Donations and Gear Foster Historic Annual Connecticut Music Festivals
Pictured picking up an assortment of mics at TELEFUNKEN headquarters in Connecticut, (L-R) are Litchfield Jazz Fest audio engineers Brian Silver and Nick Joyce.
South Windsor, CT, November 2014 – TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik of South Windsor, Connecticut, recently sponsored two important and historic music festivals in their home state. The Litchfield Jazz Festival, a favorite of the public and critics alike has been going for the past 19 years and the Podunk Bluegrass Festival has been a yearly success since 1996.
“We think it’s very important that Connecticut has these annual gatherings to support good music and education,” commented Alan Venitosh, TELEFUNKEN Director of Operations. “We are proud sponsors and gladly donated some of our mics to both festival organizations. We also had the important opportunity to beta test the newly designed M60 FET microphone, our first non-vacuum tube based design created for live recording and reinforcement applications.”
Litchfield Jazz Festival FOH engineer Nick Joyce remarked, “Telefunken’s new M60 FET mic on upright bass is nothing short of magical. No bleed, no artifacts, just the pure, acoustic sound of the bass as it should be heard. Every jazz bassist needs to hear this mic. The M60 is going to redefine how jazz bass is reinforced live.”
“Our new M60 condenser is ideal in a live environment,” added Alan Venitosh. “It uses phantom power, and it fills a niche in our product line for a high quality condenser mic that is not tied to the vacuum tube circuit. For critical acoustic environments like a stage of musicians playing bluegrass or jazz the M60 is excellent.”
The Litchfield Performing Arts’ mission is to educate and inspire young people to be confident, creative, expressive individuals through challenging programs in jazz music and the performing arts and to share the passion and magic of the arts with the wider community. The undisputed centerpiece of the organization is The Litchfield Jazz Festival, which has had the honor of presenting jazz titans such as Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, Wayne Shorter and Toots Thielemans.
The Podunk Bluegrass Festival was established in 1996 and features local, regional, and national bluegrass musicians. Besides four days of music on the main stage, the festival hosts band and songwriting competitions, a kid’s bluegrass academy, workshops with headlining bands, and separate picking and quiet camping areas.
At both festivals, in addition to the new M60 on upright bass, banjo, violin, mandolin and acoustic guitar, other TELEFUNKEN models included the AR-51 large diaphragm tube as the main “sing-a-round” microphone, as well as the company’s M80 and M81 dynamic microphones.
“The M60 is my new go to mic for acoustic jazz bass,” concluded Nick Joyce. “This mic has broken boundaries beyond what any other mic can do. Its rejection has to be heard to be believed, and the sonic clarity, fast transient frequency response, coupled with its sleek design, makes it the new top dog in the SDC market.”