Nearly a year ago, the Baroque Room opened in Lowertown St. Paul, a new performance hall dedicated to providing an affordable, well-appointed concert and rehearsal space for the abundance of artists playing Baroque and Renaissance-era music in the Twin Cities. The venue is run by Marc Levine and Tami Morse, who are musicians themselves performing […]

One of the best things about the holiday season is the abundance of good music — cheesy pop Christmas albums aside, this time of year there’s nothing like a terrific show to bring a glow of good cheer to your cheeks. Below, I offer you three very different but equally tuneful options, to warm your […]

Recently, playwright and raconteur Kevin Kling was named “artist in residence” for Minnesota Public Radio. It’s a three-year position, for which he’ll develop original live programming, write some commentary for broadcast and host storytelling workshops around the state. His first commission for MPR is “Of Mirth and Mischief,” a staged musical-theater production, which premiered at […]

Late last week, leaders from the four organizations of St. Paul’s Arts Partnership — Minnesota Opera, the Schubert Club, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Ordway — joined by Mayor Chris Coleman, unveiled plans to expand and refurbish the Ordway Center. Specifically, they announced work on a new, much larger Concert Hall for the facility, which will house 1100 […]

Last spring, unless you acted fast, you likely missed out on seeing Penumbra Theatre’s premiere staging of “I Wish You Love.” Tickets sold out quickly to playwright Dominic Taylor’s musical portrait of ‘50s crooner turned television pioneer, Nat “King” Cole. If you were one of those, like me, who missed out on tickets for the […]