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SPEAKER 1: Increase your taxes again once your kids turn 13. With four children of my own, I know all too well that the cost of raising kids only goes up as they get older. The Republican plan, however, lets you enjoy that tax credit all through your kids' childhood up until they reach 18.

SPEAKER 2: Freshman Ohio Congressman, Steve LaTourette. Former President Jimmy Carter will reportedly arrive in Bosnia tomorrow to try and restart peace talks. The Associated Press quotes diplomatic and government sources in Croatia. They say Carter will stop there first and then go on to Bosnia. This is MPR.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Good morning. It's 11:04 o'clock from the FM news station. I'm Chris Roberts. Police and private security personnel will be on hand today when thousands of Hmong gather in Saint Paul for a weekend New Year celebration. Although past events have been marred by violence, Saint Paul Police say they are not taking extraordinary precautions.

About two dozen offduty officers will work at the event, which is expected to attract 18,000 people to the Saint Paul Civic Center. Police had to clear the building two years ago when a fight broke out during the Hmong New Year celebration. Last weekend, two men and two teenagers were wounded in a pair of shootings outside a Hmong New Year celebration in Saint Paul's East side. Police say the shootings appear to be gang-related.

Taconite production on Northern Minnesota's iron range next year is expected to reach the highest level since 1979. Officials are projecting that plants on the range will produce 47.5 million tons of taconite in 1995. All seven Northeastern Minnesota taconite plants plan to run at full capacity or beyond next year.

Some mining companies are adding new employees for the first time in years. Steel production has been helped by strong sales nationwide in the construction, auto, and appliance industries. Anticipating a boom year, taconite producers are spending millions on larger and more efficient mining equipment.

Zebra mussels have invaded the upper Mississippi River in greater numbers than anticipated. The Army Corps of engineers reports finding 2,000 mussels per square meter at lock and dam number seven in Winona County.

The updated forecast for the state, some lingering light snow early in the afternoon in the Rochester area. A few flurries in Duluth, becoming partly cloudy in Marshall. Highs will range in the teens in Hibbing, to the lower 30s in Rochester. In Duluth, cloudy in 25. Cloudy in the Twin Cities right now in 29 degrees. That's news. I'm Chris Roberts.

MARK ZDECHLIK: And it's six minutes now past 11 o'clock. You're listening to Midday on the FM news station. I'm Mark Zdechlik, and today, we have moved down the hall from our usual gigs. We're live this morning from MPR's Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio. And seated next to me at the head of the 9-foot Steinway, William Eddins, the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Thanks a lot for coming in this morning.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Well, thank you for having me here, Mark. Hi, there, boys and girls.

MARK ZDECHLIK: He's been described as a rebel with a baton. He has strong opinions about what symphony orchestras, like Minnesota's, need to do if they're going to survive. At just 30, as of last week, as I understand, Bill--

WILLIAM EDDINS: Last Friday.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Bill Eddins is a rising star in the symphony orchestra industry. He'll become the associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra for the 1995-1996 season. Over the next hour, we're going to be talking about music appreciation. What's going on in classical music? What should be going on in that genre in this day and age?

Bill Eddins has graciously agreed to play a little bit, as well, this morning. It's even in our plan, apparently, to talk some politics. So we hope you'll be part of the conversation. If you're listening to us in the Twin Cities, you can chime in with your thoughts by calling 227-6000. That's 227-6000 if you're listening in the metro area.

Anywhere else you can hear our broadcast this morning, we encourage you to call toll-free with your questions and comments. The toll-free number is 1-800-242-2828. Well, Bill Eddins, let's start out with some music to get folks in the mood. What do you want to play?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Here we go. I'm going to do a little excerpt from one of my favorite pieces of the modern classical arena. This is called the Nightmare Fantasy Rag, subtitled, A Night on Rag Mountain.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Do it to it.

[PIANO MUSIC]

Why did you choose to play that piece, Bill?

WILLIAM EDDINS: It's the last thing I remember practicing a couple of months ago. No, just kidding. That's one of my favorite, favorite pieces. It's actually much longer than that. That was just a brief excerpt from it, written by a gentleman named William Albright, who is a tremendous organist and pianist and composer.

And he was on the faculty of the University of Michigan. And he's one of the few composers who's still writing rags. And I just love the whole ragtime tradition, even though I don't play a lot of them. I love to hear them. I just love the whole-- there's a tremendous physicality about them, with the left hand going--

[PLAYS PIANO NOTE]

Jumping all over the place. They are just a blast to play.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Well, you're on the news station, so you have to define a rag. What's a rag? What's the tradition you're talking about?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, good lord. I'm not sure if I could get very specific about this, but it is, of course, the-- the tradition, I believe, comes from the piano players of New Orleans, who developed this incredible tradition of playing the solo jazz literature on piano. And the ragtime is known very much for its chord structure, its bluesy chords, using chords like that.

And also, really, the physicality, the physical nature of it. I was demonstrating a little bit with the left hand that jumping around. That's very much part of the ragtime tradition. They're just a blast to play. But unfortunately, very few composers write for him anymore.

