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| Composer and mezzo-soprano singer Lisa Neher Photograph by Mike Newman |
Classical music has long been a part of our state. It goes beyond Dvorak's summer visit to Spillville!
"Music institutions and venues Iowa is also home to the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Metro Opera, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Cedar Rapids Opera, Orchestra Iowa (Cedar Rapids), Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, and the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra.
"The three major University music institutions in Iowa include the Iowa State University School of Music in Ames, University of Iowa School of Music in Iowa City, and The University of Northern Iowa School of Music in Cedar Falls. Other colleges with music programs include Wartburg, Luther, Cornell, Morningside, and Drake, among others. Also, there is the Celtic Music Association of Des Moines. Major venues include the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines.
"The Nordic Choir at Luther College in Decorah has performed around the world, appearing in Norway, England, Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic countries, Mexico and the Caribbean. The Nordic Choir has also appeared throughout the United States, performing in well-known concert halls as Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Luther College has the largest collegiate choral program in the United States with almost 600 student singers."
- from the Wikipedia entry, Music of Iowa
And the Iowa Composers Forum (http://www.iowacomposers.org/), created by 7 Iowa classical composers, features a musical festival and concert event every year celebrating Iowa's own classical works. It evens has a catalog (http://www.iowacomposers.org/?page_id=112) featuring 144 classical pieces written by Iowans, many of which linked to a spot where you can hear the works!
So although I have an a classical tune occasionally on a podcast or playlist (http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/classical), I'm happy to finally present an episode fully dedicated to the classical music scene here!
