January 29, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews John Munger about the first annual City of Lakes Loppet ski race. The lack of significant snow cover in the Twin Cities isn't going to derail event. Organizers are working to install a shortened course on the ice of Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. The race was conceived by R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, as a way to help designate the city "the urban sports capitol of America." Munger, the race’s director, says experts from Mora's popular Vasaloppet ski marathon are tackling the difficult job of grooming the icy course.
January 1, 2003 - MPR's Euan Kerr reports on Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov and his composition "La Pasión según San Marcos" (St. Mark Passion) draws from many influences. There is the classical music and klezmer he learned through his Russian Jewish immigrant parents; passionate tango of Astor Piazzola which resonates through Argentina; as well as the deep, and at times militant, Christianity of South America.
December 12, 2002 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Knut Jørgen Moe, who wrote the libretto for "Olav Tryggvason," and is looking for support in bringing a full-scale touring production to Minnesota. Moe says many Americans are familiar with the Viking hero because he was such an influential and charismatic man.
December 10, 2002 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Jen Randolph Reise, co-director of Women Against Military Madness, on group’s efforts to find peace solutions as an Iraqi War possibility looms. Reise says WAMM's most visible activities has been its weekly protests on the Lake Street Bridge in Minneapolis.
December 6, 2002 - December is a busy month for Minneapolis humorist Kevin Kling. He just released a new compact disc of his National Public Radio commentaries called "Wonderlure" -- a few weeks from now he'll reprise his role of Joseph in what's now become an annual holiday pageant at the Southern Theater -- and this Monday, Kling returns to the Guthrie Theater to spin more wacky childhood yarns in "Tales From the Charred Underbelly of the Yulelog." Kling says the Guthrie show takes a somewhat jaded look at the holidays.
December 6, 2002 - December is a busy month for Minneapolis humorist Kevin Kling. He just released a new compact disc of his National Public Radio commentaries called "Wonderlure" -- a few weeks from now he'll reprise his role of Joseph in what's now become an annual holiday pageant at the Southern Theater -- and this Monday, Kling returns to the Guthrie Theater to spin more wacky childhood yarns in "Tales From the Charred Underbelly of the Yulelog." Kling says the Guthrie show takes a somewhat jaded look at the holidays.
December 5, 2002 - Classical MPR’s Mindy Ratner talks with 11-year-old Nathaniel Irvin of Maple Grove, who has the the title role in Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” performed by the Minnesota Orchestra with the James Sewell Ballet.
December 2, 2002 - MPR’s Lorna Benson talks with Met Council’s Frank Hornstein about which languages will appear on ticket vending machines for the Hiawatha light rail line. Under the current proposal, the machines will operate in English, Spanish and Hmong…the three most widely used languages in the Twin Cities. But Somali advocates are protesting the plan because so many Somali citizens live along the Hiawatha route. It would cost more than $100,000 to add a fourth language to the vending machines.
October 23, 2002 - MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with Semisonic’s vocalist and songwriter Dan Olson. The group has been taking a break after hit song “Closing Time.” Olson discusses his side project and songwriting.
October 16, 2002 - The clanging of cowbells, swaying prairie grass and plows cutting deep into the earth may not sound like music to your ears, but to St. Paul composer Steve Heitzeg these sounds have all the makings of a great symphony. MPR’s Lorna Benson talks with the Heitzeg about his composition.