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WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Good afternoon. With news from Minnesota Public Radio, I'm William Wilcoxen. The University of Minnesota has an interim president. On a unanimous vote, the Board of Regents today named Robert Bruininks as interim president. Bruininks has been the university's executive vice president and Provost for the past five years. Fewer Minnesotans claimed-- filed claims for unemployment benefits in May than in the same month a year earlier. That marks the first year-to-year drop in more than two years. The state says more than 22,000 initial claims were filed in May.

That's an 8% decline from a year ago, but it's also 78% higher than the 12,000 filed in May of the previous year. Research director Jay Mosa of the Minnesota Department of Economic Security says Minnesota appears to be emerging from the recession along with the rest of the nation. Minnesota's first lady, Terry Ventura, says in many ways she's hoping the governor decides not to seek a second term.

Jesse Ventura, who embarks on a trade mission to China today, says he will make a decision on another run for office when he returns. In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Terry Ventura said some days she thinks her husband has spent enough time in public service.

TERRY VENTURA: I understand his reasons for wanting to continue, and I know that if he had another four years, he could really make some real changes. But, you know, he served four years in the Navy. He served four years as a mayor. He served four years as a governor. And I just think he should rest and let somebody else be Superman for a while and save the world.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: But first lady Terry Ventura says there are other days when she thinks her husband Jesse Ventura should continue working as an elected official. Showers and thunderstorms scattered across Central and Southern Minnesota today. Highs from 70 degrees near Lake Superior to the lower 80s in Southern counties. In the Twin Cities, partly cloudy with a 40% chance of showers. High around 84. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm William Wilcoxen.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

MIKE MULCAHY: Welcome back to Midday. I'm Mike Mulcahy, sitting in this week for Gary Eichten. Minnesota hosts two blockbuster world class music events this summer in a special edition of our Voices of Minnesota interview series, we hear from two of the people involved, Alexander Braginsky and Anton Armstrong. And we'll hear some music. Armstrong talks about the World Symposium on choral music in Minneapolis this August. Braginsky explains why he started the international piano e-competition, which has brought 60 of the world's best young pianists to Minneapolis this week. Here's Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson.

[HARMONIZING]

DAN OLSON: Alexander Braginsky has lived in Minnesota longer than most of his University of Minnesota piano students. His decision to give up a life of privilege 30 years ago in the former Soviet Union turned his existence upside down.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: We had to attend meetings where we were denounced and threatened with jail, where we were accused of being American spies, things like this.

DAN OLSON: Anton Armstrong's lower middle class upbringing in a New York suburb didn't have many of the trappings of material privilege, but brought him into contact, at an early age, with people devoted to teaching children how to sing.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: You were not defined by the color of your skin or how much money your parents had or your social status, but by who-- the content, really-- what Martin Luther King Jr. said years ago-- by the content of your character.

DAN OLSON: This hour, conversation and music with Alexander Braginsky and Anton Armstrong.

[DISCORDANT PIANO NOTES]

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Oh, yes, that's Elise Ballard. And if I am not happy with something, what I can do is, for example--

DAN OLSON: Alexander Braginsky's face beams like a child with a new toy.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: --let's see, do we like it a lot faster? And I press on this button, and it goes up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. It takes a little time. There.

[DISCORDANT PIANO NOTES]

It is really-- and I hate to use this word, but it is a space age player piano.

DAN OLSON: It is Yamaha's new disklavier. Disklavier uses laser and digital technology to reproduce a human piano performance. For this first international piano e-competition, Braginsky plans to use the internet to link to disklavier pianos-- one here, one in Japan. Most of the judges will hear the performances in person. However, the schedules of two-- Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax-- didn't allow them to be in Minnesota for the competition, so Braginsky will use the internet to beam them the performance.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: And so our two judges will get their image on a very high quality video stream through internet and they will get their sound through a disklavier. Our participants, our finalists will play here. The piano will reproduce in that room where it will be positioned for our judges to hear it.

DAN OLSON: Why the high quality video stream? Wouldn't it be enough for the judge to just hear the piano? Why does the judge need to see the performer?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: It is extremely important because what we are doing, we are judging a performance. We are not judging a recording. So a performance consists as much of personal magnetism and magic of that appearance, total appearance as it is just of sound.