And I stumbled across this rag a good 12 years ago, and I had the audacity to play it for my master's recital at the Eastman School of Music. It was one of the pieces I played. It's really way too much fun. So I thought I'd pull it out.

MARK ZDECHLIK: In case you haven't gathered by now, we're talking music today on Saturday Midday, classical music, jazz, rag, whatever you want to talk about. Bill Eddins is here. He's the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. And I'm told that we have some room on the phone lines right now. If you have a question or comment for Bill Eddins, don't be shy. He's a nice guy.

227-6000 in the metro area is the number to call. 227-6000 if you have a question, and you're in the Twin Cities area. Anywhere else you're listening to our broadcast, you can call with your question at 1-800-242-2828. And don't be shy with your questions. Don't be afraid.

I think, Bill, one of the things you're really known for in this community is your interest in educating people about music, particularly younger people. Talk a little bit about the importance you placed on linking kids with music, and in particular, what people call classical music.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah. Well, this is very much appropriate for these days when we have these great debates raging in our society. The things that classical music bring to people is, one, just an ability to do something creative, which is something that, I think, everyone should have, the opportunity to play something which is enjoyable for other people or for yourself. Just being creative is a wonderful thing.

The second thing that it brings is an incredible amount of discipline. I have friends who practice 6, 7, 8 hours a day. They're not out on the streets, mind you. They're in their rooms, practicing. And that just gives a great sense of definition to one's life, knowing that one is focused and able to do things like this.

This is where the classical music has a lot in common with the martial arts, which I used to take karate, and just the ability to focus your mind and your body. But, I mean, the main thing for me is that it's just so much fun. I really love what I do. I don't see any reason to do anything else, and it just absolutely tickles me pink that I get paid to do this, to be on stage and to produce this tremendous music for people.

And to get children interested in this is really one of the things that I love to focus on because these kids, they're born in a world, when they're six or seven or eight years old, they haven't developed all these preconceptions that those of us who are now 30-something or whatever bring to the world around us, whether it's the music we hear, the art we see, or just the people we deal with.

And then to captivate them with something that they've never heard before, you can just see the atoms working in the mine going, wow, what is this? What's going on here? And just to see that spark of creativity and interest in a child is just-- I absolutely live for that.

There's got to be a Mozart out there. I know there's another Mozart out there, and I'm going to find him, her, or it, and that's probably going to be my claim to fame. But I don't care. That would just be great. It'd be great for me.

MARK ZDECHLIK: OK, let's talk a little more about that in a minute. But I don't want to hog the microphone. Charles is on the line from Bloomington. You're on the FM news station with Bill Eddins.

CHARLES: Hi. I listened to some harp music last week, and I didn't see any black strings like the piano has black keys. Could you comment a little on that?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Interesting question. Yeah, it's interesting. The keyboard instruments, white and black keys, they weren't necessarily always the colors that we're used to on piano. As a matter of fact, if you ever see a harpsichord, which is a relative of the piano, the keys that we're used to seeing as white would be black, and the black keys would be white, and vice versa.

But what you're talking about is just the color of the strings themselves. And what you need to do is just the next time you find a piano, it's just to open the lid and look on in there because you will see the strings of the piano, and they will look very much like the strings of the harp. Matter of fact, the inside of the piano itself, where the strings are strung, is called the harp of the instrument.

And they look similar. They use similar kinds of strings. The harp strings themselves, the strings for the instrument, the harp, are a little bit easier on the fingers because you're playing them directly with the fingers. You don't want to rip your fingers apart on these cables. But just open up a piano next time and look in, and you'll see those strings on the harp of the piano.

MARK ZDECHLIK: I read a bunch of background information about you, and apparently, something that you believe in very strongly is that when you're turning a kid on to music, you teach the child or the youth about the instrument, the tradition of the instrument, the history of it. Why do you think that's so important?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Well, I mean, this dates back to why we are homo sapiens sapiens. We are thinking creatures. There's an expression, only mankind laughs, only mankind cries, only mankind dances. And for dances, you could substitute any one of the arts. There is no other animal on Earth that's going to sit down and go, oh, I'm going to write a piece for coconut in orchestra today because I'm in the jungle or whatever.

We are inherently creative. And to understand how it is we got to where we are today is going to give people just that much more insight into how we were 200 and 300 and 400 and 500 years ago, and where we might be 300 or 400 years in the future. So for me, it's just a matter of, really, having an interest in what it means to be human, to really focus in on how these instruments developed and how these other people were so creative in putting these instruments together. These were incredible instrument makers, developing this stuff.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Without all the power tools that they have now to build them.

WILLIAM EDDINS: I know, man. You're sanding by hand and all of that, and doing it by hand. It's incredible. Everyone hears about Stradivarius violins. Well, they were made all by hand, and they were made 200 or 300 years ago, and they're still the best instruments ever made.

MARK ZDECHLIK: It is about 19 minutes past 11 o'clock. You're listening to Midday from the FM news station. Bill Eddins is here. He is the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, and we're talking about music. Everything's on the table this morning, too, so we really hope to have you, the listeners, be part of this conversation.

