Kjerstin 'KJ' Williams

Part 2 of my Planetary Radio debut with Laurence Yeung is now available at the Planetary Radio website. You can also get it through iTunes by subscribing to the Planetary Radio podcast. This show features us performing the spacey standards “Stardust” and “Fly Me to the Moon”. Enjoy!

You can hear Part 1 of my Planetary Radio debut with Laurence Yeung at the Planetary Radio website or you can get it through iTunes by subscribing to the Planetary Radio podcast! Part 2 comes out on 1/2/12, so stay tuned! Laurence and I had a blast — what a great group of people to work with, and what a generous and enthusiastic audience!

The kind folks at Planetary Radio have invited me to sing as part of the next Planetary Radio Live show on December 17 at the Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena! Laurence Yeung and I will jazz up the show with some spacey tunes, sharing the stage with host Mat Kaplan, Bill Nye (yep, the Science Guy!), John Callas, and Joy Crisp. (They won’t be singing; they’ll be talking about Mars exploration.)

Admission is FREE, but RSVP’s are required, so check out the event page and save yourself a seat!

When: Saturday, December 17, doors open at 1:30pm
Where: The Crawford Family Forum, Pasadena, CA

Though there hasn’t been as much performing as I’d like (I’m always game for a spotlight), this year has been a big one — lots of excitement and change.

I had surgery on both elbows, which put the kibosh on holding a microphone, much less hauling around a PA for much of the year, but I used that down time to start doing more songwriting.  Now I’m healed up and freshly approved to sit down at the piano or with the guitar again, so I’m hoping to start polishing a few of my own tunes to let out into the wild.

Looking out towards next year, I’ll be a guest soloist at Caltech’s Bandorama in May 2012 (the 11th and 12th, mark your calendars or subscribe to mine!) and with the holidays right around the corner and me itching to perform, you never know where I might pop up!

Tonight, the Caltech-Occidental Concert Band is heading off to Beijing, and I’m going with them! Curious about what I’ll be singing there?  I just added a few songs from our Los Angeles preview concert to the Recordings page!

But Not For Me — the wind ensemble puts the “BIG” in big band!
Love is Here to Stay — featuring the inimitable, indomitable, indefatigable Les Deutsch on piano!

…and my personal favorite…

Someone to Watch Over Me — featuring Les on piano as well as the wind ensemble

I’m excited to be featured again with the always-delightful Caltech-Occidental Concert Band!

You may recall our hijinks in New York in 2008 — well, first Carnegie Hall, now the world! I’m going to China with the band in March, but our favorite LA folks can get a preview performance of our Beijing program on February 19.

I’ll be singing three Gershwin tunes with the ensemble and I’d love if if you were part of the crowd we’re there pleasing with these classic, well, crowd-pleasers!

When: Saturday, February 19, 7:30pm, no tickets required
Where: Thorne Hall, Occidental College, Eagle Rock, CA

Map to Occidental College
Campus map (Thorne Hall is building #13)

Steven Chemtob, Amalia Francalangia, Shannon Kao and I decided to put on a recital last Sunday. I just added several recordings from the show to the Recordings page!

American Lullaby, Gladys Rich (1892-1994)
Give Me Jesus, traditional spiritual, arr. Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
Silent Noon, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
How Could I Ever Know (from The Secret Garden), Lucy Simon (b. 1943)
You’re Just in Love (from Call Me Madam), with Steven Chemtob, Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

For the last several months, I’ve been spending almost as much time traveling for my robotics work as I’ve spent at home, which has made it a bit tough to keep up a regular performance schedule.  I’m excited to be back in town for a few weeks and even more excited to announce that I’ll be performing in a voice recital on Sunday, November 14 at 4pm.  The fare will be more classical (that’s “legit” to you hep cats out there) than my usual repertoire, but will feature some extraordinary singers performing a great program.  On top of that, admission is free!

Who: Steven Chemtob, Amalia Francalangia, Shannon Kao, and Kjerstin ‘KJ’ Williams
What: A Studio Voice Recital featuring the students of Desiree LaVertu performing works by Donizetti, Finzi, Moses Hogan, Mozart, Puccini, Vaughan Williams, and others
Where: Bird Studio, Occidental College, Eagle Rock, CA
When: Sunday, November 14, 4pm

Map to Occidental College
Campus map

As always, you can stay up to date by subscribing to the calendar!

This May, the Caltech bands are putting on their 30th annual Bandorama concerts, and I’m so glad they asked me to come out, grab the microphone, and join in the celebration!  I got my start in jazz in front of the Caltech bands, so singing with them always feels like coming home.

These concerts are a great opportunity to hear the Caltech-Occidental Concert Band and both of the Caltech Jazz Bands.  And lucky you, you have two chances to catch the show!

When: Friday May 14 and Saturday, May 15 at 8PM
Where: The concert is in Ramo Auditorium, Building 77 on the maps at http://www.caltech.edu/map/. No tickets are required.

My demo project with the Conspirators has been immense fun! We’re hoping to mix it in the next couple of weeks, then I’ll be out and about drumming up new gigs. Meanwhile, since gigs are slow mid-demo, I’ve been digging into songwriting and bumping up against the limits of my own home recording technology. I’ve flogged my beloved Zoom H4, my ancient MacBook Pro (now affectionately known as Old Wheezy), and Garage Band to their limits. So what’s next? It’s time to turn our rec room into a rehearsal space and modest home studio. I can’t wait to share some of the fruits of the new space with you, dear Internet!