DAN OLSON: University of Minnesota professor of music Alexander Braginsky is a trim man of medium height with smiling eyes. There are only a few strands of gray running through his thick, wavy Brown hair, and just a dash more gray in his well-trimmed beard. His office at Ferguson Hall on the University of Minnesota's West Bank campus is nearly completely filled with two baby grand pianos parked side by side for instruction of his students. Sitting in between is a little black box about the size of a CD player. Inside the box is the new digital disklavier technology. Braginsky uses disklavier to teach his students.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: You can see everything. You can hear everything. You can slow it down in the same key to hear things more clearly, to demonstrate things. You can speed it up if you want to check it in a different speed. There is no comparison with this versus audiotape, let's say, or even video. There is no loss of quality. It's the same instrument in the same acoustic at the same time. There are other applications. With younger students, you can make them record their own left hand of a piece and play. right hand with it, record it without pedal and use different pedal as it plays. Unlimited. Unlimited.

DAN OLSON: Alexander Braginsky, as his richly inflected English indicates, was not born in Minnesota. He is a native of Russia when it was the former Soviet Union. We'll hear how he came to this country and found his way to Minnesota a bit later. First, the story of why he created the first international piano e-competition.

[PIANO MUSIC]

In Russia, Braginsky was a music educator and a concert pianist. Here he plays a passage from a Shostakovich composition.

Because of his musical expertise, Alexander Braginsky has also been a judge at piano competitions and has not been happy with what he has seen. Who would have thought that the cultured and refined world of high level piano competition is afflicted with the same level of intrigue, favoritism, and politics as the Olympics? That's what Braginsky is aiming to correct.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: One thing that I did not care much for was that in many competitions, even the biggest one, the most-- the oldest one, the most important ones, judges are allowed to bring their students to compete. For example, I cannot vouch for the exact number, but one of the-- I don't remember if it was the latest Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels, which is one of the oldest and most respected competitions in the world, of the 12 finalists, I think 11 were students of the 11 judges.

DAN OLSON: It's a conflict of interest.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: You know, it is a conflict of interest or, or it could be perceived as such. Anything that can be perceived as a conflict should be eliminated.

DAN OLSON: And that will be eliminated how with this system?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, I can tell you what other competitions did. They prohibit judges-- they require judges who have a student in a competition to refrain from voting. To ease the pressure on this jury, we simply prohibit any student of the juror from competing, or, for that matter, any relative of that judge. So this just simply is-- it's not to say that we don't trust our judges. It just makes their job easier.

DAN OLSON: The other major piano competitions are the Van Cliburn in Fortworth, Tchaikovsky in Moscow, Queen Elizabeth in Brussels, Marguerite Long in Paris, Leeds in England, and the Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv. Alexander Braginsky says the players at the Minnesota competition are at the same level of skill. Who are these people?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: The range is very wide. You see, another thing that's another element to our competition is that we want to, so to speak, flesh out some undiscovered genius, which is what everybody wants, right? We don't know how old this genius is. We have to keep the upper limit on the age because, otherwise, you will have, you know, some very, very mature-- to put it this way-- pianists coming to compete.

So we put an upper limit at 32 years, which is pretty much standard. But I decided to do away with a lower limit. Look, we go to the Olympics, we see those 15, 14-- how old was Nadia Comaneci when she won? 11, you know? How old was great Jacha Heifetz when he played Beethoven concerto? He was six, I think, or so. So a genius has no limit. If we find a genius, let them be as old as they want or as young as they want.

DAN OLSON: So are some of the competitors very young indeed?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: I think the youngest we have is turning 17. And actually, I have to tell you, the youngest are among the best.

DAN OLSON: Why do you suppose that is?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, there are a couple of reasons. I think-- well, I think one reason is that when people are that good, they enter international competition as soon as they are allowed to, which is 18, usually. They enter at 18 and they are great, they're phenomenal, they win, and then they don't go to competitions anymore. So we want to be the first to hear them. That is one reason. Another is-- oh, I don't know. Maybe they have an enthusiasm. Maybe they are just unspoiled, they are enjoying what they are doing even more. So every tape that I heard coming from a young contestants was outstanding.

