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Surveying traditional music of Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

Exploring traditional music cultures from around the world.

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And I don't mean Ely, Minnesota. Unless they have a cathedral there that looks like this:

But more about that in a moment.  Today started on the radio.

Philip Brunelle was invited to the BBC Cambridgeshire, the regional BBC radio station, to promote the concert at King's College Chapel that evening.

He spent a lively ten minutes on "Cambridgeshire Breakfast with 

. I even got corralled into being interviewed for a minute or two; it seems that morning radio is unavoidable.

morning radio show -- morning in Minnesota time, that is. Had a quick chat with my colleague Steve Staruch back at MPR, and was speaking to him from here:

Ely Cathedral, about 40 minutes drive from Cambridge, is having it's 900th anniversary party this Sunday. That makes Cambridge University a mere tot; it's celebrating it's 800th this year.  Meanwhile, VocalEssence continued its 40th anniversary tour with a noon concert in the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral.  Oh, and who's that chap kneeling, setting up the mic stand on the right?:

That's the famous English composer, John Rutter!  He offered to come and record the VocalEssence concert, which I hope to be able to share with you upon my return next week.

For the evening, the singers were back to Cambridge for a magnificent evening performance at King's College Chapel.  Tomorrow, it's back to London for more radio, and one more performance before heading home to MN on Sunday. It's a joint concert with the BBC Singers at the storied 

, home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.  Stay tuned; meanwhile, check out the 

John Birge has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.


John Birge

And I don’t mean Ely, Minnesota. Unless they have a cathedral there that looks like this: But more about that in a moment. Today started on the radio. Philip Brunelle was invited to the BBC Cambridgeshire, the regional BBC radio station, to promote the concert at King’s College Chapel that evening. He spent a lively […]


VocalEssence in the UK: Day 7 – Ely

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