227-6000 is the number to call if you're listening in the Twin Cities. 227-6000 in the metro area. Anywhere else you can hear our broadcast, you can call with your question or comment at 1-800-242-2828. Let's go back to the phones now, and to Jean, who's been patiently holding in Saint Paul. Good morning.

JEAN: Good morning.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Hi, Jean.

JEAN: Hello. I want to thank you, by the way, for doing a guest appearance in my son's orchestra class at the University of St. Thomas.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, my pleasure.

JEAN: He had a grand time with that. And that spurs me to ask a question. He is a young man who's been very interested in hard rock, very good drummer. But when he and I talk about music, he often says, why do we talk about what we call serious music as classical?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah, well, Jean, you've run into one of the great questions known to mankind. This started about in the '20s and '30s, with the great advent of jazz. These critics in New York were trying to figure out a way of denigrating jazz.

And so they called classical music serious music and jazz, pop or popular music. Now, as a friend of mine pointed out to me just a few weeks ago, if jazz and rock is popular music, does that make classical music unpopular? The answer is, unfortunately, over the last 70 years, yes. I mean, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot with that one.

So do me a favor and blame that on the critics and don't blame it on those of us who are musicians. I mean, for me, I will listen to any and every kind of music known to mankind. I've got a large rock collection, jazz collection, world music collection, classical collection, and just about anything else.

You could see me at the Ordway theater. You could also see me at First Avenue over in Minneapolis or the Dakota Bar and Grill. For me, music is just music, and I just love the idiom. I don't care what kind of music it is, as long as it's good, creative, fun.

MARK ZDECHLIK: How big of a fight is it for you to try to convince somebody, maybe a teenager, the hardest group of people to convince of anything, that they should sit on it and listen to some classical music, this serious music because it's enjoyable?

WILLIAM EDDINS: It's not easy. It's not easy at all because we have gotten into such a rut now, in this country, especially, not so much in Europe. But such a rut that people just consider classical music to just be this highbrow, rich folks' music. And part of the problem is that at the end of World War II, the great American traditions were kind of denigrated.

The composers like Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein or Charles Ives, George Gershwin-- I mean, when Gershwin premiered the Rhapsody in blue it was at Carnegie Hall, and he was just trashed by the critics. It was like, oh, how dare you bring this stuff into this hallowed Carnegie Hall? But this is brilliant American classical music.

And frequently, this is not what kids are sat down in front of. They're sat down in front of something else from a culture that they can't really relate to. I love to play real American music for kids, the Duke Ellington pieces for orchestra, or Gershwin, or such like that. They get a real kick out of it because they've never heard it. They just think classical music is very-- this is all it is.

[PLAYS PIANO NOTE]

Yeah. Yeah, it's a great piece, but come on, this is 1994 here, and more has been written besides that. So yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy being green, as Kermit the Frog would put it, but I try.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Tracked down some information about you. You're quoted as saying you think Duke Ellington is the greatest American composer to ever live. So I guess--

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah, a friend of mine said that to me about three or four years ago, and I tried desperately to disagree with him and could not. When, of course, you say Duke Ellington, you really mean Ellington Strayhorn, as anyone in the jazz world can tell you. But the incredible wealth of song-writing and instrumental-writing that that man put out over the course of 40, 50 years, it's just unbelievable.

And he's one of the most prolific writers in history, certainly, and I would say certainly one of the most creative. And well, I mean, I can even play any of his stuff. Everything from mood indigo through a-train, Ellington, Strayhorn again. I mean this is masterful, masterful writing. Once again, this was music which was denigrated by the quote-unquote, "Serious classical side."

Matter of fact, he was denied some major grant. He was going to study composition, and he was denied this major grant because the review board just did not consider his music serious enough. And that just makes me madder than you could possibly believe now. But yeah, Ellington, wonderful, wonderful writer.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Let's go back to the phone lines. Paul is listening in Edina. You're on the FM news station with Bill Eddins.

MARA: Hi, this is Mara in Edina.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Hi, Mara. Good morning.

MARA: Good morning. The reason I'm calling, I have a 3-and-1/2-year-old and has shown a real interest in music. He loves to sing and seems drawn to instruments, as well. He sits and makes little instruments out of LEGOs. I'm starting to wonder, what is my best approach in getting him seriously into either an instrument or developing his musical talents?

I just don't want to deter him. I realize he's still pretty young. What's the best approach?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Well, depending on which culture you're from, there are a lot of kids I know who have started violin at like 4 and 1/2 years old. Personally, I think that's a little on the extreme side, to start kids on an instrument that young. I was fairly young. I was six years old when I started piano, but around the ages of seven or eight could be great.

The best thing that you could do is just to encourage your son's interest in music by either getting CDs, or there are a lot of great books out that you can get, which describe the instruments of the orchestra or describe the instruments of the jazz orchestra. Just get the child interested in as much and as wide a range of music as that child shows any interest in. And just encourage that child to listen because this is something that we don't do a lot in this society, this TV-based society, which is why I love radio so much.