DAN OLSON: What kind of lives have these competitors lived that they have arrived at such a very high level of keyboard proficiency?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, they lead no life from the average person point of view, from a non-professional point of view. But for them, it's the only life they want. They have to practice, just like an athlete. What kind of life do you think figure skater has? We saw all these documentaries with Michelle Kwan, you know, and her day being regimented in five minute intervals.

Our life is easier. No pianist that I know of practices more than eight hours a day. According to that documentary, she was in practice, except for the bed time. So it's the same thing as with athletes.

[PIANO MUSIC]

DAN OLSON: University of Minnesota Professor of Music Alexander Braginsky. You're listening to Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

Alexander Braginsky says playing Franz Schubert's sonatas separates the very good piano players of the world from everyone else. Here's an example. The legendary Lili Kraus playing Schubert.

International piano e-competitors, Braginsky says, will perform a range of music. However, he says the range won't be nearly as wide as some of the other contests.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Another problem I had with competitions in general is that they test a sort of an overall ability to play. In a way, they are glorified entrance examinations. You are expected to play some Bach and some classical and some romantic and some contemporary, maybe some required work this, this, and that. I tried to minimize it as much as I could.

So to start with, of course, you need certain things just to be able to select. So we require a classical sonata on tape and one virtuoso etude. Those who get admitted to that preliminary round where 24 people play will be asked to perform a recital 65 to 75 minutes in length. And this is all that is in the requirement. They can play anything they want. And I see some programs dedicated completely to the contemporary music.

I see somebody playing Scarlatti most of the time. But just think, think of some great ones like Glenn Gould. I mean, why would I want to Judge Glenn Gould on how well he plays Chopin? He was the greatest Bach player. So if there is another Glenn Gould, please come in. But when the six of them are admitted to the finals, they do have to show their ability to function in the contemporary music world, and that requires being able to play very good chamber music.

So one of the requirements there is a piano quintet. We give a choice of Dworschak, Schumann, Brahms. Or Stakhovich. And one thing that everybody is required to play is any of the Schubert sonatas because I think that when things are more or less equal, Schubert will show the judges what depth the musicianship of this particular contestant can be. And the second-- the last stage is a concerto.

DAN OLSON: By the way, why does Schubert music do that? Why does music by Schubert do that?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Because it is so deep. Because it is so refined and because it requires a sensitive, so to speak, soul sensitive, musical soul and understanding of style. Schubert style is unique in that it combines qualities of the classical and qualities of the romantic music. And the one who can express it and satisfy our judges, some of whom are great Schubert players, will certainly deserve to be a winner.

DAN OLSON: The winner of the first international piano e-competition will walk away with quite a basket of goodies, and the runners up don't do too badly either. First prize is $25,000 a Lincoln Center concert, a commercial CD recording, and a brand new Yamaha disklavier grand piano. Second and third place receive $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Now how Alexander Braginsky found his way to Minnesota. He and his wife, Yelena Remenikova, an accomplished concert cellist, enjoyed the good life in the former Soviet Union for many years. Braginsky was born and raised in downtown Moscow. Do I guess correctly that you came from a very cultured background which valued the classical piano performance and, for all I know, classical education?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, it's true, I do come from a musical background. My grandmother was a very educated professional pianist. She got her education in Kyiv Conservatory with some illustrious teachers at that time. My mother was what is called a child prodigy. She was discovered when she was very young, and she was brought to Moscow at the age of 13.

And she was sort of showered with the goodies that Soviet state provided for its talents. And so it was a kind of natural that the children will follow in his footsteps. My brother is a very good concert violinist and professor in the conservatory in Brussels.

DAN OLSON: And so a number of family members made it out of Russia, the Soviet Union at the time?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, my entire family made it out. Sort of, I was the instigator of it. But they made it out, and they have very fulfilling lives.

DAN OLSON: You left why?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Everybody had different reasons. Mine was clearly political. It was a political reason. At that time, Russia was what-- it was characterized as of later as it was an evil empire, and I didn't want to be a part of it.

DAN OLSON: Had you been persecuted personally?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, no, I have not been persecuted personally until I applied for emigration, of course. Then bad things started happening.

DAN OLSON: What started happening then?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, my wife and I immediately lost our jobs. We were fired from everywhere. We had to undergo something that you are familiar with, reading about revolution and Cultural Revolution in China. We had to attend meetings where we were denounced and threatened with jail, where we were accused of being American spies, things like this.

