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Friday Favorites - Sept. 27, 2024

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

Guest host Julie Amacher fills in for Steve Staruch on the latest episode of ‘Friday Favorites,’ playing listeners’ requests for their favorite classical music. Listen now! 


Friday Favorites

YourClassical MPR

Friday Favorites: Listener requests with guest host Julie Amacher

The Listeners Opera U.S. Premiere

Nate Chinen

In ‘The Listeners,’ a seductive cult leader and an unexplainable noise divides an innocent community and warps reality. Missy Mazzoli's opera receives its U.S. premiere in Philadelphia.


The Listeners | Opera Philadelphia

Steven Pisano/Courtesy of Opera Philadelphia

A mysterious hum and a charismatic leader stoke chaos in Missy Mazzoli's opera

The BBC Proms concerts return to YourClassical for the 2024 season. Enjoy live performances featuring world-class ensembles, conductors and soloists from London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Listen at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays through Sept. 27 — plus on-demand audio for 30 days afterward.




Listen to the 2024 BBC Proms on YourClassical

Extra Eclectic - Sept. 25, 2024

On this episode of ‘Extra Eclectic,’ host Steve Seel features a selection from Julia Wolfe’s ‘Fire in My Mouth’ in an hour devoted to contemporary women composers, which also showcases music by Meredith Monk, Paola Prestini, Gala Flagello and more. Listen now!


Extra Eclectic

Peter Serling/Provided

Women composers bring the fire

New Classical Tracks (extended interview) - Gao Hong

New Classical Tracks - Gao Hong

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 latest episode of ‘New Classical Tracks,’ pipa player Gao Hong and flamenco guitarist Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde improvise together on their new album, ‘Alondra.’ Find out more!


Gao Hong - Selections

New Classical Tracks® 

Provided

Gao Hong and Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde improvise together on their new album

Saturday Cinema - Sept. 21, 2024

Lynne has been at this radio thing since 1984 when she fell into an historic job at KFAC AM and FM, the commercial classical station in Los Angeles.  She was the first woman staff announcer in the station's history, and it was such big news back then, it made the LA newspapers and national radio publications.  She is thrilled women in radio is no longer newsworthy.


Lynne Warfel

This week on ‘Saturday Cinema,’ join host Lynne Warfel as she highlights the films of James Stewart, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda and more. Listen now!



Saturday Cinema

Great actors of the 30s and 40s

Saxophonist Nubya Garcia writes her own Odyssey, string section and all

Jonaki Mehta

Patrick Jarenwattananon

Ailsa Chang

The London-based saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia talks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about the diverse sounds on her new album Odyssey. It's her first time writing for and conducting strings.


Friday Favorites - Sept. 20, 2024

Guest host Steve Seel fills in for Steve Staruch on the latest episode of ‘Friday Favorites,’ playing listeners’ requests for their favorite classical music. Listen now! 


Friday Favorites: Listener requests with guest host Steve Seel

Where we turn up the voices of Black artists in the world of classical music, with host Vernon Neal.

Rhapsody in Black - George Bridgetower

Violinist and composer George Bridgetower was good friends with Ludwig Van Beethoven. So much so that Beethoven wrote a violin sonata just for him. Find out more in the latest episode of the ‘Rhapsody in Black’ podcast.


Portrait of George Augustus Hightower, c. 1790

Rhapsody in Black

Wikipedia 

 Violinist George Bridgetower left his mark on Beethoven 

Extra Eclectic - Sept. 18, 2024

Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 (‘The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend’s Loe for the Beloved’) is this week’s ‘Extra Eclectic’ highlight from the 2024 BBC Proms Festival and it kicks off an hour of works by African-American composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. Listen now with host Steve Seel!


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