Rochester Music Notes
Series produced by KRPR
Rochester Music History in 90 Seconds
Rochester Music Notes are produced by KRPR and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communites. Made possible by the Minnesota Art's and Cultural Heritage fund.
52 Pieces
Order by:
Newest First |
Oldest First
1905: Axel Skovgaard touted his $50,000 hands and $13,000. But what did Austin think of this big-talking Danish violinist? Here’s Britt Aamodt.
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
2021: John Popper had come back from a motorcycle crash, a heart attack and the death of his bassist. Now the Blues Traveler frontman found his wor...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
2019: Andrew Stenson had the leading role in the Minnesota Opera’s new production. Only 14 years ago Stenson had been seated in the very same theat...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
2006: Rumors had been floating that Bob Dylan would give a concert in his birthplace, Duluth. So what was with the new tour date schedule that had ...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1992: Two hundred years after the composer’s death, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra commemorated Mozart with a concert of his last works. Here’s B...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1984: Prince was the hottest star in the country. And now one of his reps was holding a casting call for his next music video in Rochester. Was thi...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1968: Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles owned the airwaves. But in Rochester, Bob Loy picked up a banjo and started a bluegrass jam. He...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1968: Geordie Hormel wasn’t enthusiastic about his family’s meatpacking business. And his dreams of being a touring musician were out. So why not o...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1965: Reporter Frank Farrington had seen wild audiences, covering sports for Rochester. But nothing like the mania that greeted the Fab Four from L...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1946: Duke Ellington was King of Swing. But swing music was on the way out. You couldn’t tell from the record crowd for his concert Rochester. Here...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1961: Jules Herman had played first trumpet for Lawrence Welk. His orchestra had opened for Louis Armstrong. This evening, however, he’d be playing...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1939: Bandleader Paul Whiteman was battling his former wife over child support. And his current wife had made his other battle—with the bulge—publi...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1934: Franklin Roosevelt was making a visit to Rochester. And the city was ready with bunting, a motorcade and the official song of the chief execu...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1917: Pianist Arthur Koerner might’ve thought teaching music in Owatonna was tough. But try accompanying a dramatic poetry reader before an audienc...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
1903: Rochester’s new Metropolitan Opera House was out of commission after a fire. But the manager thought the Winona Oratorio Society and their pr...
- Added: Dec 13, 2022
- Length: 01:30
Jeff Swertfeger never knew when a song would come to him. One he dashed off on a napkin. One was a mediation on the disciples. Another came in a ru...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
March 1912, a Saturday afternoon, Susie Crowell was practicing on the new pipe organ at Rochester’s First Baptist Church, when she smelled smoke. H...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
Olivia Gorden wasn’t even born when Prince released his mega-platinum album Purple Rain. But she did have a Prince connection, through her singing ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
April 1944, 11-year-old Liliane Gerenstein wrote a letter to God, asking him to protect her parents who’d been deported to Auschwitz. Days later, s...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
Sena Ehrhardt’s home in Austin, Minnesota, was steeped in music. She used to sneak into the basement to watch her dad rehearse with his blues band....
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
