been a part of Christa Wessel's life. She began playing French horn when she was 12 years old; her talent led her to Northwestern University, where she studied with members of the Chicago Symphony. She initially intended to major in performance but instead obtained her degree in Arts Administration. Christa worked for various arts organizations in the Chicago area (including the Lyric Opera and Ravinia) before she tired of the bitter cold . . . she then moved to North Carolina to thaw out. After several years with the American Dance Festival in Durham she briefly worked for a small web-design company. On a whim Christa applied for a shift at Duke University's community radio station, WXDU, where she created the popular program "Divaville," highlighting 1950s-era jazz vocalists. (Christa brought "Divaville" with her to Portland -- you can hear it on KMHD-FM Wednesdays at 6 p.m.) Christa's radio experience then led her to classical station WCPE-FM, rekindling her love of classical music. She was an on-air host and webmaster for WCPE from 1998 till 2007. She is incredibly excited to now ditch the blistering summers of North Carolina for an entirely different climate.

Robert McBride
robert@allclassical.org

Robert regularly hosts from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. weekdays. He also hosts and produces Club Mod, a program about modernism in music. Club Mod airs from 7:00 to 9:00 on Saturday nights, and explores the ways composers of the past have "pushed the envelope" musically and presents works by the composers of today.

Robert grew up in Idaho, and started his radio career at KWAX in Eugene. He was the music director at OPB Radio in Portland for nine years and has also worked at classical radio stations in Seattle, Buffalo and elsewhere, and free-lanced for National Public Radio in Washington, DC. He says his career highlights include recording concerts at the Oregon Bach Festival, occasionally hosting Performance Today, and co-producing two live, nation-wide broadcasts of Handel's Messiah, performed by the Portland Baroque Orchestra and Chorus. He's also a percussionist and a composer. Robert was commissioned by Portland's Columbia Symphony Orchestra to write a work for their 25th anniversary season, which was premiered in February of 2007. His first choral work was premiered by the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir in December of 2007. He's now at work on pieces for the Pacific Youth Choir and Fear No Music. As a percussionist he's performed with guitarist Scott Kritzer and with the Reed College Chamber Orchestra.

John Burk
johnb@allclassical.org

"Portland is the first place I have chosen to live, not for a job, but because it is so beautiful...," says John Burk, whose passion for classical music since starting his radio career in college, has led him on a 25-year journey hosting programs in Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, New York and Minnesota.

While John enjoys all categories of music, he is especially drawn to the intimacy of chamber works.
John says that he has chosen Portland as home because of its physical beauty, as well as the kind, thoughtful nature of its people.

John is host of our weekday dinner hour program, Tafelmusic (7–9 p.m.), and our program featuring upcoming local performances, Northwest Previews (Thursdays, 6 p.m.)

Pat McElroy
pat@allclassical.org

Pat McElroy was formerly heard in Detroit at WQRS, Classical 105.1 He is our Saturday morning host on 89.9 an our opera impresario.

An accomplished actor, Pat has performed in numerous plays and films, including the role of Jesus in the award-winning film "Divine Mercy No Escape" with Helen Hayes.

Pat has also taught music appreciation for Dearborn Adult Education and regularly gives pre-concert talks for the Oregon Symphony's guest conductors.

Edmund Stone
edmund@allclassical.org

Edmund Stone is heard each Saturday and Sunday afternoons on 89.9. He is also the producer and host of "The Score" every other Saturday afternoon.

Edmund grew up on an English farm and toured in "Romeo & Juliet" before moving to Scotland, where he reviewed films for BBC Radio and Thompson Publications.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1980, he covered the Academy Awards and narrated more than 1,000 educational audio cassettes.

A Beaverton resident since 1990, Edmund continues to voice commercials and emcee events. When not indulging his passion for classical music, animals and gardening (he’s a vegetarian who grows his own food), Edmund is liaison officer for a chimpanzee rescue center in Cameroon, West Africa.

