Show Notes
Bill McLaughlin was a classical music radio host, a music educator, a musicologist, a composer and a conductor.
He was a Peabody Award–winning classical music radio host. In 1980, he launched the popular St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR. Later he hosted Exploring Music, heard on the WFMT network. He was known for his ingratiating personality.
Bill was also a professional orchestra musician, over three decades as a conductor, and a decade as a composer.
Trained as a trombonist, Bill took up conducting in1969 after completing a Master of Music degree in conducting at Temple University, studying under Robert Page. He also worked with William R. Smith, associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the esteemed Max Rudolf.
He had stints with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony, leaving his mark wherever he served.
More from Phillip Gainsley's Podcast
It’s homecoming time on the main stage of Chanhassen Dinner Theaters. Tamara Kangas Erickson returns to the theater as president and artistic director 45 years after starring as one of the von Trapp Family Singers in The Sound of Music.
Quinn Kelsey has been called “the premier Verdi baritone of his generation” His Rigoletto has become the standard.
Gary William Friedman is a versatile composer best known for his groundbreaking score for the TONY nominated, OBIE Award winning musical The Me Nobody Knows.
At age 16, violinist Ariana Kim made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and at age 24, she was appointed acting concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic. Ariana made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall during her doctoral studies at Juilliard and she is now a tenured professor at Cornell University.
Courtney Lewis is currently celebrating 11 years with the Jacksonville Symphony, having established himself as one of his generation’s most dynamic conductors.