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When I’m doing tasks like cooking, exercising or cleaning.

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Rooted in Black music history in the Americas and worldwide.

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Drawing from traditional music of the Middle East, Southeast Asia and more.

Delving into traditional music of Native Americans and other First Nations.

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

Exploring traditional music cultures from around the world.

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Lee Hoiby died yesterday, age 85. He was a distinguished composer of song and opera.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he studied with Gian Carlo Menotti.

Perhaps his most famous work is a setting of Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke, premiered in 1971 by St Paul Opera in Minnesota.

More recently in Minnesota, the men's chorus Cantus gave the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's "Last Letter Home," a musical setting of a poignant last letter sent home by a soldier killed in Iraq.

for an interview with Hoiby, and a performance from Cantus.

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

Lee Hoiby died yesterday, age 85. He was a distinguished composer of song and opera. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he studied with Gian Carlo Menotti. Perhaps his most famous work is a setting of Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke, premiered in 1971 by St Paul Opera in Minnesota. More recently in Minnesota, the men’s chorus […]


Composer Lee Hoiby, 1926-2011

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