Ed Goldberg
ed@allclassical.org

The voice of Sunday mornings on 89.9, Ed Goldberg was born in the Bronx and grew up in New York City and Long Island. He lived in Washington, DC, for 18 years before he moved to Portland with his wife in 1991. Music has always been a big part of his life. He started collecting records a year before he had a record player.

Ed has published two detective novels, Served Cold and Dead Air, the first of which won the Shamus Award. He is researching the McCarthy era for his next book. Ed is a movie reviewer for another Portland radio station. He teaches occasionally and has taught courses in jazz history and the movies of the Marx Brothers.

René Marceau
rene@marceaupipeorgans.com

René is All Classical 89.9's popular host of Age of the Organ, heard every Sunday evening at 9:30 pm.

For the past 19 years, René has volunteered for this labor of love! A graduate of USC in church music and organ performance, René is owner of Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders, Inc.

John Dodge
johndodge@allclassical.org

John has a 25-year career that spans and integrates music, media and broadcast management. In addition to his role at KBPS, he also consults with stations around the country. He pioneered the new school of classical programming for WCRB in Boston, and was also Program Director for KidStar Interactive Media, the Seattle-based, award-winning national children’s multimedia network that spawned Radio Disney. He is a graduate of Ohio University’s School of Telecommunications, a Julliard School of Music student and a recording artist for ATCO Records.

Jordan Lewis
jordan@allclassical.org

An Oregon native and graduate of Grant High School, Jordan Lewis studied computer engineering at OIT and radio broadcasting at MHCC to bring multiple job skills to the Operations Administrator position. In charge of preparing all of the satellite feeds for re-broadcast, scheduling the on-air host's shifts and scheduling/reconciling the traffic logs, Jordan keeps busy by wearing many hats. From weekly show production to the in-house IT duties to assisting the Chief Engineer in repairs and installing upgrades the job is a great blend of radio and computers.

Jordan previously worked for KEX and KFXX in Portland, followed by a stint as a remote engineer for KATU-TV News.

Andrea Murray
andreamurray@allclassical.org

Andrea’s been producing and hosting public radio programming for over 15 years. She began working in radio as host of a community radio public affairs program, then began announcing classical music in St. Louis. She also worked in the newsroom, where she specialized in cultural reporting. Prior to joining the All Classical staff, she spent 6 years as the arts reporter for WETA in Washington, where she produced and hosted a cultural magazine called “The Program” , and substituted for regular classical music hosts. She’s also done freelance work for several NPR magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Studio 360.

Brandi Parisi
brandi@allclassical.org

Brandi Parisi is a New Orleans native who was most recently the afternoon drive host at K-Mozart in Los Angeles. She has been a reporter, producer and host at stations in Atlanta and Orlando, and for six years was nationally syndicated on Minnesota Public Radio’s Classical 24. She has produced and hosted many programs for Public Radio International, and the MPR broadcasts of the Minnesota Opera.

Brandi is a trained flutist and silversmith, and she teaches yoga at several places around Portland. She has degrees from Ohio University and Purdue, and is an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Portland Community College.

Bill McGlaughlin
comments@exploringmusic.org

Bill McGlaughlin has been a music educator, performer (trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony), music director (of orchestras in Eugene, Tucson, San Francisco and Kansas City) and guest conductor across the country (including with the Oregon Symphony). In 1997 he made his public debut in the role he considers his most challenging — that of composer.

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin began syndication in 2003 growing out of an NEA grant to develop a daily classical music program. McLaughlin also served as host of the popular public radio program St. Paul Sunday from its inception in 1980 and has been active with PBS and BBC.

Christopher O'Riley


From his groundbreaking transcriptions of Radiohead to his unforgettable interpretations of classic and new repertoire, pianist Christopher O'Riley has redefined the possibilities of classical music.

As host of From the Top, O'Riley works and performs with the next generation of brilliant young musicians, demonstrating with humor and a lack of pretension that these young artists are no different from other children.