DAN OLSON: How did you cope with that? How did you come through that?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: When you grow up in Russia, you are pretty tough, you know? I was 10 when Stalin died, so we were growing up in a very tough environment. And you just-- it's like with everything else, you get tempered.

DAN OLSON: What finally pushed you personally at 27 over the line in terms of making the decision?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: It's really a very good question because there was a single event that pushed me over that brink, and it was invasion of Czechoslovakia. I was so shocked, that I spent three days in bed. I was shaken by it. And then I decided that I cannot take it any longer.

DAN OLSON: You had friends in Czechoslovakia?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: No, I had no friends in Czechoslovakia. But it was such an act of violence, it was such a rape, that you felt guilty by association. Our Czech friends-- well, not friends, but our Czech students at the Moscow Conservatory stopped talking to us. And that was-- I understood them. I understood them.

I am not a sporting fan, but at that time, I remember sitting in a kitchen at night watching-- I think it was World Championship game or Olympics where the two hockey teams met, Soviet and Czech screaming my head off, rooting for Czechs to win. So that was the event that was a watershed where I told my parents-- basically, I told them, listen, there are two choices we have. Either we emigrate or I take a banner and I go to the Red Square.

DAN OLSON: What did they say?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, they were very upset and they were very shocked, but they believed me. And my mother knew that if we don't do it, then I will join open protest and she knew where I'm going to end up.

DAN OLSON: That would have been very nearly fatal, potentially fatal.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, it would send me to prison, most definitely, yeah. So she knew what the risks were.

DAN OLSON: However, even so, even with the denouncing in the meetings, you were allowed to emigrate.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Yes, it was a very new thing at that time. And unfortunately, at the time of immigration, my wife and I were separated because her father got very ill and we knew that he was dying. But one of us had to go because if we both stayed, we would lose our right to emigrate. So I emigrated first and almost immediately, the door slammed shut because Soviet authorities started demanding a ransom for emigration, which, of course, we could not meet.

DAN OLSON: How much?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Oh, in her case, it would have been 12,000 rubles, given our monthly salary combined. And that was a very high salary by Russian standards of 300 rubles a month. To get 12,000 was impossible.

DAN OLSON: She had to stay behind.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: She stayed behind for a few months. And then a great historic event took place, and that was the visit of President Nixon and Kissinger to Moscow. And one of the things that they negotiated was the release of these people who were held back.

DAN OLSON: Some dozens or hundreds or maybe thousands?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: At that time, it was just hundreds. It was the beginning of emigration.

DAN OLSON: Did you have to cut, sever contact with your homeland or were you able to keep up friendly ties with family, friends?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: Well, I'll just give you one example to illustrate it. They were trying to intimidate you in every possible way. So just because-- before-- just before I stepped over that line at the airport, which would move me into that international territory, a security officer looked at me and he said, just remember, when you cross this line, you cut off your ties with your country. You will never be back. You will never see your friends. This is the end of it.

Well, and so I did. I did cut all the ties. And of course, later on, I was fortunate to reestablish ties with my friends after the perestroika. But I still, 30 years later, I cannot bring myself to going back because when they told me to cut it off, I did.

DAN OLSON: You have not been back?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: I have not been back.

DAN OLSON: There may be-- certainly, there are friends. There may be family back there.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: There are certainly friends. There is little family left. But I have been back in a musical spirit because somebody sent to me a clipping from a Moscow newspaper, from its section where the radio program is printed. And I saw, at a certain time slot, it was an hour and a half program that was called Alexander Braginsky Shostakovich. And somebody got hold of my CD with Shostakovich music, and they played it and they discussed it. And it was very touching, I have to say.

DAN OLSON: What does that experience leave you with in terms of what it told you about human nature, human experience?

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: It taught me to appreciate what I have. I really learned to enjoy life, to enjoy life in America immensely. And I maybe appreciate it more than people who were born to it because I had to fight for it. I did not get it by virtue of my birth.

DAN OLSON: By the way, why Minnesota? For heaven's sakes, there are many places in the country with more temperate climates.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: [CHUCKLES] Good question. I could reply by quoting Garrison Keillor, who said that his ancestors just landed on the East Coast and walked until they found places miserable as the one they left. So that could be a part of it. But there was a better-- there is a better explanation. My mother-in-law at that time married an American who lived in Saint Paul. And my wife and I, who resided in Cambridge in England-- at that time, we were fellows of Churchill College, and we came to visit her and we stayed.

