A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, January 14, 2006

Prudence Johnson

Prudence Johnson's 25-year career in music has taken her from honky-tonks to Carnegie Hall, from the theater stage to the Silver Screen (Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It), from the Midwest to the Middle East. Her ten album releases include Little Dreamer, a collection of international lullabies, Moon Country, which features the music of Hoagy Carmichael, and S'Gershwin, a collaboration with pianist Dan Chouinard. She recently collaborated with four Minnesota composers to create A Girl Named Vincent, a presentation of the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay set to music to be released on CD this year, and is currently writing a play about Elisabeth Hauptmann, an uncredited collaborator of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Prudence is a 2001 recipient of the McKnight Artists Fellowship for Performing Musicians and enjoys a steady schedule of concert appearances across the country.

Bella Hristova

Violinist Bella Hristova was born in Pleven, Bulgaria, to musical parents-her mother was a school choral conductor and piano teacher, her father a composer-and began playing violin when she was 6. She came to the United States in 1999, at age 13, and started her studies with Stephen Shipps at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. That year, she won First Prize at the International Enesco Competition in Bucharest, Romania. One month later, she won the Grand Prize in the Michigan American String Teachers Competition. She continued musical studies with Shipps at the University of Michigan School of Music while completing high school in Ann Arbor. At the International Kocian Competition in the Czech Republic, judges awarded her First Prize in 2000 and the sweep of Grand Prize, European Union Prize and Barenreiter Prize in 2001. Her repertoire stretches from Bach to the latest contemporary compositions. Favorites include 19th- and 20th-century Russian works. In September 2003, Bella entered Curtis Institute of Music, where she studies violin with Ida Kavafian and chamber music with Steve Tenenbom.

Adrienne Young

Adrienne Young's career has taken off. It was only a couple years ago that she won first place in Merlefest's bluegrass songwriting contest. The Clearwater, Florida, native certainly has the right gene pool. Her grandfather still plays in a bluegrass band; her grandmother plays mandolin and banjo, and her mother pursued a career as a country singer. In the late 1990s, Adrienne moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University, then worked temp jobs on Music Row while trying to get a foothold in the music business. In 2004 she released her debut CD, Plow to the End of the Row. Her latest recording is The Art of Virtue, on the Addie Belle label. The album was inspired in part by Ben Franklin's list of Thirteen Virtues (justice, frugality and humility, to name three). Young comments, "I had been reading a lot of Franklin's works and came across a passage in his autobiography where he offered an idea for the United Party of Virtue. It would be a new political party where there wouldn't be any kind of affiliation other than anybody who was a member would have to exhibit a character that was the highest quality and ... devote his or her life to the greater good."

Robert Sonkowsky

Robert Sonkowsky is a University of Minnesota Professor Emeritus of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, who has published widely on ancient and later rhetoric. He is also a gifted actor who's been seen in on many Twin Cities stages, including the Guthrie Lab, the Lyric Theatre (at Minneapolis Theatre Garage), and Theatre de la Jeune Lune. He has appeared in numerous commercials (Northwest Airlines, Snyder Drug, Best Buy Stores, to name a few) and in industrial films for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, AT&T, 3M, Mayo Clinic, and other corporations.

Maria Jette

In addition to her 45-plus operatic roles, soprano Maria Jette has performed pop songs, chamber music, oratorio and more. She has appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, and with the Symphonies of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Charlotte, Santa Rosa and Buffalo. She frequently collaborates with VocalEssence (formerly the Plymouth Music Series), the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She has been a regular guest at the Oregon Bach, Victoria Bach and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festivals and the Oregon Festival of American Music. With the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Maria starred as the "Mrs." in the May 2002 premiere of Garrison Keillor's opera, Mr. and Mrs. Olson. She has performed her own production of Dr. Seuss and Robert Kapilow's Green Eggs & Ham for more than 25,000 kids coast to coast.