A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Special Guests
Saturday, September 28, 1996

THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (SPCO) held its inaugural concert on November 18, 1959 under the baton of Music Director Leopold Sipe. That year, the SPCO's season consisted of a modest four concerts. It has since expanded to more than 150 concerts in a 40-week season, many of which are performed from its flagship home, St. Paul's Ordway Music Theatre. The SPCO has long been recognized as the nation's premier chamber orchestra, making its Carnegie Hall debut on February 20, 1969, and winning a Grammy Award in 1980 for its recording of Copland's Appalachian Spring.

After being led by prominent music directors such as Dennis Russell Davies, Pinchas Zukerman, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, the SPCO in 1987 created an innovative three-member Artistic Commission, which brought together the positions of director of music (Christopher Hogwood), principal conductor (Hugh Wolff), and creative chair (John Adams, succeeded in 1990 by John Harbison). Hugh Wolff assumed the role of music director in the 1992-93 season; Christopher Hogwood has continued his affiliation as principal guest conductor. In 1994, Bobby McFerrin joined the SPCO artistic team in the position of Resource Trust Creative Chair. The next year, the SPCO launched CONNECT, a multi-year education program in partnership with Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools to enhance music learning in the schools. This past spring, Hugh Wolff led the SPCO on its first concert tour of Japan. The SPCO now presents more than 150 concerts in a 38-week season, is heard on 160 radio stations nationwide and boasts an impressive discography of more than 55 albums, including The Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra, an eclectic evening of music and comedy recorded with Garrison Keillor on October 30, 1993.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra: violins: Romuald Tecco, concertmaster; Leslie Shank, assistant concertmaster; Hanley Daws, associate concertmaster; Elsa Nilsson; John Kennedy; Brenda Manuel Mickens; Thomas Kornacker, principal second violin; Carolyn Daws, assistant principal second violin; Michal Sobieski; Kenneth Patti; Daria Tedeschi. violas: Sabina Thatcher, principal; Evelina Chao, assistant principal; Tamas Strasser, co-principal; Alice Preves. cellos: Peter Howard, principal; Joshua Koestenbaum, associate principal; Susannah Chapman; Daryl Skobba. basses: Christopher Brown, principal; Fred Bretschger, assistant principal. flute and piccolo: Julia Bogorad, principal; Cynthia Stokes*. oboes: Kathryn Greenbank, principal; Thomas Tempel. clarinets: Timothy Paradise, principal; Marlene Pauley*. bassoons: Charles Ullery, principal; Carole Mason Smith. horns: Herbert Winslow, principal; Paul Straka. trumpets: Gary Bordner, principal; Lynn Erickson*. harpsichord and piano: Layton James, principal. timpani and percussion: Earl Yowell, principal. Additional musicians also performing: Williams Polk, violin; Brian Grivna, saxophone; William Oldfather, bassoon; Michael Petruconis, horn; Tom Ashworth, trombone; Larry Zimmerman, trombone; Ralph Hepola, tuba; Robert Adney, percussion.

The 1996-97 season marks American conductor Hugh Wolff's fifth as Music Director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He conducts 10 weeks of subscription concerts in the Twin Cities during the Chamber Orchestra's 38th season, plus special holiday programs and a two-week West Coast tour. As the 1995-96 season concluded, Mr. Wolff led the SPCO's highly acclaimed first concert tour to Japan. In June 1995, Mr. Wolff was appointed to the post of chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 1997-98 concert season. He will hold this position with one of Germany's most renowned radio orchestras for three years. Highlights of Hugh Wolff's 1996 summer engagements included return appearances with the Aspen Music Festival as well as several concerts at Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival, where he serves as Principal Conductor.

BUTCH THOMPSON is well-remembered for his 12-year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, dating back to the show's second broadcast in July 1974. The Butch Thompson trio, formed for the show in 1978, was the house band until 1986. As a soloist, Thompson has long been regarded as a leading traditional jazz musician. His 1996-97 schedule is highlighted by concerts with the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and others; a national tour with the award-winning off-Broadway hit "Jelly Roll: the Music and the Man!"; and a solo tour in Japan. Recent stops included a sold-out concert by his Jazz Originals band at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall (part of the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest) and performances at the 1996 Irving R. Gilmore piano festival in Michigan.

Thompson's interest in jazz began during his childhood in the river village of Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, where he discovered the piano at age three, began formal study at six, and had an early interest in boogie woogie. As a teenager, he played clarinet in the Stillwater High School band under George Regis, led his first band (Shirt Thompson and his Sleeves), and played his first professional engagements on both instruments. While an undergraduate at The University of Minnesota in 1962, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band on clarinet. He also began a series of pilgrimages to New Orleans, where he studied with clarinetist George Lewis and played with many other veterans, eventually becoming one of the few non-Orleanians to guest occasionally at Preservation Hall during the '60s and '70s. By the early '70s, his recordings on both instruments were noticed abroad, and he toured Europe and Australia. When PHC began in 1974, Thompson became a regular on the show. He formed his trio in 1978 especially for the show, and was the house pianist during the program's rise to national popularity through the mid-'80s.

Thompson writes about jazz and hosts his own radio show, "Jazz Originals," on KBEM radio in Minneapolis. His commentary has appeared in Down Beat, Keyboard Classics, The Mississippi Rag, Coda, and other magazines, as well as various CD booklets, among them the 1996 GRP release "Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete General Recordings." Thompson's most recent solo recordings include Lincoln Avenue Blues and Yulestride, both on Daring/Rounder of Boston.