SPOTLIGHT: Soovin Kim performs at home.

Fans of fine music can hear world class performers this week in New York and Vermont. It was a pleasure to once again interview violinist Soovin Kim, artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, today. He's based in New York City, so we used Skype. He'll arrive in Vermont next Thursday, and he spoke to me from his office at Stony Brook University, where he serves as a professor of violin.

The topic at hand, two upcoming chamber music performances. The 2011 Winter Encore Concerts feature the work of living composers of three different generations who served as inspiration for each other, as well as music by Schubert. I also spoke with 18 year-old composer Tim Woos. He was commissioned at the age of 15 (!) to write a piece for the orchestra, and they played his composition on a world tour.

The concerts are Friday, February 25 at 7:30pm in the E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium at SUNY Plattsburgh, and Saturday at 7:30pm in the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, VT.

Tickets are available from the Flynn Regional Box Office, 1 (802) 863-5966, Angell College Center at SUNY Plattsburgh, 1 (518) 564-2121, and the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts, 1 (518) 563-1604.

The "Spotlight" segment airs on Mountain Lake Journal Extra Thursday at 8:30pm on Mountain Lake PBS. It repeats on Friday at 6am and 12:30pm, Saturday at at 7:30pm and Sunday at 10:30am.

SPOTLIGHT: Convento Film Music

A film about a European monestary has a unusual sound design, thanks to music by a composer from northern New York. Lawrence Dolan of Plattsburgh wanted a unique sound for his first motion picture score, so he turned to objects usually reserved for meditation, Tibetan singing bowls. On Spotlight this week, I interview the musician about his score for Convento, a documentary about an old monestary in Portugal that has been converted into an artist's studio and nature preserve. New York City filmmaker Jarred Alterman directed the film. Convento had its world premiere at a film festival in Poland in December. North Americans get their first chance to see it in Austin, Texas next month, at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival. This Spotlight segment airs on Mountain Lake Journal Extra Thursday at 8:30pm on Mountain Lake PBS. It repeats on Friday at 6am and 12:30pm, Saturday at at 7:30pm and Sunday at 10:30am.