Each Friday at 3 p.m. central, host Steve Staruch presents four hours of classical music based on listener requests. Do you have a favorite work you'd like to share? 

Each Friday at 3 p.m. central, host Steve Staruch presents four hours of classical music based on listener requests. Do you have a favorite work you'd like to share? Send us your request!


Julie Amacher's desire to introduce others to great music is what led her to radio. She began her professional broadcast career at a station in Sun Prairie, Wis. She went from rock 'n' roll to the Rocky Mountains, where she found her niche in public radio at KUNC in Greeley, Colo. Julie spent 13 years at KUNC, where she managed the announcers and their eclectic music format. During that time, she earned four national awards for best announcer. She joined Minnesota Public Radio in 1997 as an on-air host and also produces New Classical Tracks, a weekly podcast critiquing a new release each week. It airs locally at 7:15 a.m. Wednesdays and 5:15 p.m. Fridays.


Julie Amacher

On the Nov. 3 episode of ‘Friday Favorites,’ guest host Julie Amacher fills in for Steve Staruch as she plays listeners' requests for their favorite classical music. Listen now!


Friday Favorites - Nov. 3, 2023

Friday Favorites - Nov. 03, 2023

Friday Favorites

YourClassical MPR

Julie Amacher guest-hosts

Steve Staruch can be heard on Classical Minnesota Public Radio from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays, including hosting Music with Minnesotans, Regional Spotlight and Friday Favorites. Prior to joining the staff of MPR in 2004, Steve presented a variety of radio programs on WCAL in Northfield, Minn., where he created an immensely popular call-in program, and on WXXI in Rochester, N.Y. Outside radio, Steve also enjoys work as a freelance tenor and violist. Steve and his wife, Naomi, enjoy traveling, gardening and hosting dinner parties.


Steve Staruch

Tynia Major, an assistant producer at YourClassical MPR, shared co-hosting duties Friday with Steve Staruch. She shared her passion for hip-hop and classical music while co-presenting the creepy and colorful requests for the Halloween edition of ‘Friday Favorites.’ Listen now!



Classical Feature - Friday Oct. 27, 2023

Scaring up fun for Halloween

Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ helped Teri in Minneapolis celebrate a final mortgage payment. And a road trip to Chicago was made that much sweeter with ‘Houston County,’ a piano piece by Minnesota composer Stanley Woolner. There were wonderful stories shared, with music that matched, on last week’s Friday Favorites.


Classical Feature - Friday Favorites Oct. 23, 2023

James Napoli/APM

Friday Favorites - Oct. 20, 2023 

Sweet memories of Octobers past turn the latest episode of 'Friday Favorites' into a pumpkin spice party! Listen now with host Steve Staruch as he plays listener requests.


Friday Favorites - Oct. 06, 2023

It's a pumpkin spice party 

Steve Seel is the host of YourClassical’s weekly SymphonyCast and the trailblazing music show Extra Eclectic. He possesses a broad knowledge of many musical genres, having hosted radio programs ranging from classical to jazz and even avant-garde music at radio stations around the country. Steve began his love affair with public radio at 24 working whatever shifts he could at his hometown station of WUSF-FM in Tampa, Florida, and from there worked his way to snowy Buffalo, New York, and its renowned classical station WNED-FM, where he hosted middays and the weekly experimental-music show Present Tense.  In 2005, Steve became one of the founding voices on Minnesota Public Radio's eclectic station, the Current. While there, he hosted afternoons and mornings, and conducted in-depth interviews with pop music luminaries ranging from Brian Eno to David Byrne to Tori Amos. Steve is a basement composer obsessed with all things both minimalist and slow, and might actually be incapable of writing anything that exceeds 75 beats-per-minute.


Steve Seel

Steve Seel is the guest host for the latest episode of ‘Friday Favorites,’ featuring listener requests for the music of composers Alexander Glazunov and Max Bruch, and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Listen now.


Friday Favorites- Sept. 29, 2023

Project DJ - Sept. 29, 2023

Listener requests include Glazunov, Bruch and Horowitz

Imagine a cozy fire, a cup of cocoa, the northern lights and Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto. Rachel Peterson, the Project DJ co-host on the Sept. 22, 2023, episode of Friday Favorites, shared a story that will make you want to live close to the Arctic Circle. Listen now with host Steve Staruch.


Project DJ - Sept. 22, 2023

Getting cozy with Elgar's Cello Concerto

Elmer Bernstein’s theme from ‘The Magnificent Seven’ is a wonderful way to celebrate a retirement with the hope of new (western) adventures ahead! Last week’s Friday Favorites also marked the end of the summer season with music that sounded like a walk in an apple orchard. Listen now.

 


Friday Favorites - Sept. 15, 2023

Hurrah for autumn!

From an all-Dvorak hour celebrating his 182nd birthday to a walk through an autumn apple orchard, the Friday Favorites program for Sept. 8, 2023, was a sweet treat for the ear (and the imagination!). Listen now with host Steve Staruch.





Classical Programs - Friday Favorites, Sept. 08, 2023

A celebration of Dvorak and autumn

Steve Staruch hosted a live recording of Friday Favorites at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 24 with Project DJ co-hosts Charity Duran and Jacob Barsness. That special edition was aired Sept. 1. Listen now.


Friday Favorites - Sept. 1, 2023

Ines Guanchez

Friday Favorites visits the State Fair, with Project DJ co-hosts Charity Duran and Jacob Barsness

Host Steve Staruch plays listener requests on the Aug. 25, 2023, episode of Friday Favorites. Listen now.