With TV, we look at it, and we stare at it, but with music, we very much train the ears. And that's something that we have somewhat gotten away from in this particular society, just listening to people. So you could also bring this child to, say, our Adventures in Music concerts.

Hey, this is a nice plug here. Notice how I swung this one in? We have these concerts four times a year with the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, and they are specifically designed for parents and young children between the ages of three and eight or nine years old. And they're extremely popular and very entertaining, and they're short because, of course, the kids don't have the longest attention span.

They are about an hour long, and they're on Sunday afternoons. And if you look around, I'm sure there are several things like that, geared specifically for children, that you could get your child interested in.

MARK ZDECHLIK: They have been tremendously successful, your efforts to-- what is the name of the series again?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Adventures in Music.

MARK ZDECHLIK: The Adventures in Music.

WILLIAM EDDINS: We call it the AIM series.

MARK ZDECHLIK: OK. Give us an example of what kind of stuff you do during those type of concerts. How do you relate to these kids and pique their interest?

WILLIAM EDDINS: My all-time favorite one, which just absolutely almost caused a riot here when we did this one, we did a performance called Beethoven Lives Upstairs, put together by a group connected with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And it's kind of a little play, a musical play in one.

And it's about Beethoven, and what happened is there-- the story is there is this young kid, who's interested in music, and he's living with his mom. And his father has just died, so they have to rent out their upstairs apartment to try and make ends meet. And they rent it out to this crazy guy named Ludwig van Beethoven.

And this kid has never met or seen anything like this. And he writes letters to his cousin who's living in Berlin, who is a musician. And the whole play is them writing letters back and forth about Beethoven and about his music. And behind this action was ourselves, the Minnesota Orchestra and myself, playing excerpts from the great pieces of Beethoven, the sonatas, the chamber music, the symphonies.

And it was just an absolute smash hit. People just absolutely loved it. We'll do things like that. We'll do classic things like Benjamin Britten's, A Young Person's Guide to the orchestra. I mean, this is great music in an entertaining setting, and I would encourage anyone who's got a young child to look into something like this.

MARK ZDECHLIK: What do you suppose made Beethoven Lives Upstairs so popular? Is it that it was about a regular guy who rents an apartment, who lives in an apartment, and happens just to be this phenomenal composer, and that way, you're able to slowly introduce the kids to this great?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what it was all about. And during the course of it, you realized how much of Beethoven's music we have heard. Whether you're interested in music or not, just growing up on this planet during the last 30 years, you're going to have heard some Beethoven, whether you know it or not. I mean, and it was always incredible to see the looks on the kids' faces when they would recognize some of this music.

Of course, we also, from this country, have the tradition of cartoons. And during the '40s and '50s, Bugs Bunny was notorious for doing these classic musical takeoffs. We used to play in young person's concerts.

[PLAYS PIANO NOTE]

And guaranteed, the audience, the kids would just go nuts as soon as they heard that. They would recognize that from Bugs Bunny. And by the way, Chuck Jones is directing a new Bugs Bunny short, and it's based on the opera, Carmen. And it's supposed to come out early next year, so that's a little piece of excitement to spread around for everybody.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Is the Minnesota Orchestra and our orchestras like the Minnesota Orchestra all over the country doing enough to pique the interest of adults the way you describe efforts that are being made to get kids interested in classical music and to get kids to Orchestra Hall? I have a feeling you have an opinion on this, but--

WILLIAM EDDINS: We're starting to. Unfortunately, in just about every artistic realm that we have in this world, there is a strong, conservative streak in that. We've been doing it this way for 300 years, and we really shouldn't change because it's been helping us this far.

But those of us, especially who have grown up in the '70s and '80s and see how quickly the world is changing, we realized that if we don't do something to make sure that we have an audience out there, that in 20 years, we're not going to have an audience. And this has been a huge debate over the last four or five years with our orchestra and with just about every other orchestra in the United States of America, how to get younger adults into the audience, whether it's creative programming, or new kinds of series, or just getting out there into the community and saying, hey, we're here.

This is an entertaining evening, which isn't going to cost you that much and is fairly easy, and you don't have to worry about driving home drunk or whatever. I mean, we're good, clean fun. That's always been my argument. We are good, clean fun.

MARK ZDECHLIK: It's also your contention that if something isn't done toward that end, these orchestras aren't going to be around 20 years from now when you're 50.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah, the trend very much has been, over the last 10 or so years, is that our audience is getting older and older and older without having an influx of younger adults coming in. And simple mathematics will tell you in 20 years, you're not going to have an audience if your audience keeps getting older and older and older, unless there's some miracle drug out there, which is going to make everyone, young again.

MARK ZDECHLIK: A little self-preservation in these kids' concerts.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Exactly.

[LAUGHTER]

MARK ZDECHLIK: Let's go to the phones. Joan's been waiting in Rochester. You're on the FM news station with Bill Eddins.

JOAN: Hello, this is Joan. Gave me a chance to think about a few other things that you were talking. I've been going to concerts in Rochester for over 20 years, and I really miss the Minnesota symphony since they don't come. But Jerry Lance and our orchestra has improved since Jerry's been here, and he's a master narrator.

