YourClassical MPR host Lynne Warfel and composer Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach) host a live New Year's Eve radio party on Dec. 31, 1993. 

A Classic New Year's Eve Party - 1993

Randy Salas is the senior digital producer of classical music for Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media. He oversees all classical digital content, including the website, social media, videos, e-newsletters and podcasts.


Senior Digital Producer, Classical

Randy Salas

Composer Peter Schickele, aka P.D.Q. Bach, died Jan. 16 at 88, leaving behind a legacy of musical brilliance, ingenuity and hilarity. He was a fixture at Minnesota Public Radio over the years, including co-hosting a fun 1993 New Year’s Eve radio party with Lynne Warfel. Listen now!


Listen to composer Peter Schickele's New Year's Eve radio party with Lynne Warfel

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 Iceland Symphony Orchestra is joined by Austrian cellist Kian Soltani in Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto. The centerpiece of the concert is the ‘Aiōn Symphony,’ composed by Anna Thorvaldsdottir.  


Provided

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Saturday Cinema - Jan. 20, 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

Join Lynne Warfel for two full hours of your favorite film music on the latest episode of ‘Saturday Cinema,’ in which she celebrates more January birthdays and remembers stars who died in 2023. Listen now.


More January birthdays and in memoriam

Listen to the Story

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Kerry Sheridan

When people age and begin to lose their memory, they can become isolated or lose touch with community and family. Music can help build those connections again. A special choir in Sarasota, Florida, pairs professional singers with people who have dementia.


Florida choir helps people with dementia through music

Friday Favorites - Jan. 19, 2024

Steve Staruch can be heard on Classical Minnesota Public Radio on Monday mornings and at other times during the week. 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, New York. 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 Chris Johnson, a recruiting coordinator at a financial institution whose happy place is the North Shore. Listen now!


James Napoli/APM

Friday Favorites: Listener requests and Project DJ co-host Chris Johnson

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!


South American sounds

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

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!


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

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. 


Listen

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