Extra Eclectic - Jan. 17, 2024

On this episode of ‘Extra Eclectic,’ host Steve Seel explores composers from South America, including music by Brazil’s Clarice Assad, Venezuela’s Gabriela Montero and Argentina’s Osvaldo Golijov. Listen now!


Provided

South American sounds

New Classical Tracks (Extended Interview) - Tina Davidson

New Classical Tracks - Tina Davidson

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 this week’s episode of ‘New Classical Tracks,’ composer Tina Davidson explores her connection to family, life and nature on her latest album, ‘Hymn of the Universe,’ with VocalEssence. Listen now!


Tina Davidson connects with family, life and nature on 'Hymn of the Universe'

The impact of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is more important than ever. Join us for a special edition of ‘Performance Today’ honoring King through music. We'll hear the music he loved and the pieces composed by musicians who loved him as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 


Rowland Scherman/National Archives

Honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday Favorites - Jan. 12, 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

On the latest edition of ‘Friday Favorites,’ Steve Staruch welcomes Project DJ guest Micah De Caro, a 14-year-old bassoonist whose favorite class at St. Croix Prep is band, and takes listeners requests for a winter afternoon. Listen now!


James Napoli/APM

Friday Favorites: Listener requests and Project DJ co-host Micah De Caro

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Lloyd Schwartz

In 2018, three years before his death, the pianist and composer gave a concert in Sardinia that included both Mozart and George Gershwin. A live recording of that concert is now available.


Giorgio Perottino/Getty Images

Chick Corea renders Mozart with daring and playfulness on a posthumous new album

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

Rhapsody in Black - Errolyn Wallen

Vernon Neal is the host of the podcast ‘Rhapsody in Black,’ where we turn up the voices of Black artists in the world of classical music.


Host/Producer

Vernon Neal

Composer Errollyn Wallen has had teachers tell her that classical music is ‘not her sort of music’ and has had to deal with being underestimated her whole life. Now she is one of the United Kingdom’s leading composers. Find out more in the latest episode of the 'Rhapsody in Black' podcast. 


Errollyn Wallen mixes Central American heritage with Western classical traditions

Extra Eclectic - Jan. 10, 2024

On this episode of ‘Extra Eclectic,’ host Steve Seel shares a program featuring music by composers from the United Kingdom, such as Elizabeth Maconchy, Thomas Ades and Helen Grime. Listen now!


UK composers

New Classical Tracks (Extended Interview) - John Jeter

New Classical Tracks - John Jeter

On this week’s episode of ‘New Classical Tracks,’ John Jeter and the Fort Smith Symphony release an album featuring the music of Native American composer, performer and educator Louis Wayne Ballard. Listen now!


John Jeter and Fort Smith Symphony honor composer Louis Wayne Ballard

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

This week on ‘SymphonyCast’ with host Steve Seel, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, led by guest conductor Iván Fischer, performs Gustav Mahler’s turbulent Seventh Symphony. Listen  now.

 


Anne Dokter

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

An ecstatic exploration of classical music that’s aesthetically and uncompromisingly Black.

Rhapsody in Black - Ahmed Alabaca

Composer Ahmed Alabaca understands what it’s like to find yourself in a dark place. Music has helped them find the light, and they have dedicated their life to helping others get there, too.  Find out more in the latest episode of the 'Rhapsody in Black' podcast.


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