David Kraus: Good Links


: Professional Links
Vermont Arts Council: The VAC is the government supported Arts organization for the state of Vermont. Direct access to my VAC site page can be found here.
Vermont Composers Consortium: Vermont's biggest organization for professional music composers. With over nine hundred Vermont artists and many more from around the world, there's alot of good music to be found here in any genre. There is also recorded interviews from the New Music radio show Kalvos and Damien.
Vermont All State Music Festival: Through a stringent statewide competitive audition process, the cream of Vermont's highschool musicians get to perform in a series of concerts in a variety of musical consortiums with some of our country's finest conductors.

: Education & Information
Music Panculturalism ~ An NPR Video Special: The Composer/Musicologist Tom Manoff has been NPR's music critic and commentator since 1985. Join him in a live video/audio interview at the NPR studios and hear his absorbing insights into this emerging 21st century music culture, with lots of musical examples played.
TomManoff.com: Tom Manoff is a noted composer, NPR's music critic, and the guy who's becoming the interpreter of sorts for the the music of the 21st century.
The American Council of Learned Societies: (The essay below is from the ACLS on pancultural education. It's excellent.)
"Ghosts Among Us/Ancestral Voices: What's Past is Prologue"Terry Moreland Henderson is an LA school teacher who has developed a program using poetry and storytelling to help students from *every* cultural background research their cultural origins and express through their creative writing where they came from and who they are. Her dilineation between the concepts of "multiculturalism" and "panculturalism" are the best I've read. Moving beyond our self-imposed cultural boundaries is where creative art is taking us today. Reading her essay and watching the NPR video above is enlightening, and helps clarify why we need to transcend cultural politics and what panculturalism really means in this context. There are a wealth of positive ideas and new insights to be gained, well worth the energy and time for anyone seriously looking to break the limits of our present world view. (OK, I admit it...I'm really into this:)
NepaliSite.com: This is a good site to learn about the music and art scene in Kathmandu. There's alot happening there(!) I'm looking forward to my return trip next year:)
North Indian Classical Music: This is a great site to learn about Indian music. It's well organized and easy to follow having been put together by a master student of Ravi Shankar.
The Governor's Institues of Vermont: Enriching the lives of motivated Vermont highschool students through
intensive educational experiences on college campuses.
Changing Classical Guitar Strings: An excellent site that teaches through concise explanation and photos how to change strings correctly, and includes valueable info for understanding the guitar's perculiar tuning idiosyncrasies that are inevitable in its design.
Changing Acoustic Steel Strings: A really good site explaining how to put new strings on a steel-string acoustic guitar; includes big photos for clarity.
Medical Problems of Performing Artists: The first clinical medical journal devoted to the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of medical and psychological disorders of performing artists.
Learn about the "big four" music distributors' monopoly: Warner Music Group, Sony/BMG, EMI Music Group, and Universal Music Group control 82% of all music sold on the entire planet! Learn about the business and why we should support Independents and help their 18% share grow larger.
Epilepsy Foundation: I am a strong supporter for Epilepsy research and for all people who live with this condition. I also volunteer my time in working through education to dispell the ignorance and prejudice which still exist around epilepsy, to demystify its causes and shed light on the persistent damage done by a still lingering stigma. For more information please don't hesitate to write to me.

: Musicians - Artists - Businesses
CD Baby: CD Baby is the largest on-line record store in the world today for independent artists, an incredible company who treat musicians fairly and honestly.
Wind that Shakes the Barley: From the mountains of Vermont, Wind that Shakes the Barley presents a tantalizing mixture of traditional music and folklore from the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and beyond.
ERGO Communications: Peter Bruce Wilder has won five Emmys so far for his recording, engineering, music compostion and performing, and full production work for PBS, Disney, film scoring, and alot more, and has been nominated for nine others. In short, he's the best...along with being warm, kind, and real. No bull from Peter...it's about the music. I am so psyched that he is producing my new CD.
Charles Eller Studios: "One of New England's most respected and unique recording studios." This is where I do my projects, and I wouldn't go anywhere else. Alot of other artists feel the same way...Bonnie Raitt, Diane Ziegler, Taj Mahal, The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Paul Asbell, Shawn Colvin, James Harvey, Trey Anastasio, The Vermont Jazz Ensemble...it's the only studio I've worked in that feels like it's more than just a place to record. If you're a serious musician, check out this site.
Cliff House Audio: Cliff House Audio has a fantastic sounding room which makes for an intimate and relaxing environment to record in, and work on the many kinds of projects that award winning producer Jody Petersen has created and provided her skills for. She is a positive thinker and really wonderful to work with. Not only do I do work for Jody, but she is doing all the pre-production recording for my new CD.
9 world Studios: Fine web & graphic design by Robert Morgan. (Also a great musician:)
The Vermont Jazz Ensemble: The VJE, Vermont's premier 17 piece big band founded by well known saxaphonist Rich Dividian, are a wonderful group of experienced professionals playing the incredible sounds of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, and many of our finest contemporary jazz composers. It was a musical and personal pleasure to have performed and recorded for two years with this fine orchestra.
Buch Spieler: The best independent (not a chain...) CD store in Central Vermont. Support'em.
Guitar Sam: A fine quality music store dealing in instrument and equipment sales, services and repairs for all instruments, and an extended list of private music instructors.
Vermont Music Library and Shop: The VLMS is a music library and retail music store, with a spacious comfortable listening room, and is dedicated to cataloging and preserving the music of Vermont. It is located on the 3rd floor at 215 College Street in Burlington.
My Space: Okay Okay, you don't need to say it. I have a page in this part of the virtual world too. But doesn't everybody?

: "There are two means of refuge
from the miseries of life...
...MUSIC & CATS!"

~Albert Schweitzer