Since MPR was founded in 1967, our studios have been a regular stop for the world's master musicians, composers, and conductors. Additionally, in partnership with Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, MPR has recorded interviews and performances with many incredible visiting musicians and leaders in the classical music world, such as Bobby McFerrin, Osmo Vänskä, and Neville Marriner, to name a few. The Archive at MPR has preserved these interviews to make them accessible to you. Enjoy this collection which includes unique conversations occasionally combined with performance highlights and excerpts, as well as reports on the local classical scene.
Please note: Most content related to this topic that is contemporary or created after 2005 can be found on our main content pages of YourClassical MPR and MPR News
July 24, 2003 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham interviews Andrew Litton, the new director of The Minnesota Orchestra. Litton says he's honored to be leading Sommerfest into the future and says it's a great time for people and players to have fun. The Minnesota Orchestra has dropped the Viennese and added video screens to its Sommerfest.
July 28, 2003 - Pipedreams Host Michael Barone talks about famed French organist Louis Vierne, whose life and work will be celebrated at a festival at the House of Hope in St. Paul.
August 13, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Tony Woodcock, who has been chosen to lead the Minnesota Orchestra as the new president replacing the retiring president, David Hyslop. The orchestra also begins an entirely different movement this fall with a new music director, Osmo Vänskä.
September 11, 2003 - An interview excerpt of Osmo Vänskä as he prepares to lift the baton for the first time as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. The Finnish conductor arrives as the orchestra celebrates its centennial. Vanska says he realizes he has to live up to many expectations.
September 18, 2003 - MPR’s David Molpus interviews Bruce Coppock, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra president and managing director, about SPCO program highlighting "degenerate" music from the Nazi era.
September 18, 2003 - MPR's Stephanie Curtis reports that the Minnesota Orchestra is celebrating its centennial year with its new music director, Osmo Vänskä , finally in place. He is the orchestra's tenth music director and like others, he will be compared with his predecessors. Some critics say they hope the orchestra doesn't repeat mistakes made when it appointed Eiji Oue as music director.
October 21, 2003 - MPR Classical host, Mindy Ratner talks with Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman while he is in St. Paul to play at the Shubert Club, his first Minnesota concert in over a decade. Perlman discusses how even after four decades as a top international performer, the music still moves him.
October 24, 2003 - No one's ever performed the entire “Piece Symphonique,” composed by Jean Langlais. MPR’s Chris Julin reports that is changing, with a world premier in Minnesota. The composer's widow is a concert organist and she has performances in Duluth and Minneapolis of the work.
October 31, 2003 - Cellist Matt Haimovitz talks with MPR’s John Birge on performing classical music in alternative venues. Haimovitz, known for being well-versed in Bach, has recently been focused on contemporary work. He is performing a Halloween concert at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis.
November 20, 2003 - Oleg Timofeyev plays and discusses a Russian seven-string guitar with MPR’s Mindy Ratner. Timofeyev learned the instrument so he could play medieval music, never dreaming the he would ever perform 20th century Russian music. Later he discovered the work of Georgian-born composer Matvei Pavlov-Azancheev, who created a body of work for the Russian seven-string guitar while imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp during Stalin’s regime.