Collection
Mindy Ratner: A Profile
Mindy Ratner is a host and producer on the Classical Music Service of MPR, where she is heard on weekends. Ratner regularly produces and hosts specials that draw on her expertise, whether it’s her Jewish heritage or experience with Chinese culture.
Ratner began her career in public broadcasting following her graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working first for the local public television station and then for Wisconsin Public Radio. She moved on to stations in Cincinnati and Philadelphia before joining Minnesota Public Radio in 1983. In 1998 and 1999, Ratner took a leave of absence to work as a music host and producer for China Radio International in Beijing.
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15 Collection Items
- Classical staff Brian Newhouse, Vaughn Ormseth, Mindy Ratner discuss the early days
Classical staff Brian Newhouse, Vaughn Ormseth, Mindy Ratner join Jack El-Hai to talk about the early days of MPR’s Classical station. In this MPR 50th anniversary interview, the staff talks about how the station started, how important the station is to the community, and the future of MPR Classical.
- Kaddish: Reflections on the Holocaust in Music and Words
A dozen years before the beginning of the Second World War, the Nazis began what would become the unparalleled slaughter of Europe’s “undesirables,” most of whom were Jews. Millions would die, but there were survivors as well, each with a unique story. Classical MPR’s Mindy Ratner has gathered a collection of conversations with some of those touched directly by the Holocaust and those conversations form the basis of Kaddish: Reflections on the Holocaust in Music and Words.
- Oleg Timofeyev plays a Russian seven-string guitar
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.
- A conversation with violinist Itzhak Perlman
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.
- Gershwin interpreter Kevin Cole plays with Minnesota Orchestra
MPR’s Mindy Ratner interviews pianist Kevin Cole, one of the foremost interpreters of George Gershwin’s music, while he is visiting the Twin Cities to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra. In the interview Cole discusses how he became a Gershwin fan at a very early age.
- 11-year-old sings with Minnesota Orchestra
Classical MPR’s Mindy Ratner talks with 11-year-old Nathaniel Irvin of Maple Grove, who has the the title role in Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” performed by the Minnesota Orchestra with the James Sewell Ballet.
- A tribute to Leonard Bernstein
Minnesota Public Radio music host, Mindy Ratner talks with conductor Yakov Kreizberg about the renowned conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein. Kreizberg leads the Minnesota Orchestra in the second part of the Bernstein Festival, a two-week event exploring Leonard Bernstein's legacy as a conductor, composer, pianist and educator.
- Mindy Ratner in China with Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony
Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Mindy Ratner, host of Evening Classics on MPR, about traveling to China with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony. The group consists of seventy young musicians traveling for a formal 2001 summer concert tour, and features performances in China's most prestigious concert halls in Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai.
- Mindy Ratner on how the government is preparing for the communism anniversary and fan dancing from China
MPR's Mindy Ratner checks in from China and discusses how the government is beautifyingthe city in prepartion for the 50th anniversary of the advent of communism.
- Mindy Ratner talks with Bob Potter about her yearlong broadcasting job in China
Mindy Ratner talks with Bob Potter about her yearlong broadcasting job in China that she leaves for on the same day as this interview.