In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Minnesota's statehood, American Public Media's Pipedreams® will broadcast a special program, "A Minnesota Organ Book," featuring works by Minnesota composers on the state's sesquicentennial, Sunday, May 11, 2008.

"Our 'Land of 10,000 Lakes' sometimes seems to be a land of 10,000 composers, too," Pipedreams host Michael Barone observed. "In creating this program, I wanted to call attention to this other similarly refreshing resource and let the musicians tell their stories, as well as showcase their art. The variety of their personalities, and the very individual ways by which they approach the creation of their scores, or find their inspiration, is quite remarkable."

Pipedreams is currently carried by more than 150 public radio stations, on XM Satellite Radio and on Radio-Television Hong Kong 4, and is available globally 24/7 via the Internet at www.pipedreams.org. Listeners may tune in to Classical Minnesota Public Radio stations statewide, including 99.5 FM KSJN in the Twin Cities, to hear Pipedreams' weekly broadcast on Sundays from 9–10:30 p.m. CT.

The program features works by renowned Minnesota composers, including Stephen Paulus, David Evan Thomas, Cary John Franklin, Carol Barnett, Monte Mason and Linda Tutas Haugen, and includes the following:

David Evan Thomas: Preludes on Welsh Hymns for solo organ
Performed by Marilyn Biery, organ
1963 Aeolian-Skinner organ, Cathedral of Saint Paul, St. Paul, Minn.

Says the composer: "I didn't really have a sense of Welsh heritage beyond a few family phrases until I moved to Minneapolis and found myself amidst some other Welsh folk and people kept coming up to me and saying, 'Oh you have such a Welsh name' and I finally decided I better investigate. It wasn't until 2002 that I made a trip to Wales and after that trip thought that a way to encapsulate the journey or summarize the journey would be to write preludes on Welsh tunes."

David Evan Thomas: Of things hoped for for solo organ
Performed by James Biery, organ
1927 Skinner and 1963 Aeolian-Skinner, Cathedral of Saint Paul, St. Paul, Minn.

Says the composer: "I knew that I was writing a piece for James Biery before I knew it was about faith. On Jim's birthday in 2000, his wife Marilyn presented him with the promise of a solo organ work from me, which I was to deliver the following birthday. Faith and I have an uneasy dialogue, but for me, writing music often makes the ineffable concrete. When all the notes were down, I found that what had started as a murmur had become of shout of praise, so Paul's words from the letter to Hebrews came to mind: 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' And, thus, the title."

*Carol Barnett: Praise for organ and steel drum
Performed by Jay Johnson, percussion and Jonathan Gregoire, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "The assignment was to write a piece for organ and one other instrument and I looked at all the lineups and everyone was doing flute and cello and all the nice ones and I thought, well, let's at least do percussion. The contract said 'two and a half to three minutes of service music' and I thought, well, probably, as in most cases, everybody else will do something slow and lovely, so I'm going to be the default person and do something fast, which meant Recessional. So, that took care of that. The whole idea of Recession is 'We are done. Let's get out of here' and one assumes that you're getting out in a beautiful bright day and gonna spend the rest of the day thinking about the wonderful sermon and having fun. So, that's the recessional."

*Cary John Franklin: Morning Light for cello and organ
Performed by Dale Newton, cello and Sarah Koehler, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "I knew I was writing a prelude for cello and organ, and it would most likely be used at a morning service, and I was thinking about the connotations of morning and the dawn and I was just up really early one morning and it was so peaceful and so quiet...this melody that the cello plays just came to me and that became the piece. Usually composition for me is very hard, so you like these moments because they happen very rarely. Mostly, it's just a lot of work, pen to paper, ear to the ground, trying to figure out what you want to do, but there are times when something just appears and it's just right."

Ann Kilstofte: Nunc Dimittis for choir and organ and Tomorrow's Light for solo organ
Performed by Estonian Camerata with Thomas Ohnesorge, conductor and Tiit Kiik, organ
St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn, Estonia

Says the composer: "I write for the organ because I like the instrument. I like playing with the colors and trying all of the different types of atmosphere. If I think of trying to create a world, or an atmosphere for a piece, once I've kind of gotten into it, then I have to be true to that atmosphere to keep that specific world going. So, if it sounds a little misty or windy...whatever it happens to be, I think that the organ can do that."

Stephen Paulus: Romp! for solo organ
Performed by Timothy Albrecht, organ 2005 Jaeckel organ, Emerson Concert Hall, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

*Monte Mason: The Dances of Our Lady for organ and saxophone
Performed by Clark Duhrkopf, saxophone and Christopher Stroh, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "The artistic process is, even to somebody who'd used to it, is still all very strange and somehow got into the idea of the Virgin Mary in the jungle and I'm not quite sure how she got there, but it didn't matter because there she was. I love organ and saxophone, as there's not a lot of material written for it that I know of. There's a lot of jazz and gospel music, but the saxophone is not really all that popular in churches in the sense of classical inspired pieces. But the sax and organ are perfect foils for each other. There's so much slush on the organ that can sound kind of gooey, while the saxophone can have the melody and just take it away."