O'Riley studied with Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has been honored with many awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Michael Barone
mail@americanpublicmedia.org

Building upon a curiosity which began in his teens, Michael Barone has been involved with the pipe organ for more than 40 years. As host and senior executive producer of Pipedreams, he is recognized nationally for his outstanding contributions to the world of organ music. Pipedreams began in 1982, and it remains the only nationally distributed weekly radio program exploring the art of the pipe organ. Barone's talent and commitment have been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Guild of Organists President's Award in 1996, the Distinguished Service Award of the Organ Historical Society in 1997 and the 2001 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. In November 2002 he was selected for induction to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.

Robert Aubry Davis
robert@millenniumofmusic.com

Robert Aubry Davis is a lecturer and commentator for arts institutions throughout Washington, D.C., and in addition to Millenium of Music, hosts the weekly arts discussion program Around Town for WETA TV. He is a contributing writer to newspapers, journals and cultural publications both nationally and internationally.

His education in literature and art history at both Duke University and American University and his broad knowledge of - and participation in - the arts make him a well-respected and visible member of the cultural community in the nation's capital.

Hans Haffmans
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Hans Haffmans has been active as a producer and presenter of classical music programs for Dutch and international radio broadcasters since 1991. He has hosted a wide variety of radio programs in both Dutch and English covering early music, contemporary repertoire, symphonic and chamber music and has also presented live opera productions from the opera house in Amsterdam.

After studying classical guitar at the elite Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, Hans interspersed his subsequent musical career with frequent periods of travel in Europe, the Middle East and the USA, where he lived and worked for several years, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern California College at Costa Mesa.

Hans lists Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Bruckner, Stravinsky, Messiaen as his musical heroes. He also is a passionate admirer of contemporary art. When not presenting Live! at the Concertgebouw, Hans produces and presents several programs on Radio 4, the Dutch domestic classical channel, and conducts media training sessions on presentation and delivery.

Jim Svejda
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Although Jim Svejda is one of the most respected, critical voices in the classical music field, he also is one of the most entertaining and popular program hosts on public radio. Since 1979, he has delighted listeners with his witty, meticulously crafted essays on diverse composers, conductors and artists -- as well as his commentary on a wide range of other subjects that attract his musical fancy.

Jim Svjeda is also the author of The Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings and is a noted film critic whose reviews are broadcast on the CBS Radio Network.

Fred Child


Fred Child, host of Performance Today, grew up right here in Portland. He has studied classical piano and also dabbles in guitar, percussion, and the bagpipes.

Besides being host of the most listened-to classical music show in America, Fred provides CD reviews to All Things Considered and classical music reports to Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. He's been a contributor to Billboard magazine, and a commentator for BBC Radio 3.

Fred is also the commentator and announcer for Live from Lincoln Center, the only live performing arts series on television, and in recent years has hosted a series of important live national concert broadcasts, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic's first ever concerts from Walt Disney Hall. He has also hosted NPR's Creators @ Carnegie, a program of wide-ranging performers in concert at Carnegie Hall, ranging from David Byrne to Dawn Upshaw. Before going to NPR, Fred was Music Director and Director of Cultural Programming at WNYC in New York, host of a live daily performance and interview program on WNYC, and for ten years a host at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Fred loves baseball (throws right, bats left) and is an avid hiker, tennis player, skier, cyclist, runner, and a licensed private pilot.

Tony Morris


Morris (host of Classical Guitar Alive! is an indefatigable advocate of music for the classical guitar. both Through his radio show and his own performing career, he actively seeks to expand the repertory by commissioning new works and by seeking important works of the past that have been lost or forgotten.

Morris received his Master of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of South Carolina. In August 2006, he joined the faculty of Texas Lutheran University as guitar instructor. Noted for his enthusiastic support and encouragement of young talent, he is a highly sought adjudicator and masterclass teacher at music festivals and competitions.