Suzanne nance leaves wfmt streaming

Chicago audiences get to hear two new voices on flagship station WFMT.

Candice Agree was formerly on the air at WQXR in New York, WETA in Washington DC, Sirius-XM, and WDAV in Davidson NC, and is a well-known off-camera voice on CBS news in the mornings. She’s taking the 3-7 pm slot on WFMT, in place of George Preston, who is the new GM at KCME in Colorado Springs.

Suzanne Nance is is leaving her job as Director of Music, Performance and Cultural Affairs at Maine Public Broadcasting and host of Morning Classical Music.  She starts her new gig at WFMT in September.  However, her departure from MPBN might leave that station in the lurch for classical music.

The president of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network said Friday the future of classical music on the network’s radio stations is unclear in light of long-term programming plans and the impending departure of popular “Morning Classical” radio host Suzanne Nance.

In a telephone interview, MPBN CEO and President Mark Vogelzang said the network recently completed a strategic plan that calls for more news and information programming …

Maintaining the presence of classical music on MPBN could mean many things, including moving it from MPBN’s primary stations to a dedicated, 24-hour station of classical music, or streaming classical music on the Internet.

Ruh-roh.  Where have we heard that before?

About Marty Ronish

Marty Ronish is an independent producer of classical music radio programs. She currently produces the Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts that air 52 weeks a year on more than 400 stations and online at www.cso.org. She also produces a radio series called "America's Music Festivals," which presents live music from some of the country's most dynamic festivals. She is a former Fulbright scholar and co-author of a catalogue of Handel's autograph manuscripts.

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The president of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network said Friday the future of classical music on the network’s radio stations is unclear in light of long-term programming plans and the impending departure of popular “Morning Classical” radio host Suzanne Nance.

In a telephone interview, MPBN CEO and President Mark Vogelzang said the network recently completed a strategic plan that calls for more news and information programming on its radio stations, while maintaining its presence of classical music.

Listeners immediately expressed concern for the future of classical music on MPBN, which in April announced it had to lay off as many as 10 employees because of reductions in state and federal funding and difficulty raising donations in the still-recovering economy.

Maintaining the presence of classical music on MPBN could mean many things, including moving it from MPBN’s primary stations to a dedicated, 24-hour station of classical music, or streaming classical music on the Internet.

What the network does will depend largely on what it can afford to do.

“We can offer more news and information, more programming and more choice. But with all of that, we need the financial support to get there,” Vogelzang said.

Vogelzang said that since Nance just announced her departure for a classical radio station in Chicago this week, it’s too early to say exactly what will happen with classical music on MPBN.

Nance plans to be with MPBN through August. Her program represents the only block of classical music on MBPN during the day on weekdays. There are national classical programs on the network — including opera and symphonies — at night and on weekends.

Classical music fans fear that MPBN will follow a national trend of taking music off its primary station — 90.1 FM in the Portland area — and moving it to a separate network to accommodate more news and talk.

Jack Riddle, a member of the board of the Portland-based opera company PORTopera, said he feared Nance’s depar

PORTLAND — Suzanne Nance began and ended her last “Morning Classical” show in tears.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said Friday morning during a break in her popular classical music show on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. “I have such gratitude and joy, but it is incredibly difficult to leave.”

Nance, who earned a large and loyal following because of her engaging personality and ability to connect to listeners during her six years with the network, is leaving Maine to join the commercial classical radio station WFMT in Chicago on Oct. 1.

The move, she said, is bittersweet.

“Wow, that’s a wrap,” she said moments after saying her on-air goodbye to Maine, the final notes of Jay Ungar’s “Ashokan Farewell” drifting through the studio. “It feels like the huge end of an odyssey. I feel so lucky to have had this window into such an amazing place.”

Since 2007, Nance served as music director for MPBN and host of the three-hour music show. The network will search nationwide for her replacement as it develops plans for a dedicated classical music channel.

In the meantime, the show will air with other people filling in.

“Our goal, and my desire, is that MPBN will have a full-time classical music service,” said Mark Vogelzang, president and CEO of MPBN.

Though Vogelzang said everyone at the network is sad to see Nance leave, they are happy to celebrate her “tremendous commitment and influence to artistic life in Maine.”

“A lot of times in life, we don’t get a chance to pause and say ‘thank you’ and celebrate something that means a lot to us,” he said. “It’s a wonderful moment because we can thank Suzanne for what she’s done for MPBN and the state of Maine.”

A soprano with an international singing career, Nance is widely considered a rising star in the classical music world because of her career in radio and her stage presence.

She first came to Maine as a college intern to sing at the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music, but her fascination with the state