I'm 50 or so, and when I was little, I remember hearing Leonard Bernstein, Peter and The Wolf, and the combination of narration and music really got me started with classical.

WILLIAM EDDINS: I'm not at all surprised. We have, over the last year, done both Peter and the Wolf and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. And as I said, the Beethoven Lives Upstairs, which had all the narration. I personally am also a big fan of narration with orchestra and just having the spoken word there with music in the background.

And I, too, remember some of these Bernstein young person's concerts. And if you are at all interested, ma'am, these are all out now on video cassette. I'm not sure who puts them out, but they are all available. And I actually have a couple friends who have them, and they are just incredible to watch even today.

So I mean, how long is it? Almost 40 years after Lenny started doing these. They're still incredible. They're entertaining. And they would make a great gift if anyone's interested, great gift for younger children who are really interested in music. You could get them some of these video cassettes of the master himself, Leonard Bernstein, at his most entertaining.

MARK ZDECHLIK: And some of these Canadian classics you've done, are they also available on video cassette or not?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Actually, I've seen the video cassette. I haven't seen it personally, but I've seen the box of it somewhere, of Beethoven Lives Upstairs. They have one or two others in that series on other composers also. I think one on Mozart, and I think one on Tchaikovsky. I'm not even sure, but I know it's there. I know they're available, and they would also make wonderful gifts for kids.

MARK ZDECHLIK: OK, 227-6000 if you're listening in the Twin Cities, and you have a question for Minnesota Orchestra assistant conductor, Bill Eddins. Anywhere else you're listening to the broadcast, we encourage you to join our conversation by calling 1-800-242-2828. Let's go to Rob in Brooklyn Center. Good morning.

ROB: Good morning.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Good morning, Rob.

ROB: My question is one of a philosophical nature. I am also a musician. And studying the different styles of music throughout the century, how it's splintered and branched off in so many different styles, with jazz and blues and then into fusion and then rock. And I'm wondering what you see for the future of music, if you see any sort of another unified style coming out or, where do you see it going?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, that's a good question. That's something that, actually, I've been wrestling with a lot. I firmly believe that now is both the most interesting and the most difficult time for any musician because you have more than one idiom to deal with. And frequently, as you mentioned, you can have interest in playing more than one major idiom, being competent in classical, in jazz, in rock, or whatever.

I have played some rock. I've played some reggae and some free improvisation. I have many friends who are in the jazz idiom. I think, at some point, we're going to have to develop new musicians to be able to take various elements from all these different styles, maybe the free-forming element from jazz, and the compositional element from classical music, and the display element of just being on stage of rock and roll, and somehow managing to come up with a semicomposite style, which can just take elements from all these great idioms and make it work.

This is not going to be easy, and this is not going to shake itself out by Christmas of 1995 by any stretch of the imagination. But there are a lot of creative people out there who are just trying to search for a more encompassing concept of music. In the rock world, people like Peter Gabriel, with his virtual reality ideas and his real-world label, where he focuses in on world music.

In the classical side, there are composers like Steve Reich and Joe Schwantner and Chris Rouse, who is a huge Led Zeppelin fan. And he's got 11 percussionists in the back of all of his orchestra pieces, just banging away and having fun. And you can hear Beatles excerpts going through his music.

There are people out there who are trying to do it. It's not going to be easy, and I don't know, maybe we'll really know what happened 200 years from now.

MARK ZDECHLIK: What do you think is going to happen with the pomp and circumstance of classical music? You're quoted as saying, part of what I rail against in classical music are conceptions of what classical musicians look like, what their background is, how they act, when in actuality, none of this matters in music.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah, it really doesn't matter. Now, don't get me wrong. I just bought a new set of tails this year, and I think I look great in them. And I love to wear tails, and I love to just be in a formal atmosphere. I don't love to be that way 100% of the time.

And so some of my favorite concerts to do are our casual classics concerts, where I'm dressed as you see me now. I'm in jeans and a long sleeve shirt, and it's just a very informal setting. But there is that conception, that classical musicians are just so, and the music is just so, and you have to act just so.

I'm so tired of inviting people to Orchestra Hall and saying, yeah, I'll get you a ticket. And the first question out of their mouth is, well, what should I wear? I'm like, look, clothes would be great. We can't let you sit down if you're buck naked. But clothes would be just fine. That's always been my attitude.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Bill Eddins is here on Saturday Midday, and we're talking about music. Bill Eddins, of course, is the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Let's go to the phones and to Fred, who's in Roseville.

FRED: Hi, Mr. Eddins. My wife and I just wanted to express our appreciation. We've got a five-year-old daughter that is involved in the kids concerts that you do from time to time on Sunday afternoons.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, great.

FRED: We love the concerts, and we love the informality. And our daughter has very much enjoyed them. And we also enjoyed the very spirited read of the Beethoven shift that you gave at the guarantor's concert a while back.

WILLIAM EDDINS: All right, Thank, you.

FRED: Talking about the informality, too, I think that's going to keep people, like ourselves, younger people in our 30s, coming to the orchestra, as well as the interesting variety of music. I was just curious to know-- you are also in your 30s, I believe, very early in your 30s, and I'm curious to know how you got to where you're at such a young age.

