Choral Stream

OK, choral music fans -- it's time to test your music mettle! Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, Classical MPR's Choral Stream producer, has put together this Choral Geek Quiz; two quizzes, in fact. Try both levels and see how much you know about choral music.

On Tuesday, April 22, at 8 p.m., Classical MPR presents a special program featuring the archival recordings by the Dale Warland Singers in a cappella performances of works by Minnesota composers.

"Writing this book was not fun," says Michael Marissen at the end of the introduction to his new book, "Tainted Glory in Handel's 'Messiah'" (Yale University Press). Marissen is referring both to the arduous historical research the volume required and to the fact that being its author puts him in the role of splashing cold water on the world's adoration for one of the most popular musical works of all time: Handel's towering oratorio on the life of Christ.

The land of 10,000 choirs has never sounded so good. This year, Classical MPR presents Harmony in the Park to the third power, with dates in Minneapolis, Mankato and Duluth.

You've made your nominations and we've assembled the ballot. Now cast your votes for your choral favorites. We'll count down the top 25 on Wednesday, April 30.

We should expect musicians to continue combining genres and styles in increasingly inventive and fascinating ways, often blurring the lines between "high" and "low" art. The best examples will be the musicians who understand the musical puzzle pieces they combine to create something clever. Take this song that mixed rap with Gregorian chant, all in the name of selling shoes during the NBA playoffs several years back.

On Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m., Classical MPR aired the live broadcast of Eric Whitacre conducting the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale and soprano Hila Plitmann. Whitacre shares some thoughts about the communal power of a choir and about chord clusters.

Classical MPR's Tesfa Wondemagegnehu and Brian Newhouse talk about how they discovered Pentatonix -- and share two brand new videos from their studio performance.

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is not only the finest choir from a nation of singers, but arguably the finest choir in the world. Hear the choir's amazing performance from The Cathedral of Saint Paul in 2013.

This April, we're celebrating choral music. Starting next week, we'll ask you to vote on your favorite choral pieces, but this week, we want to hear from you what we ought to put on the ballot.