A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, December 17, 2005

Rob Fisher

For four seasons conductor and pianist Rob Fisher was music director for Garrison Keillor's American Radio Company. He also served as music director and conductor of the Tony Award-winning Encores! series at New York's City Center from its inception in 1994 through 2005. For his work on the series-including the Broadway hits Chicago and Wonderful Town—he was presented the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Special Achievement. Fisher remains supervising music director of companies of Chicago around the world, and he conducted the Grammy-winning Chicago cast recording and the recently released Wonderful Town. He was the music director for the New York premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night in 2000, and the following year he conducted Sweeney Todd with Patti LuPone, George Hearn and the San Francisco Symphony, broadcast on PBS. For several seasons, Fisher shared concerts with Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops. And with Mr. Henderson's sudden death in November 2005, Fisher assumed conducting duties for The Pop's November 11 Carnegie Hall concert. In 2005, he made debuts with the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. As guest artist he has led the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Atlanta, Virginia, Colorado, Baltimore and National symphonies.

The Wailin' Jennys

When three solo performers with powerful voices joined forces for a one-time gig in 2002, everything changed. The collaboration was a huge success, surprising everyone, including themselves. Dubbed The Wailin' Jennys, the three went on tour and within a few weeks the word was out: People were calling them "a bona fide Canadian sensation." And their fame is spreading. Writing in the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, music critic Bruce Elder said, "This is about as good as contemporary folk gets." The group's members are soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta, and alto (and newest Jenny) Annabelle Chvostek. The Wailin' Jennys' critically acclaimed CD 40 Days won a 2005 Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album of the Year.

Andy Stein

Violinist and saxophonist Andy Stein was a regular member of Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on A Prairie Home Companion from 1989 to 2001. He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson. He has appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman, and has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and many others.