DAN OLSON: Well, Professor Braginsky, thank you so much for your time. What a pleasure to talk to you.

ALEXANDER BRAGINSKY: And Thank you.

[PIANO MUSIC]

DAN OLSON: Aleksander Braginsky, University of Minnesota professor of music and the president and artistic director of the first International Piano e-competition. Here's a portion of his CD recording of Shostakovich, a recording played on Russian radio after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

You're listening to Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

[CROATIAN NATIONAL FOLK DANCE ENSEMBLE CHORUS, FOLK MUSIC]

[SINGING IN CROATIAN]

The Croatian National Folk Dance Ensemble Chorus. They're one of the groups coming to Minneapolis in August to perform at the sixth World Symposium on Choral Music. Anton Armstrong and a handful of other choral experts selected the groups invited to the event. Armstrong is director of the St. Olaf College Choir, one of the country's top choral groups. He talked recently about the people who'll be at the symposium beginning August 3 in Minneapolis.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: We are expecting somewhere in the area of 2,000 to 2,500 delegates and even more singers who will come from over 22 countries, I believe, spanning the globe, representing young children through professional singers, bringing the choral art alive in the United States in a way in which we've never had it before. These choirs have gone through a very rigorous audition process and represent, really, some of the finest choral singing that one can hear today.

[CROATIAN NATIONAL FOLK DANCE ENSEMBLE CHORUS, FOLK MUSIC]

[SINGING IN CROATIAN]

DAN OLSON: The Croatian folk Dance Ensemble chorus shows something that Anton Armstrong says is fading away in American culture-- tunes that describe life and death, jobs and, of course, romance. Lots of commercial American music covers all that ground and more. What we're losing, Armstrong says, is the tradition of communal singing.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: We in the United States often struggle with this area of choral music. It's become so segmented at times in our society. And the more that one travels around the world and one sees that communal singing is part of everyday life in so many parts of the world. Unfortunately, in the United states, we've been bombarded by the whole world of popular music. And I mean by that often commercial music that surrounds us, Muzak that hits us in every way.

And so often, we don't make music anymore. And what I find as I travel the world and as I encounter other cultures is that music still remains a very functional part of everyday life. People sing as they work. People sing to celebrate occasions. And so this gathering of, great lovers of song, which really this is-- this whole conference represents, will show us, I think, the many facets and many ways that people throughout the world continue to make music a daily part of their everyday experience.

DAN OLSON: Will we see any trends from this gathering of these folks? Will there be, obvious to all of us, more emphasis on art, the classical music, more emphasis on traditional, the music with community roots, as you described?

ANTON ARMSTRONG: Well, I think we've encouraged those-- as the groups were selected, to participate in this event. We've encouraged them to not only feature the art music of their cultures, but also the music of the people, the folk music. I would expect that in every group you would see representation from living composers so that they can demonstrate in many ways that the music of today is still a vital part of their cultures. But we're also hoping that they go back and they will share with us the music that has stemmed from people expressing themselves in song.

DAN OLSON: The St. Olaf College Choir and several other Minnesota groups will perform in August at the World Symposium on Choral Music. The choral tradition at St. Olaf is 90 years old. There have been only four directors in that time, Anton Armstrong, the most recent. He's held the post for 12 years. You are a boy choir kid? You grew up in a pretty rich choral tradition?

ANTON ARMSTRONG: I was fortunate. It actually goes back to my home church. Believe it or not, I grew up as a-- in a Lutheran Church out in Long Island suburbs of New York City. But my early teachers were graduates of the Westminster Choir College, and they brought with them a great love and a desire that people be singing their faith from literally from the crib to the grave. And so they came and created this wonderful graded choir program.

And as a youngster around the age of 11 or 12, they took me to hear a group that was then called the Columbus Boy Choir that most of your listeners would now know as the American Boy Choir. And I had the joy of singing in that group for a couple of years as a boy. And that really was the group that showed me what, I mean, excellence in choral music could be about, provided, you know, a young kid from basically lower middle class background with opportunities to sing throughout the world, sing for a sitting pope, for a sitting president, singing with some of the great symphony orchestras of North America.