*David Evan Thomas: Psalm and Dance for organ and flute
Performed by Michele Frisch, flute and Lily Ardalan, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "I do enjoy writing very much for the organ. One of the things that attracts me about it is its multiplicity. The fact that you have the entire body working and then this mind in the center of the body controlling various limbs and then this enormous, potentially, possibly, enormous instrument which is a wonderful expression, not just of tone, but of architecture and then a space which resonates is very attractive to me as an aesthetic package."

*Janika Vandervelde: Hachazarah (The Arousal of the Return) for violin and organ
Performed by Roger Frisch, violin and Andrew Hackett, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "The title of this piece is a Jewish word that means 'The Arousal of the Return,' from the root word 'Hazoor,' 'to return.' The concept comes out of Kabalistic cosmology of the evolution of God, where everything that exists, both seen and unseen, is the result of the unfolding of Godliness, the emanating Godhead which emerges in stages. At some point in future, in the Kabalist tradition, it is thought that this unfolded state of God will be reversed, this multiplicity reverting again to unity. So, this is the idea in Hachazarah. It relates to the arousal of the return of the light the limitless light, the divine substance of creation which turns back to its source.

"The violin is the metaphor of the descending light. The organ is the metaphor of its vessel."

*Linda Tutas Haugen: Invocation and Remembrance for trumpet and organ
Performed by Martin Hodel, trumpet and Kraig Windschitl, organ
2007 Holtkamp organ, Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.

Says the composer: "I was involved with a very large project with a lot of deadlines through the end of May last year, 2007, so when I returned to this project for the AGO, I really wanted to just take my time and enjoy writing the piece. I was looking at the texts for some hymn tunes when the 35W bridge collapsed at the beginning of August, and that really was a very powerful event to think about in my own life. I'd had family members who'd been over the bridge the day before. And the daughter of friend of mine had crossed over 5 minutes before the bridge collapsed. So, I thought that many people in the Twin Cities were feeling, 'It could have been me.' It just was such a powerful thing, so when I returned to my writing I came to a verse of the Marines Hymn that really spoke to me, written by Robert Spencer, in the second verse that talks about 'God of hill and plain o'er which our traffic runs a main' and I focused on 'wherever God your people go, protect them by your guarding hand.' Those were the words that inspired my writing. So, for me, in many respects, this piece is both a prayer, an invocation for protection and also remembrance of what happened to the people who died on that bridge."

About Pipedreams
On January 3, 1982, the first installment of a 14-program series titled Pipedreams was broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and distributed free to the public radio system. MPR music director Michael Barone was both producer and host, and those programs featured numerous concert performances recorded during a national convention of the American Guild of Organists held in the Twin Cities during the summer of 1980. Pipedreams evolved from The Organ Program, which Barone had produced since 1970 for MPR's regional network. The AGO convention materials proved to be "good enough for prime time" and subsequently recorded performances from the 1982 AGO convention in Washington, D.C., brought about a re-launch of Pipedreams in October 1983 and the program has continued in national syndication since then.

After 25 years, Pipedreams remains the only nationally distributed weekly radio program exploring the art of the pipe organ.

Building upon a curiosity that began in his teens, Michael Barone has been involved with the pipe organ for nearly 50 years. As host and senior executive producer of Pipedreams, he is recognized internationally for his contributions to the world of organ music. Michael's talent and commitment have been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Guild of Organists President's Award in 1996, the Distinguished Service Award of the Organ Historical Society in 1997 and the 2001 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. In November 2002 he was selected for induction to the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.

American Public Media™ is the nation's second-largest owner and operator of public radio stations, also producing premier programs reaching more than 15 million listeners nationwide each week. National programs include A Prairie Home Companion,® Weekend America,® Saint Paul Sunday,® Marketplace,® Marketplace Money,® The Splendid Table,® Speaking of Faith® and special reports produced by its national documentary unit, American RadioWorks.® American Public Media is the name under which Minnesota Public Radio® | American Public Media produces and distributes national programs. Minnesota Public Radio, along with its sister company Southern California Public Radio, belongs to a larger family of companies within American Public Media Group, a national nonprofit organization whose purpose is to develop resources, services and systems to support public media for public service. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services for the American Public Media national network can be obtained at www.americanpublicmedia.org.

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Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc. Arbitron data are estimates only. Spring 2007/Fall 2007 average