WILLIAM EDDINS: For the record, I am eight days into my 30s. I turned 30 on Friday, the 9th of December. Well, my background is pretty bizarre. I started playing piano at six.

MARK ZDECHLIK: On a piano your mother bought at a garage sale, right?

WILLIAM EDDINS: At a garage sale. I mean, this is a classic story. Should I go into this?

MARK ZDECHLIK: Absolutely.

WILLIAM EDDINS: It's a Wurlitzer Concert Grand made out of mahogany and cast iron steel. We found out later that it was made specifically for the last concert tour of Sigmund Romberg, who was a famous operetta composer, and he wrote a lot of music for films out in LA and was a very popular musician in the '30s, '40s, and '50s.

I started learning on that particular piano, and I went off to the Eastman School of Music in '79, when I was 14. Graduated four years later in '83, when I was 18.

MARK ZDECHLIK: The youngest graduate of that institution, correct?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty scary, in retrospect. It really is. Kind look at the mirror going, what were you thinking? But it was entertaining, if nothing else. Spent time conducting and playing piano and just trying to figure out what I wanted to do a lot in the '80s.

And then in '88, I went down to Miami to play in the New World Symphony, with Michael Tilson Thomas as director. And this was kind of a training orchestra for young musicians. I was down there playing orchestral piano. And after a year and a half I said, well, I got to get back into conducting. I really got to do this because this is a lot of fun.

And I went out to Los Angeles, studied for a couple of years with Dan Lewis, a teacher at USC, commonly known as Dapper Dan. And he put my technique back together. And through some fortuitous meetings with various people, for example, Lynn Harrell, the great cellist, and a couple other people like that who were just very helpful for me, I managed to get enough exposure to get a job, which I got here some two years ago with the Minnesota Orchestra.

This is actually my first real job in music. And I wake up every morning going, yes, two years ago, you were unemployed and living in Los Angeles. Life is great.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Are you the product of stage parents at all or not?

WILLIAM EDDINS: My mom tries to be a stage parent. And no, I won't let that slide. Not so much myself. I'm somewhat headstrong, and I just did not know what I wanted to do in the '80s, so there's no real-- if you're going to be stage parents or if you're going to have someone stage parent you, there's got to be one focus, one thing.

Oh, the kids played violin since they popped out of the womb or whatever, and that's what that kid is going to do forever. I kind of had this dichotomy. I didn't know whether I wanted to be a pianist or a conductor all the time. And I finally decided to be-- well, to make my living as a conductor and just play piano when I really, really wanted to do that. And it's very hard to have stage parents if you're a conductor because you're still at everyone else's whims when you're in the conducting field.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Let's go back to the phones. John, I think, is in Minneapolis. You're on the FM News Station with Bill Eddins.

JOHN: Good morning, Bill.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Hi, John. Good morning.

JOHN: I just wanted to mention a couple of things. I'm an electric guitarist, and for the past 12 years, I did my undergraduate, my master's work and stuff as an electric guitarist in strictly classical programs. And during that time and since then, I've been commissioning composers, straight classical composers, to write concert electric guitar music.

And it's really-- you're talking about getting people interested, younger audiences into the Concert Hall and that kind of thing. And I've had marvelous success once they get into a concert to hear me play.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Sure.

JOHN: But the genre is drawing from all the different isms of the century, including jazz and rock, if nothing else, just, I guess, guilt by relation, by association to the instrument, to the instrument sounds. But I just wanted to, first of all, mention that there is an idiom out there that's developing. A lot of pieces on the Bang on the Can Festival every year in New York have featured electric guitar.

And I also wanted to ask you if you know of anything else that's happening in this field, who's writing? Who's interested in writing? And also mention that there is a concert on March 14 at the Landmark Center of Concert Electric Guitar Music.

WILLIAM EDDINS: That's great. Yeah, as I say, I'm all for this. I do not look at an instrument and say, oh, that's an electric guitar, that should be played in rock and roll or jazz. I say, oh, that's an electric guitar. How do you play it? What do you want to do with the instrument?

For example, you may be familiar with an instrument called the Chapman stick. Anyone who is a fan of Peter Gabriel has seen the great Tony Levin bass player. The bald guy with the mustache played this 10-stringed instrument, which just looks like a block of wood with strings along it, as far as I know, the only classical musician who plays this instrument. And I'm trying to commission people to write music for this kind of instrument also to try and bring these idioms together.

You mentioned The Bang on the Can festival. That's a tremendous festival out in New York. Just very creative and very alive. There is a great movement out there. It's still very much underground and against, gee, achy breaky heart or whatever the rest of the music world is doing. But it's strong. It's developing.

John, if you want to, why don't you write me a letter at the Minnesota Orchestra? I'd love to converse with you. I might have some composers who might be interested in writing you some music, and I'd love to hear some of the other music that's been written for you. I'm all over this. I love it.

