Deb Lamberton

A radio producer, announcer, musician, teacher and mother, Deb Lamberton began her career in public radio more than 35 years ago. Her work as a music and documentary producer at National Public Radio and Classical WETA 90.9 FM has garnered many national awards.

In addition to classical training, Lamberton has extensive experience in folk music. She has taught courses in both radio production and music appreciation, and spends many Sunday mornings as an organist in local churches.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Minnesota, she has degrees in Music (Organ) and Speech-Communications, summa cum laude, and in 2008, was named an Alumnus of Notable Achievement by the U of M's College of Liberal Arts. Since joining WETA radio in 1986, Lamberton has produced and directed both local and national live concert broadcasts from venues including the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, and the National Presbyterian Church. She also produced WETA's award-winning Music From Washington series and the Fortas Chamber Music series for distribution over NPR. Currently, Lamberton produces the NSO Showcase series, as well as our web-based Classical Conversations, where you can find her interviews with musicians, composers, and conductors. Lamberton's husband of 25 years, Bruce, owns R&R Blinds, Windows and Doors, Inc. in Alexandria, a family-owned business started by his father in 1946. They have two children.

Lamberton is an avid bicycle commuter, riding year-round to WETA's Shirlington studios from her home near Mount Vernon. When not at work, she and her husband enjoy taking their custom Harley-Davidson motorcycles down the blue highways of West Virginia.

A conversation with Deb Lamberton

How did you first become interested in classical music?

My parents were great music lovers--my Dad was a fan of Benny Goodman and had his own Dixieland jazz band as a young man. My Mom has always been a huge devotee of classical music, so it's understandable they started my older brother and me on piano lessons as kids. My mother is fond of saying that I practiced so little, she considered the weekly fee to my piano teacher "to be a donation.” But, when I was maybe 11 years old, my brother Dodd, already a church organist at age 16, invited me to play the organ so he could direct the choir. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the organ was much more fun than the piano. First of all, there were all those keyboards--even one for your feet! And, you could create so many different sounds depending on the stops you pulled, from a delicate flute to the full organ "sforzando". By age 13, I quit piano and began studying organ--a process that continued through my time at the University of Minnesota, where I earned degrees in organ performance and speech-communications.

What is your favorite aspect of your job as a producer and on-air host?

As a producer, I’ve always preached that creating radio is composition. Every musical term from tempo, pitch, texture, etc. applies to how you mix words, music and sound to create a meaningful story. My greatest pleasure is creating a radio piece that speaks directly to people's hearts. Whether it’s an intimate portrait of an artist’s creative process or the revelatory beauty behind a piece of music, I treasure the opportunity to bring something new and memorable into people’s lives. As for being on the air, I enjoy sharing this same passion in presenting the music I love, as well as making new connections between different styles of music.

Any favorite memories of people you’ve met or experiences you’ve had related to classical music?

I have to think about this because there have been so many over the past 20 years, just here at WETA… One time we were doing a live broadcast at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and I was unaware that the hall was being checked by Secret Service prior to Laura Bush’s arrival. With minutes to go before we hit the air live, I was running from the front of the house back up the stairs to our broadcast booth on the box tier level and was apprehended by Secret Service, who would not let me pass. Time was running short and I had to physically pull the agent into our broadcast booth to show him what we were doing. He was NOT amused, but thankfully we did manage to start the broadcast on time.

What’s the future of classical music? How can we grow audiences and appeal to younger listeners?

It’s a challenge. How do we interpolate classical music into the iPod generation? Our aural environment today is saturated with man-made sound and that has changed how we hear things and what constitutes “music” in most people’s lives. Many young people today have only heard electronically produced music and are completely unfamiliar with the palette of acoustic instruments in live performance. In this environment it’s really important to expose children to classical music at a young age. I’ve been very interested in some recent approaches to expanding the audience for classical music, like what the NSO did with Mason Bates’s Liquid Interface premiere and the video game symphony Play! at Wolf Trap, as well as what composer Libby Larsen is doing to introduce a new paradigm of music composition to high school students.

Finally, it's so important to get children involved in playing a musical instrument--any musical instrument, whether by themselves or in an ensemble. I have two teenagers who benefitted greatly from performing in school-based ensembles, both band and choir. Recently, I interviewed Michael Blakeslee, the Deputy Executive Director of the National Association for Music Education about the value music can bring to a child’s overall education and development. He points out that if a child takes a math test and gets 85% of the answers correct, he/she might think they're doing well. But, if that same child goes to a rehearsal and gets only 85% of the notes right, they know they need to work harder for the good of the overall ensemble. Music teaches you to strive for excellence and work as a team, but I contend it also provides a wonderful outlet for self-expression and creativity. It's terrific therapy to just sit down and play (or sing!) your heart out.

What is your favorite style of music?

I like to quote Peter Schickele on this: “If it sounds good, it is good.”

Have you always biked to work?

Deb Lamberton with the larger of her bikes.

Which bike?! I like to stay in shape and I care about the environment, so I usually commute to WETA on my custom-built Specialized bicycle. My commute takes me along the river from Mount Vernon, so I've seen everything from bluebirds and kingfishers to osprey and eagles while riding. Believe me, it's a fabulous way to begin one's day. But, I’ve also owned and ridden motorcycles since I worked at NPR in the mid ‘70s. So, sometimes I ride my Harley to work. It’s important to remember that just because you’re over 50 and have spent most of your life performing and presenting classical music, that doesn’t make you a one-dimensional kind of person. I also adore skiing (both downhill and x-ctry) and am very happy when it snows. After one big storm I actually skied the 11 miles to work at WETA! The bottom line is you’ve got to keep a sense of adventure and fun in your life.

Tell us one thing that listeners might not expect to learn about you.

After the birth of my second child, I got very involved with the study of traditional Japanese martial arts, specifically karate-do. As the adage goes, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Studying, and eventually teaching karate-do gave me a profound appreciation of how so many limitations in our lives are self-imposed. It also taught me that regardless of what you know, or think you know, it's how we approach living life with ourselves and with those around us that really matters.