Minnesota Orchestra to be Featured on BBC Radio 3
Contact: Brad Robideau
(651) 290-1113
brobideau@americanpublicmedia.org
www.americanpublicmedia.org
Gwen Pappas
(612) 371-5628
gpappas@mnorch.org
www.minnesotaorchestra.org
Minnesota Orchestra to be Featured on BBC Radio 3
Weeklong Broadcast of Performances Hosted by Minnesota Public Radio'sBrian Newhouse
(St. Paul, Minn.) February 19, 2009—The Minnesota Orchestra and Classical Minnesota Public Radioreg; today announced the Minnesota Orchestra will broadcast on BBC Radio 3, the BBC's classical music network, each evening beginning Monday, February 23 through Thursday, February 26. The broadcast, hosted by Minnesota Public Radio's Brian Newhouse from the BBC Radio 3 studios in London, will feature rare archival performances, outstanding recent performances from the Minnesota Orchestra and—the centerpiece of the week's programming—a full Minnesota Orchestra performance from London's Barbican Centre, as part of the Orchestra's February-March European Tour.
Minnesota Orchestra Week on BBC Radio 3 Highlights:
Monday, February 23—"A Century in Sound: The Minnesota Orchestra Turns 100" (Part I)
On November 5, 2003, the Minnesota Orchestra marked its centennial season, and Minnesota Public Radio created a highly produced one-hour documentary. Host and producer Brian Newhouse uses rare archival recordings of the Orchestra's great performances and includes voices of luminary music directors—Eugene Ormandy, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Antal Dorati, Sir Neville Marriner, Edo de Waart, and others—reflecting on the excitement of making music in Minnesota.
Tuesday, February 24— "A Century in Sound: The Minnesota Orchestra Turns 100" (Part II)
Wednesday, February 25—The Minnesota Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, London. BBC Radio 3 will present the concert recorded live the night before (February 24) at London's Barbican Centre, featuring the Minnesota Orchestra and Music Director Osmo Vänskä. Brian Newhouse hosts this program which spotlights Joshua Bell performing Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, as well as orchestral performances of John Adams' Slonimsky's Earbox and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3.
Following this broadcast, Newhouse will present the newly released Minnesota Orchestra recording of Stephen Paulus' Holocaust memorial oratorio, To Be Certain of the Dawn. Commissioned by the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, Minn., and featuring a libretto by Michael Dennis Browne, To Be Certain of the Dawn was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in November 2005 at the Basilica to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps. To Be Certain of the Dawn will be available on CD in the United Kingdom in mid-March.
Thursday, February 26—The Minnesota Orchestra in recent recordings. The Orchestra has received rave national and international reviews for its just-completed Beethoven symphony cycle on the Swedish label, BIS. Brian Newhouse presents a sampling of this historic cycle, as well as a sneak preview of its newest Beethoven project: all five piano concertos led by Music Director Osmo V‰nsk‰ and featuring pianist Yevgeny Sudbin. The rarity in this broadcast will be an excerpt of the Concerto No. 4, recorded a few weeks ago at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, and scheduled for full commercial release in the fall of 2010.
Information about listening to BBC Radio 3 online via streaming audio is available at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/.
About Brian Newhouse
Brian Newhouse was the producer and host for the Minnesota Orchestra broadcasts from 1986-91. In 1992, he moved to Germany and served as a journalist with Radio Deutsche Welle in Cologne, covering topics from the Balkan War to European summer music festivals. He returned to the states and Minnesota Public Radio, and is happily back in the host's chair for the Minnesota Orchestra broadcasts. Newhouse is also the host of American Public Media's SymphonyCast,® a two-hour weekly public radio program featuring a full-length concert by a major symphony.
Newhouse holds degrees in voice and English literature, has been a soloist with the Dale Warland Singers and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and an Artist-in-Residence at the Oregon Bach Festival. He won a Peabody Award, broadcasting's equivalent to the Pulitzer, in 2000 for writing the seven-part music documentary The Mississippi: River of Song. Simon and Schuster published his memoir, A Crossing, in 1998.
About the Minnesota Orchestra
Led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä, the Minnesota Orchestra is recognized as one of America's leading orchestras. Founded in 1903, it offers nearly 200 concerts each year, with nearly 400,000 attending, and reaches more than 85,000 music lovers annually through its outreach programs. The Orchestra is heard through frequent international tours and through its vast collection of recordings, dating to the 1920s. Having premiered and commissioned more than 175 compositions since 1903, the Orchestra nourishes a strong commitment to contemporary composers. In February and March 2009, the ensemble will embark on an eight-city tour to England, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria.
Since 1974, Minnesota Public Radio has broadcast the Minnesota Orchestra's Friday night concerts from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The program's host, Brian Newhouse, enhances the enjoyment of the performances by sharing his artistic insight, the background of the works performed and interviews with conductors, guest artists and composers. The Minnesota Orchestra's concerts are also featured in American Public Media's national programs, Performance Today® and SymphonyCast.