MARK ZDECHLIK: How do you define classical music, and then how do you define the various composites that have sprung out of it? And if you feel like it, an example or two.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah, I try desperately not to define classical music. I think one of the main problems is that we have these terms, which have these definitions, and it's just a load of baggage right now onto them. I mean, I think playing--

[PLAYS PIANO NOTE]

Or whatever it is. I haven't played I haven't played that in a couple of days, so I've forgotten how that goes. But--

[PLAYS PIANO NOTE]

That's it. For me, there is a compositional style and just a genius that works there, which I define as kind of a classical approach to music, which means, to me, simply that it has been well-wrought, if I can use that old ancient expression, but just well put together. I mean, you listen to some of the Beatles tunes, I think I would throw that under the category of classical music.

Certainly, some of the more far out bands of the '70s, like Pink Floyd, or Jethro Tull, or Yes, or King Crimson, I would certainly put it under the category of classical music. I would also put them under the category of jazz and free improvisational music. What we need to really do is get away from these categorizations and just listen to these people and to these groups just for their creativity and not for what particular idiom it is because we have too many preconceptions.

It's, once again, dealing with children and dealing with older adults. It's much easier to interest children in different things.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Because they're not hung up with all these definitions, and they haven't been taught that certain things are good or bad?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Exactly. They haven't gone through puberty, and there isn't all this peer pressure or whatever that they've developed over the last 20 years. So whatever the music is, I'm interested in it, as long as it's well put together and as long as it's good music.

MARK ZDECHLIK: 12 minutes before 12 noon on the FM News Station. You're listening to Midday. Mark Zdechlik here, along with Bill Eddins, the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Let's go to Jennifer in Minneapolis, who has a question. Good morning.

JENNIFER: Good morning. Actually, I have a comment. First of all, I wanted to thank you for hosting this program. I think it's very important to be doing this. But I wanted to let your listeners know, particularly those that are interested in music education opportunities for young children, that MacPhail Center for the Arts has been around for 87 years, doing just that.

And we have a number of programs designed to introduce young children to all the orchestra instruments and give them some of the history, and do it in an integrated arts fashion. And it's a very, very popular program, and we also have gift certificates.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Well, ladies and gentlemen, once again, there you go. It's in your backyard. Getting your kids interested in music is one of the best things that you can ever do for a young child. As I say, we've got the discipline. We've got the creativity.

These are things that we would really like to have in this society. Now, whether Newt Gingrich agrees or not, I couldn't care less. But you've got those things there for you to take advantage of. And an organization, such a wonderful organization like McPhail, it's right here in the Twin Cities. Goodness, take advantage of it.

MARK ZDECHLIK: You bring up politics. I'll let you go for a minute or two here. Are you worried that the change in congressional leadership is going to mean less funding for organizations like the Minnesota Orchestra? And I wanted to ask you this, too, because in digging around on you a little bit, I found something that says that you think orchestras should not have nonprofit status.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Yeah.

MARK ZDECHLIK: So here you go.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Can I go off on politics for a second here?

MARK ZDECHLIK: I promised you could, so go ahead.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Hi, Newt. Newt Gingrich, I'd like for you to know, you want to find the counterculture, he's talking on the radio right now. I am proud to call myself a member of the counterculture right now if the culture is Newt Gingrich, because I'll tell you, for the record, when's the last time you saw the headlines on a local newspaper, violinist rakes bus with an AK 47? Or a classical dancer steals millions from people through some junk bond routine?

No, I'm sorry. I know a lot of the people in the arts. I've dealt with people in the arts for most of my 30 years. I do this internationally. I do this all around the country. I've been to 47 of the 48 contiguous states here in the United States of America. And I'll tell you something, artists in this country, we are hard working folk.

We are good people. We pay our taxes. We're not out on the streets, harassing people. We're not out there just trying to rip people off. What we do is we practice our butts off, and then we get on stage, and we do our music or our art. We do this to entertain the public, to make sure that the people around us have something that they can go to, that they can listen to, that they can see, which is going to make them forget a little bit about the crazy problems which go on in this country or in this world, or the fact that Bosnia is war-torn, or Somalia, or Haiti, or whatever.

Our job is just to be up there and be creative and to be good people. And I will say, for the record, that I thoroughly and completely resent this whole, oh, my god, counterculture artistic just BS that Newt Gingrich and his ilk are trying to thrust upon us, like we are trying to bring down civilization.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Do you think it's sticking?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, yeah, I think it's sticking. I think it's sticking because we got this guy up there with just a loud mouth who doesn't know anything. I mean, Jesse Helms? I mean, this man's concept of art is Elvis on black velvet. Come on.

I mean-- I just wonder. I mean, what is wrong enjoying art? What is wrong with this? You can call it counterculture. You can call it high brow. I don't care what you call it. I call it entertaining. And as I say, I don't see us out there shooting up buses with AK 47s seconds or trying to sell four-year-olds crack cocaine. So Mr. Gingrich, do us a favor, fund the arts more, and you may find you live in a better society.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Bill Eddins--

WILLIAM EDDINS: That's my attitude, at least.

MARK ZDECHLIK: --is with me. Bill Eddins here on Saturday Midday. And we'll go back to the phones. Pina is in Minnetonka. You're on the FM News Station. Good morning.

