KLRU is kicking off our March pledge drive a day early with some exciting ways to thank you for your support and help you enhance your experience with KLRU beyond TV:

• Vampire Weekend tapes Austin City Limits | Sunday, March 17 | Donate $200 and we’ll thank you with two balcony passes
• Il Divo at ACL Live | May 15 | Donate $400 and we’ll thank you with two incredible floor seats to the performance. Or donate $200 to receive two balcony level tickets
• Joe Bonamassa at ACL Live | November 30 | Donate $350 we’ll thank you with two tickets to his concert plus an invitation to a Meet-and-Greet before the show. Or donate $250 for two great seats without the Meet-and-Greet
• Fab Four: The Ultimate Beatles Tribute at the Paramount | May 18 | Donate $100 for two great seats at their concert. Or join them for a Meet-and-Greet before their concert when you donate $150
  

KLRU is proud to be the largest producer and presenter of high-quality arts in Central Texas. When you support KLRU, you become a key partner in keeping the arts alive today and for generations to come.

Whether you choose one of our special ticket opportunities or donate without a thank you gift, I hope you’ll decide to show your support for KLRU right now.

Thank you for your generosity.

• Tonight, we’ll be live in the KLRU studios during the public affairs line up, with the PBS Newshour at 6pm, Washington Week at 7pm, and Need to Know at 7:30pm. To thank you for your gift at the $250 level, you’ll get two (2) tickets to the next three (3) Spark at the Moody speaker series events in 2012 which include the incredibly compelling and engaging topics of women in politics, citizenship, and children’s education. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for you to support quality public affairs and news programs and be a participant in our intriguing and dynamic speaker series!

• This weekend is the premier presentation of Straight No Chaser: Songs of the Decade: Holiday Edition and if you make a gift of $250, you’ll receive two (2) tickets to their April 4, 2012 concert at the Long Center (you’ll also get the CD & DVD of their holiday performance!). We have the best seats in the house reserved for KLRU donors and tickets are limited, so make your donation today!

• We still have seats left on the KLRU Drink Up tour, but they’re going fast! If you donate $150, you will receive two (2) tickets to the tour of local breweries and distilleries. This year, we’ll head out on a bus to Live Oak Brewery, Tito’s Vodka Distillery, Treaty Oak Rum Distillery, and BlackStar Brewery Co-op. We’ll tour the facilities, taste the product, and finish off the afternoon with food and drink at BlackStar.

We hope you’ll use these opportunities to support KLRU-TV and join in some of the fun and unique experiences we have to offer!

Thanks for your support and enjoy a great weekend of KLRU programming!

Another thing that made last night special was the support of the garden community. Central Texas Gardener has many fabulous fans and some of them came to help us answer phones. Many of them have their own blogs or community programs so check their sites listed below if you’re looking for inspiration.

Tonight we will be live in the studio during “A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert.” Our special guests will be the Conspirare Youth Choir who will be performing throughout the evening. The fun begins at 7p!

thanks to these folks who helped us answer phones:
Denise Delaney
Grow Green Coordinator, City of Austin

Elaine Dill
Master Gardener

Ellie Hanlon
Mostly Weeds

Caroline Homer
Shovel Ready Garden

Glee Ingram
Growing Designs Landscape designer

Eleanor Pratt
Garden of E

Roxane Smith
Master Gardener

KLRU invites Austin to a world-class celebration for the grand opening of the Moody Theater’s Austin City Limits Stage. Opening Night celebrates Austin City Limits’ move to a new studio located in downtown Austin. The new Austin City Limits studio, developed by Stratus Properties as part of the Block 21 development project, will enable more fans to watch future live tapings and provide an enhanced experience while maintaining the intimacy, character and integrity that have been the hallmark of Austin City Limits for more than three decades.

Individuals can enjoy this once in a lifetime evening by purchasing tickets to KLRU’s Opening Night at klru.org/openingnight

KLRU has a commitment to presenting the arts to Austin. As part of this commitment we team up with local arts organizations to bring you programs like In Context: Ballet Austin Hamlet and Conspirare: A Company of Voices. We also bring you the best of performance art from PBS with Great Performances and Live from Lincoln Center.

Today, we’re teaming up with Texas Performing Arts to bring you tickets to a live performance by revolutionary dance company MOMIX. Enter here to win a pair of tickets to the October 29 show at the Bass Concert Hall. You can buy tickets to either the October 28 or October 29 performance at the Texas Performing Arts website.

