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Choral Stream

Eric Whitacre conducts the Minnesota Orchestra

eric whitacre in studio
Eric Whitacre talks with Brian Newhouse in the studio at Classical MPR.
MPR photo/Nate Ryan

On Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m., Classical MPR aired the live broadcast of Eric Whitacre conducting the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale and soprano Hila Plitmann.

Minnesotans love choral music, and so the night's program featuring one of the world's foremost living choral composers, Eric Whitacre, has piqued local interest.

Friday night's program featured the work of American composers Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber, a work of Polish composer Wojciech Kilar, and five works by Whitacre himself.

When Whitacre visited Classical MPR on Monday, April 7, he spoke with Brian Newhouse about the communal role of choral music and about the chord clusters for which Whitacre has become known. We've posted video clips of that interview beneath the rundown of Friday's program.

Program for Friday, April 11

Aaron Copland:
Selections from Old American Songs:
Long Time Ago; I Bought Me a Cat; Simple Gifts; Ching-a-Ring Chaw; At the River
with Minnesota Chorale

Eric Whitacre
Five Hebrew Love Songs
with Hila Plitmann, soprano, and Minnesota Chorale

Samuel Barber
Knoxville: Summer of 1915
with Hila Plitmann, soprano

Whitacre
Equus
with Minnesota Chorale

INTERMISSION

Whitacre
Water Night

Wojciech Kilar
Orawa

Eric Whitacre
The River Cam
with Anthony Ross, cello

Selections from Songs of Immortality
Lie still, sleep becalmed
After great pain
with the Minnesota Chorale

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