And since then, I've had the opportunity to return part of that great gift to me in serving that organization, running a summer program for a number of years and sitting on its board of trustees. But it was that experience, singing with kids from all throughout the United states, and especially at a time when, as a young african-american, you know, your race often defines you.

You were brought in that place and you were not defined by the color of your skin or how much money your parents had or your social status, but by the content-- really what Martin Luther King Jr. said years ago-- by the content of your character and how hard you were willing to work.

[ST OLAF CHOIR, "PAST LIFE MELODIES"]

DAN OLSON: For years, the St. Olaf College choir sang mostly sacred music influenced by Northern European cultures. Under Armstrong, the group sings pieces representing cultures from every continent, including a Sarah Hopkins song inspired by Aboriginal music from Australia.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: We did a piece from Australia "Past Life Melodies," which incorporates harmonic overtone singing. And I first encountered that during a trip to Australia in 1995 when I met the composer, had an opportunity to work with a choir for whom she had written the piece. And this is actually my third attempt at performing this work in the last eight years. And I think each time, I come with a heightened awareness of what she was attempting to express and a deeper, at least, respect, if not indeed understanding for the Aboriginal culture that she is trying to represent in her piece.

For instance, I have an Australian student who is able-- has and able to play the didgeridoo, which is a native instrument of the Aboriginal Australian. And he is a he is a young man of European descent, but he is able to bring certain insights. And just in hearing that instrument, it allowed the choir to hear, in many ways, what Sarah was hearing in her own ears as she recreated the work.

[DIDGERIDOO MUSIC]

DAN OLSON: You're listening to Voices of Minnesota with St. Olaf College choir director Anton Armstrong on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

[ST OLAF CHOIR, "EVERYTIME I FEEL THE SPIRIT"]

(SINGING) Everytime I In feel spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. yes, everytime I feel the spirit. moving in my heart I will pray.

DAN OLSON: African-American music is part of the World Choral Symposium. Gospel tunes and spirituals are sung by groups from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Spirituals arranged by the legendary Tuskegee college choral director the late William Dawson are among the most popular. It's a mark of how much has changed at the predominantly white Northfield College that Antoine Armstrong's Saint Olaf choir recorded a CD devoted to Dawson's music. Armstrong's admonition is singing other people's music requires knowing something about the group's culture.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: I'm very, very proud of that recording. And I think it shows also that once people hear that, if they forget their initial implications, that, yes, this is a choir that has its origins in a Northern European culture, But listen to music that when I think presented with great care and great respect, has a global-- it has a universality about it. The music of the African-American slaves is a music that really does speak to, I think, all people who find themselves at different points in maybe literally imprisoned.

But often most of us are imprisoned somehow in our own emotional life and our psychological existence. And this music speaks to people who saw beyond the confines of those pains and looked for a better life. And I think we did-- I'm very proud. And the response that we've gotten from critics, especially African-American musicians and reviewers, have been most laudatory in the work that we did in that recording.

[ST OLAF CHOIR, "EVERYTIME I FEEL THE SPIRIT"]

(SINGING) Upon the mountain my Lord spoke. Out of his mouth, came fire and smoke. Looked all around me, it looked so fine till I asked my Lord if all was mine. Everytime I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Yes, everytime I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Jordan River is chilly an' cold. It chills the body, but not the soul. There ain't but one train upon this track. It runs to heaven and right

[CHOIR SINGING]

DAN OLSON: There will be plenty of sacred music composed by Europeans at the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music. The 22 choirs coming to Minneapolis in August include three who reflect Minnesota's main ethnic groups-- Germany, Sweden, and Norway. The group from Sweden, the St. Jacob's Choir, is from a Stockholm church. Here they sing a standard Maurice Duruflé's Ubi Caritas.

[ST. JACOB'S CHOIR, "UBI CARITAS"]

St. Jacob's Choir from Stockholm, Sweden. Anton Armstrong and the five other symposium advisors invited choral groups from around the world to the August gathering in Minneapolis. Besides Europe, there'll be youth and adult groups from China, Japan, Israel, Australia, Cuba, and Russia. There will be all kinds of music-- sacred, secular, folk, even pop.

