Smartypants with a Romantic Heart

Sara Zanussi is a world traveler, a musician, and an entrepreneur. She's the founder and executive director of ComMUSICation. The mission of ComMUSICation is to empower urban youth with skills for success through music, service and community. Sara shares stories of ComMUSICation's success and service, and a personal playlist too.

Ken Leopold has chops, piano chops. But the piano is only an avocation for Leopold. His day job is professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota. While his twin passions are science and teaching, Ken's piano is never far away. Ken Leopold shares stories about the joys of research and teaching, and plays a few of his own piano piece on this week's Music with Minnesotans.

Dr. LeeAnn Rock grew up in Anoka, attended Augsburg University and medical school at the University of Minnesota. While she lives in Mount Airy, Md., she's a Minnesotan through and through. She joins Steve Staruch to share a personal playlist on this week's Music with Minnesotans.

Amanda Weber was working for a nonprofit agency in Washington, D.C., several years ago when she decided to start a choir for homeless women. She shares insights on the arts and social justice, and a personal playlist, too.

Byron Schwab began his career in classrooms and rehearsal rooms preparing his music students to give their best performances. Moving from the classroom to the principal's office, he encouraged all students and staff to maintain those same high standards. Now retired, Schwab is Steve Staruch's guest on Music with Minnesotans.

School librarian Lauri Nelson loves to tell stories. She loves to see the wide eyes of her grade schoolers and to hear them interact with the printed word. Stories touch the hearts of the incarcerated men with whom she also works. She is Steve Staruch's guest on Music with Minnesotans.

If you were stuck on a desert island and only had access to one piece of music, what would you choose? Jim Baxter knows what he'd choose. He is Steve Staruch's guest for Music with Minnesotans.

Kordula Coleman is an artist. Looking back at her childhood in Germany with artist parents, she says, "No mess was ever too big!" On this week's Music with Minnesotans, Kordula shares stories of how classical music has defined key moments in her life.

To the students at Academia Cesar Chavez in St. Paul, he is Mr. Nyembwe. To almost everyone else, he is simply Bondo. He shares stories of success and a brilliant personal playlist, too, with Steve Staruch on Music with Minnesotans.

At the Monsen house, you'll find a piano, a violin, a viola, trumpets, a french horn, a cello, a ukulele and a 2-year-old who likes to conduct. Beth and Noah Monsen didn't plan on having a musical family. It just turned out that way. The Monsens and their four kids are Steve Staruch's guests on Music with Minnesotans.