In this highly anticipated Austin appearance, MOMIX brings its breathtaking fantasy piece Botanica to the Bass Concert Hall stage for two incredible evenings. Legendary choreographer Moses Pendleton combines athletic dance, riveting music, outrageous costumes, inventive props, and pure talent to create an unforgettable multimedia experience.

Botanica transports you to a fantasy world of surreal images and childlike wonder brought to life by a cast of dancer-illusionists. Set to an eclectic score that ranges from birdsong to Vivaldi, Botanica reveals nature’s changing imagery in MOMIX’s signature illusionary style. Using large-scale puppets, projected imagery, and larger-than-life props designed by Michael Curry (The Lion King), MOMIX evokes a vivid landscape populated by Pendleton’s whimsical, fertile, and mythical imagination.

Timely talk with distinctly Texas flavor, the weekly political podcast features Tribune CEO Evan Smith, Managing Editor Ross Ramsey and political reporter Elise Hu as well as KUT-FM’s Ben Philpott. It’s a provocative weekly skirmish over the latest in Texas politics, policy and pop culture.

The event will feature light refreshments provided by FRANK and drinks by Live Oak Brewery. The recording of the TribCast will be followed by a 30 minute audience q&a.

*** UPDATE: Giveaway is over. Congratulations to Autumn! ***

Texas Performing Arts and KLRU invite you to push the envelope of new music with pioneering composer and video artist Jean Piché on Thursday, September 9, at 8 pm at McCullough Theatre. You can buy tickets online or enter to win two passes to the event HERE. Submit your name and email address before noon on Wednesday. Winner will be notified by email.

Since the early 1970s, Jean Piché was one of the first composers to employ emerging digital audio technologies in a cycle of fixed media works acknowledged as seminal to the form. His works cross every genre of electro-acoustics but now center on video-music in which electronic visuals become an extension of musical discourse. His work aims for poetic expression beyond any avowed formalism, while alternately described as confounding, colorful and virtuosic.

“Like pure musique-concrète in which all the sounds emerge from recordings of the real world, Piché‘s stunning visual images are derived from the rich movement and color from his unique video recordings. The three screen projections synchronized with his very original musical style are stunning and totally captivating. I believe that his video-music is indeed a new and very powerful genre,” wrote Bruce Pennycook, UT Butler School of Music professor in Composition

ACL Presents Satellite Sets is a new web music series produced by KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, the station responsible for the iconic PBS series Austin City Limits. Like its forerunner, ACL Presents Satellite Sets features intimate performances by bands from all genres. The web series also features interviews by the performers about their songs and creative inspiration.

Austin’s Quiet Company will tape a performance for Satellite Sets on Friday, August 13, at 7:30 p.m. The taping is free but an RSVP is required to ensure admission. RSVP at klru.org/satellitesets Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the taping will take place in KLRU’s studio 6A.

The show’s website will soon feature song and interview clips of Sarah Jaffe on 8/13 and Brazos on 8/20. Other bands coming up on the site include Lost in the Trees, David Garza and Leatherbag. The Quiet Company performance will also be available this fall.

Viewers in Austin will get an early look at a very special new episode of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS featuring Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, which was taped earlier this year for ACL’s 35th anniversary season. The new episode marks the first time the two recording legends have shared the ACL stage, though both have performed many times separately in the show’s 35-year history. The sneak peek event will air on KLRU-TV in Austin on August 2 at 7:00 pm as part of the PBS channel’s summer pledge drive. It’s the only chance to see the broadcast until it airs nationally on November 14.

Longtime fans of the show might recall that Willie Nelson appeared on the original pilot episode for AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, recorded in October 1974, and Asleep at the Wheel appeared on the first episode of the first official season in 1976. This new episode finds Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel performing songs from their recently released Willie and The Wheel (**** Rolling Stone) as well as classics like “On the Road Again” and “Always on my Mind.”

Viewers making a pledge during the special August 2 broadcast between 7:00 and 9:30 pm will receive Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel thank you gifts, including a limited number of ticket packages to see Asleep at the Wheel at the famed Lukenbach Dance Hall on August 8th.

Additionally KLRU-TV is giving away 100 pairs of tickets to a special simulcast of the August 10 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS taping featuring the Dave Matthews Band. Anyone pledging a gift of $100 or more during the first weekend of the pledge drive will be automatically entered for a chance to receive two tickets.

The 35th anniversary season of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS premieres nationally on October 3 with Dave Matthews Band. Other performers in the new season include Kenny Chesney, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello, Ben Harper and Relentless7 and more.