July 11, 2003 - In this edition of Word of Mouth - Mainstreet Radio’s Tom Roberston profiles the writers of the Northwoods, including novelist Will Weaver; writer Kevin McColley; poet Susan Carol Hauser; and non-fiction writer Kent Nerburn / MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Nathan Keeper’s “Fully Commited” comedy / St. Paul poet Paul Dickson reads a poem on highschool / Arts-round-up
July 14, 2003 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill interviews Young-Nam Kim, artistic director of the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute, which is sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota. The first institute was held at the YMCA's Camp du Nord near Ely in 2002. Kim reminisces about the camp experience and the fantastic audience of campers, families, and children.
July 14, 2003 - For lots of young people, summer means time to go to camp. There are different kinds of camps - hockey camp, language camp, Girl Scout camp. An increasingly popular option for talented young instrumentalists is music camp. MPR's Stephanie Hemphill visits Madeline Island out on Lake Superior, where young people from around the Midwest spend four weeks playing classical music.
July 16, 2003 -
July 17, 2003 - Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov will perform at the Historic Pantages Theater in downtown Minneapolis for a sold-out performance entitled "Solos with Piano or Not…" It features the 55-year-old Baryshnikov dancing on stage alone. He'll be accompanied though, by pianist Koji Attwood, a student at the Juilliard School in New York.
July 17, 2003 - MPR's Marianne Combs profiles painter and sculptor John Snyder, and his Circus of the Night exhibit at Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. The presentation features gigantic paintings reminiscent of Italian works of the 14th century. Snyder details his inspiration behind the paintings.
July 18, 2003 - Minnesotans with ties to the Rondo community will gather in St. Paul this weekend to celebrate their heritage. It's the 20th anniversary of Rondo Days, a festival that honors the memory of a primarily African-American neighborhood torn apart by the construction of Interstate 94. In conjuction with the festival, a documentary will be shown about former Rondo resident Gordon Parks who became a world famous photograher, filmmaker, and composer. Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1912. He moved to the Twin Cities as a teenager after his mother died.
July 21, 2003 - Friends of the late Ken Dayton remember him as a retailer who believed it was good business to give back to the community. Dayton died this past weekend at age 80. His philanthropic philosophy became a national model. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
July 22, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio's Erin Galbally visits Andrea Een, a hardanger fiddler extraordinaire and a well-known music professor at St. Olaf College. To the untrained eye the Hardanger fiddle, Norway's national instrument, looks much like the violin. But the nine-string fiddle produces its own distinctive sound. That sound and the instrument will be celebrated at St. Olaf College in Northfield, where more than 300 hundred enthusiasts of the violin sibling are expected to attend.
July 24, 2003 - A new economic study paints a picture of a thriving Twin Cities art scene. University of Minnesota researchers say artists - and in particular dancers and writers - comprise more of the workforce here than in other similar-sized metropolitan areas. And the concentration of artists is growing fast. It's on pace with Seattle and Albuquerque and growing faster than Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas. Ann Markeson is director of the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the Humphrey Institute. She says that artists are highly enreprenurial and represent a hidden arts dividend for the economy.