Woodwinds and Strings in Our Audio Logo

The third chapter in the evolution of KDFC’s sound logo will soon be appearing on our air – we’ve teamed with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s TAC program (for Technology and Applied Composition), and chosen a theme and set of variations by sophomore Danielle Ferrari, that uses strings and woodwinds.

For the past three years, students in the program have been assigned the project of creating a logo, and then one is selected. The winning student receives a monetary prize from InspirAsian, and a microphone from Se Electronics, as well as the logo appearing on KDFC. The original theme was by Jana Ma, using strings, and Kevin Becker arranged it for brass ensemble last year. Danielle Ferrari says writing for strings and woodwinds, but no synthesizers was a challenge.  “I thought it was very interesting, I mean, I’ve never made a sound logo before, so this was something new, and I think it’s really cool that there was no electronics in it, so it was all orchestral instruments, which is different than what we usually do.” She wrote the main theme in the fall, and once hers was selected, then she had three days to write nine variations. “I think the most helpful part was the variations. You have these nine instruments, and you’re just figuring out what you can do with them. Different ways you can make different sounds, and you can create different textures and moods by combining only these nine instruments. It’s really constricting, but in a really good way… I fell in love with bassoon again. You know, it’s been a while since I’ve listened to it, and then just working with it, I think I fell in love with it again. This can do a lot of cool things. And when it gets up in that high register, it sounds really like a saxophone a little bit.”