[CHOIR SINGING]

Brazil's Garganta Profunda performs various styles and sounds very much at home with popular music. Here's their Coco Do Coco.

[GARGANTA PROFUNDA, "COCO DO COCO"]

A few choral purists have a short attention span for popular vocal music. Anton Armstrong says it's an important part of the music tradition.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: I still have a great passion outside of the realm of choral music. I'm a great lover of the R&B, of more classical jazz. I mean, some of the great singers such as Dinah Washington, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, the great blues singers, and in later times Gladys Knight. I'm showing my age right now.

I think these are people who've understood a sort of human essence of expressing. I think the one thing that the singers who came out of a jazz tradition, an R&B tradition are people who were trying to express themselves in the conditions of the world. But you go back and you listen to some of the great singers of the '60s and '70s, especially Joan Baez, and people who were-- and maybe even a more raw voice but an honest voice like Arlo or Pete Guthrie, these are people who were trying to express the world around them and not just trying to make music for commercial gain.

[LIVELY MUSIC]

DAN OLSON: There'll be plenty of contemporary choral music at the World Symposium. New works by Minnesotans Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, and Dominick Argento will be premiered. A piece by Chinese composer Chen Yi will have its first performance by the Toronto, Canada-based Elmer Iseler Singers. The late Elmer Iseler was considered by many the dean of Canadian choral conductors.

[CHOIR SINGING]

The Iseler Singers reflect Canada's bilingual culture. Here they are with a piece called Drummer Boy. No, not the familiar Christmas tune. And it's not about a lad leading troops into battle. It's a story about a protective father, a spurned suitor, and a missed marital opportunity. Minnesota Public Radio's Vaughn Ormseth explains in English the French lyrics written by Harry Somers.

VAUGHN ORMSETH: My lord, my king, I've come to take your daughter. Tell me, drummer, where are all your riches? Here is my wealth, my trusty drum, my drumsticks. Go, get the gun. You cannot have my daughter.

Three ships have I full sail upon the ocean. Ones filled with gold, another with gorgeous finery. And the fairest of all is to carry my loved one. Call me back, drummer. I will give you my daughter.

I laugh at you and your daughter. From whence I come, the maids are far lovelier. Tell me, drummer, who is your father? He is king, the King of England.

[ELMER ISELER SINGERS, "THE DRUMMER BOY"]

DAN OLSON: There are lots of free events all around the Twin Cities as part of the World Symposium on Choral Music. One of the first, Sunday, August 4, at Harriet Island in St. Paul features the Boys Choir of Harlem and the Croatian National Folk Dance Ensemble Chorus. Anton Armstrong also recommends trying to catch the August 7 performance by composer and vocalist Bobby McFerrin who lived in Minnesota for a time.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: During the course of the symposium, not only will we hear these wonderful choirs from over 20 some odd different nations, but I think a very high point for the Twin Cities community will be that in the midweek, we have a breakout day. And that evening, someone who I think the Twin Cities has adopted, even though he's just now left our midst, is Bobby McFerrin. I had the joy of sharing concert with Mr. McFerrin last year at the Oregon Bach Festival, where I'm also on staff.

And this is one of the most incredible gifted human beings that I have ever encountered. He will be doing a concert that will be open to the public and will certainly, first of all, have the participants in the symposium will have an opportunity to hear this. But he will be there not only doing solo work but with his own ensemble, Voicestra.

[CHOIR SINGING]

ANTON ARMSTRONG: I think it's going to be a highlight of the entire session. So I hope people will make note of that and be present at these concerts. That will happen August 3 through the 10, 2002.

DAN OLSON: Dr. Anton Armstrong, thanks so much for your time.

ANTON ARMSTRONG: Thank you, Dan.

DAN OLSON: Anton Armstrong is director of the St. Olaf College Choir in Northfield, and one of the six people who selected participants for the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music being held in Minneapolis the first part of August. For more information, go to the symposium website at worldchoralsymposium6, that's the number six, and it's all one word, worldchoralsymposium6.org. You've been listening to Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

[CHOIR SINGING]

MIKE MULCAHY: Midday is produced by Sarah Mayer. Rob Schmitz is the assistant producer. The technical directors this week have been Clifford Bentley and Steve Griffith. I'm Mike Mulcahy. Gary Eichten will be back next week.

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