Best of Austin®

Best New Place to See Music

KMFA 89.5FM

click to enlarge Best New Place to See Music
Photo by Jana Birchum

For its first 53 years, KMFA was all about the audio: sending classical music out to the world, being heard but not seen. That's changed with the opening of the radio station's new 18,000-square-foot facility; it was designed for the world to come into and see classical music being played and made. Visitors can watch on-air hosts spin Bach and Bartok through large studio windows, make sounds and rhythms with a junkyard of instruments in the art gallery's “Sound Garden” installation, and enjoy musicians performing live in the intimacy of the 135-seat Draylen Mason Music Studio. Seeing music is so integral to KMFA's new home that sheet music and sound waves decorate the walls.