Your weekly playlist
[image]
The original members of the Jayhawks. The band spent an hour in studio with Midmorning host Kerri Miller.
What a week! The Venetian masterpieces exhibition opens at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Jayhawks perform in studio, and Midmorning interviews local award-winning author Pete Hautmann. Scroll down and play your way through the week's artistic highlights...
Housepet performs in The Current Studio
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Originally from Detroit, Jack Ventimiglia aka Housepet made the move to Minneapolis to learn more about producing and music. Housepet will be releasing his debut EP this February which will feature original art work by Daniel Levy for each song on the album. The new EP will sound different to the stripped down solo live performances that Housepet is known for.
After more than a decade apart, the original members of the Jayhawks have reunited. They joined Midmorning to talk about what brought them back together, and what's to come. The band also performed several songs, including a new tune called "She Walks in so Many Ways," which will be part of its album which comes out in June.
New Classical Tracks: Music from the Melting Pot
The inspiration of Aaron Copland, an immigrant's musical memories, even Gregorian chant--they all find their way into a new disc of recent American music, performed by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.
A career in the theater as a composer
It's preview week for the Guthrie Theater's new production of Shakespeare's "The Winters Tale," and one of the people scrambling to get things ready is composer Adam Wernick. Just as the actors are honing their performances Wernick will refine the music right up to Friday's opening night.
Novel on English village life amuses while spearing prejudice
After struggling for a while to write a gritty up-to-the-moment novel, Helen Simonson decided to stop beating herself up and write something for herself. Now the resulting book "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" is a New York Times bestseller.
Music with Minnesotans: Charles Baxter
National Book Award finalist and University of Minnesota creative writing professor Charles Baxter weaves classical music into many of his stories, including using a title of a piece by American composer Virgil Thomson for his own novel.
Dvorak Concerto has a new fan: John Belk
Soft-spoken yet intensely passionate about music, especially the cello, 16 year old John Belk is preparing to perform the opening movement of the Dvorak Cello Concerto with his colleagues in the Minnesota Youth Symphonies this Sunday at Orchestra Hall. John spoke to Steve Staruch and performed an excerpt from the piece he says is a most powerful piece of music.
Titian, Veronese works come to Mpls. Institute of ArtsA treasure trove of Renaissance Venetian painting opens at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this weekend. The collection of works by Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and others are on tour from the National Galleries of Scotland. They have never been seen in the United States before.
Teen fiction author Pete Hautman
Pete Hautman has won a National Book Award for his young adult novels, and while he loves the genre, he says there are reasons not to write young adult fiction. He explains why, and talks about his newest novel, with Kerri Miller.
How 'Biutiful' started with a voice in a director's head
Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film "Biutiful" opens in the Twin Cities this weekend, and is in the running for two top Oscars.
MPR's Movie Maven Stephanie Curtis and film buff Euan Kerr sit in cubicles across from each other in the MPR newsroom. When they banter back and forth, it's usually about movies, and it's usually quite interesting.
Magraw and Wise still make music together after 30 years
Two Minnesota musicians will celebrate 30 years of collaboration and a new album at the Cedar Cultural Center this weekend. Guitarist Dean Magraw and tabla player Marcus Wise talked recently with MPR's Euan Kerr about their new album, "How the Light Gets in."
Dinner Party Download featuring John Lithgow
On this week's Dinner Party Download, a joke from David Gedge, frontman for brit-pop stalwarts The Wedding Present, a song from Market Watch reporter John Letzing and actor John Lithgow talks about getting decorated and reading bed times stories to his parents.