Charlotte Wilson, afternoon drive-time announcer at Troy’s WMHT classical music radio station and NPR affiliate, has good news to share: She’s fallen in love with our region.
“Oh, I love the people here—they’re so friendly,” says Wilson, who arrived at WMHT in early 2024. “I love the natural beauty, you have a good cultural scene, and my colleagues at the radio station have been wonderful.”
All this bodes well for the local classical music community, which has come to regard Wilson as a pillar of our cultural life—a radio talent whose voice is itself a highly expressive instrument that connects her love for classical music with that of her listeners via a bond of mutual enthusiasm.
Picture, if you will, the beleaguered Albany commuter struggling through evening traffic after a difficult day at work. But wait, Wilson’s cultivated alto voice, rich with tonal variations and goodwill, comes through the car speakers. Queuing up Mozart chamber music, she relates a story about Haydn inspiring Mozart to compose string quartets. Taken together, the charming anecdote and the immortal music are a balm for the harried rush hour warrior, who may pause for a moment and reflect: Life has its difficulties, yes, but also its consolations.
An American might assume Wilson’s speech to be a posh variant of the English upper class. But in fact, Wilson is a New Zealander who hails from an artistic family, which includes a concert pianist grandfather and a grandmother whose paintings remain in demand.
Wilson herself was encouraged by her music-loving parents to play various instruments, but life events in her teenage years interfered with the necessity for incessant practice. It wasn’t until her late twenties that she “discovered radio,” becoming the voice of New Zealand’s classical music station.
She entered the American market in 2020, working for radio outlets in Phoenix and Knoxville, TN. Then in late 2023, a 20-minute Zoom call with station managers was all it took for Wilson to be flown up from Tennessee and offered the afternoon spot at WMHT.
And now, having recently purchased a brownstone in Albany’s Center Square neighborhood, Wilson appears to be putting down roots. She’s not going anywhere, and neither is classical music.
“People come to classical music when they’re ready for something other than pop or whatever they’re used to,” she says. “They try classical music they’ve heard in movies and TV, they try more, and then they fall in love with it. Classical music will always be with us.”
