Please tell us about yourselves! 

We’ve been in Austin for over 25 years (Paul) and 15 years (Marcia) and married for 10. Paul is the Director of Visualization at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin as well as a Longhorn alum. Marcia is a charitable planning advisor, and currently opening her own Estate Planning law practice in Austin. Originally from Virginia, she got to Texas as fast as she could.

We met while we were both working at UT Austin, but got together through our mutual love (or insanity) for long distance trail running. We love good food and drink, the great outdoors, playing golf, and spending time with our menagerie of rescue animals (three dogs and three cats)!

How long have you been KMFA members and how did you start listening?

At least since 2010. KMFA was the soundtrack that preserved Paul’s sanity as he completed his dissertation, and we have been grateful contributors ever since. We’ve both been listening almost as long as we’ve each been in Austin. It’s the constant background music of our home and work lives.

What is/are your favorite program/s to listen to on KMFA?

We rarely miss our mornings of espresso and Breakfast Blend with Emilio Alvarez, and we also enjoy Midday Oasis with Dianne Donovan. On early mornings, Jeffrey Blair’s Workbench helps ease us into the working day and Carla McElhaney’s Night Music provides a soothing winding down at night. Judlyne Lilly-Gibson’s Staccato gives a lovely intermezzo throughout the day!

What is one of your all-time favorite pieces of music and why?

Marcia: I don’t pretend to be at all knowledgeable about classical music, but I do love Shostakovich, and in particular his Jazz Suites. Maybe it’s my half Russian background, but it’s such oddly happy music from a composer who lived in a time that was anything but happy.

Paul: Perhaps due to my German roots, I always enjoy the complexity and logic of Bach, particularly Simone Dinnerstein’s interpretation of the Goldberg Variations and Yo-Yo Ma’s expression of the Unaccompanied Cello Suites. The Bach Trios with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer are a wonderful example of the possibilities of reinterpreting masterworks for a modern audience!

Why do you choose to support KMFA?

We both feel it’s important to give back to the things we’re passionate about, and KMFA is essentially the background music of our life. It is a treasure unique to Austin and worth not just preserving but expanding for future generations. We want to make sure that the station is around to provide great classical music for us and others in the Austin community for years to come!