Comments in cars about composers

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 CHOIR COUNTRY, and choral composers are thriving in this favorable environment. We talked to Dominick Argento, Jake Runestad, Libby Larsen, J David Moore, Jerry Rubino, Craig Carnahan, and Carol Barnett. Lots of insights into their personalities, formative experiences, compositional "process," and the specific pieces from each that we will be singing this May.

We'll be sharing some highlights on our website and on Facebook posts, and we'll have a "video program note" from each that we will show during the concerts, just before our performance of that composer's work.

This was fun and fascinating, in no small part thanks to Steve Staruch's terrific interviewing style. As you may know, Steve has sung tenor in the Dale Warland Singers and other top-notch groups, and plays a mean viola (he will be in the orchestra when we sing Bach's ST JOHN PASSION with Bach Society next March!), and, through his years of hosting first at WCAL and now Classical MPR, Steve has rubbed shoulders with a wide-ranging host of musical personalities.

At the end of this exhausting and inspiring safari, Steve and I took just a moment to talk about it, as captured on Andy's ever-ready GoPro recorder.