PINA: Yes, good morning. I just have a follow-up regarding the commentary for the music education concerts available in the Twin Cities. Specifically for four and five-year-olds, there's the Kinder Concerts Program, which is put on by the Minnesota Orchestra, in conjunction with the Women's association with the Minnesota Orchestra. And to get your child involved in that, it's easy. You just call 371-5654.

And the other excellent program for, I think 2, 3, 4, and four-year-olds is at MacPhail Center for the Arts, which Mr. Eddins mentioned. The specific name of the program is called Musical Trolley, and that's also excellent. And if you have any further comments to add to that, I'll hang up. Thank you.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Thank you very much. I forgot to mention our Kinder Concerts. Yes, I would also recommend those for anybody who's got a young child. Those are very popular and very entertaining. I even sit in on them every once in a while.

When I'm wandering around the Hall, I hear a kindred concert going on, and they are just fun. Very entertaining for the young kids. And yes, anyone who's interested, please feel free to call that number.

MARK ZDECHLIK: OK, let's take another question. Philip is on the line from Shoreview. Good morning.

PHILLIP: Good morning.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Good morning, Philip.

PHILLIP: Next to my water boys, I have a piece from Vaughan Williams called Sinfonia Antarctica.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, wonderful piece.

PHILLIP: Yes, it is a fabulous piece. And I've since recently found out that it's just too big to play here. And I was wondering if it was possible to combine your orchestra with SPCO to play some of these great pieces that require a large ensemble.

WILLIAM EDDINS: That has happened in the past, and who knows? It may happen in the future. There are all sorts of logistical problems which come up when you start combining orchestras. You go from having 90 people to deal with to 200 people to deal with, with their instruments and such like that. And having a joint concerts with these two ensembles, that can really take-- that really need some advanced planning.

But it does happen, not so much here in the Twin Cities, but take, for example, in New York City, where you have so many ensembles available. Frequently, some of them will just pile in together and do pieces like the Sinfonia Antarctica, or The Fourth Symphony of Charles Ives, or Turangalila of Messiaen. And that's when it's really fun.

You've got 600 or 700 people on stage, and you're in a great hall and the place is just shaking. It's a wonderful, wonderful experience.

MARK ZDECHLIK: I want to put a note in here for the public radio music source. We were talking about different recordings you can acquire. It's our understanding that classical kids CDs and videos are, in fact, available from the public radio music source. And you can acquire them by calling 1-800-75-music. And part of the money that you spend on those helps offset the cost of programming for your public radio station.

So we talked earlier about classical kids, Beethoven Lives Upstairs. You can find those recordings from the Public Radio music source at 1-800-75-music. Let's go to another caller. Jack is in Marshall. Good morning. You're on the FM News Station with Bill Eddins.

JACK: Yes. I've been listening to Peter Schickele for several years, and I have a really hard time understanding what's going on there. And I was wondering if you could comment on that. You talked about the enlightenment or the educational aspect of things. And I just-- it's a really interesting program, but I just have no concept, as a layperson, where all that stuff is coming from. I'll hang up and listen.

MARK ZDECHLIK: And first, maybe we should explain Peter Schickele does a program on the classical 99 service.

WILLIAM EDDINS: Oh, does he?

MARK ZDECHLIK: Music program. Yeah, that's the name.

WILLIAM EDDINS: I did know this. Yeah, I have forgotten that. He is, of course, a very famous for his renditions, known as PDQ Bach. The best thing to do is-- I don't know. If he ever comes back through here in the Twin Cities, the best thing to do would be really to go and see him live. And it makes a lot of sense after you've seen him live, what he's doing and where he's coming from.

Also, the other thing you might want to do is I believe Peter has some books out, which are companion books to his radio show, and see if you can pick those up. And those would be very informative and very enlightening.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Bill, thanks a lot for being here. It's been interesting. It really went by very quickly. You're off to Europe briefly. What are you going to be doing, very briefly?

WILLIAM EDDINS: Three days in Amsterdam, then 30 days in Berlin at the State Opera House with Daniel Barenboim.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Thanks a lot for coming in this morning. We really appreciate it and hope to have you back. You're going to be around for another four years in Minnesota?

WILLIAM EDDINS: At least another couple. I don't know about four.

MARK ZDECHLIK: Bill Eddins, the assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Thanks a lot for being on Saturday Midday. Midday is produced by Kitty Eiseley. Many thanks today to the staff of the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio. John Schriffen this morning, pushing the buttons in studio M's control room.

Thanks also to technical directors Clifford Bentley and Jeff Conrad. Thanks to you for listening and calling in, as well. I'm Mark Zdechlik. Midday on Saturday is supported by the Oriental Rug Company, celebrating its 10th anniversary year at 50th and Bryant in Minneapolis.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Thank you very much, Mark Zdechlik. It's a minute before noon. You're listening to The FM News Station. In news headlines at this hour, defense Secretary William Perry confirms two US airmen are being held in North Korea. In a written statement, Perry says US officials haven't been able to determine the condition of the two men. The US government--