Notes and Phrases

You were born to sing! You just need to know where you fit in, right?  Find out which choir personality best describes you with this fun quiz from MPR's the Choral Stream.

It's almost time for the MN State Fair!  As always there will be a ton of things to do - but if possible, stop by the MPR booth on the corner of Judson & Nelson @ Noon on Wednesday, Aug. 29th.   Olivia and Karla will be playing live on the MPR stage.  So grab your favo...

The title of this blog is not original with me. It was the title of a session I recently attended at the annual meeting of Chorus America in Chicago. (Choral Arts Ensemble is a member Chorus America – a professional association dedicated to promoting artistic achieveme...

Composer Carol Barnett's website has a page simply labeled Friends.  On that page are links to other composers' websites, Carol's selfless promotion of the Minnesota choral art in general. 

Hear what she tells MPR's Steve Staruch about her friends in the shor...

A couple weeks ago, we tracked down Jake Runestad, home for a few short days in his Uptown condo. It was a great pleasure--Jake is relaxed, warm, articulate, passionate, upbeat. 

Jake is IN DEMAND as composer and clinician--over the weekend he was in NYC having his musi...

Classical MPR host Steve Staruch, videographer Andy Buchholz and I spent the last two Saturdays driving around the Twin Cities.  Our goal--to find and interact with choral composers in their native habitats.  

Turns out it's pretty easy--this is CHOI...

We are gearing up for another wonderful evening of fun and romance on Saturday, February 10!

We'll have a fabulous combo ready to support our efforts, which will include:

   1) Fields of Gold, the sweet love song written by George Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (ak...

    In 1873, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was born into a family clinging to the last vestiges of artistocracy in Russia—the cultured traditions remained, but the money was mostly gone.  After some false starts arising from academic laziness, deaths of two sisters f...

From very early on, the Christian Church created a rich liturgy of preparation for Christmas.  This season of Advent was a time for reflection, self-examination, intentionality--something that usually gets trampled somewhere between Black Friday, holiday menu planning,...

Consider the basses.  They neither toil nor spin...

As they rumble out their low frequencies, sad to say, these poor guys must also countenance numerous indignities visited upon them by their conductors and, shockingly, their fellow singers.  In choral circles, they are...