Symphony Sunday
with Rotating Hosts
Sundays at 9:00AM
Bill Motlong: I started engaging seriously with classical music in my late teen age years, and the relationship grew robustly and rapidly from then on. It became the go-to background sound throughout my college years—serving to spur my studies and energize my creativity to meet term paper deadlines. And the relationship further grew during my work years and profession as a family therapist in deepening my life experience and soothing my soul.
These days I enjoy revisiting familiar works with particularly exquisite performances and/or unique and creative interpretations, and I also enjoy discovering delightful works I have never before heard. As well, I’ve loved exploring works of composers and artists who have been under-appreciated and under-performed in the history of classical music. In the past couple of years, that has included the repertoire of women composers and of African-American composers, whose musical creations have, to put it mildly, not received the attention they’ve deserved. I’ve also become intrigued with where
contemporary classical music is headed, and what new horizons lay ahead for the genre.
Bill Motlong and his wife Barbara discovered the Driftless area in 1973, and it was love at first sight. They were weekenders from the Chicago area for 27 years, and moved here full time in 2000.
Ed Holahan: My brother filled the house with Classical Music and after a few years of mild resistance I succumbed to the magic of it. It is the music I listen to and think about. I have a particular fondness for the older repertoire…Baroque through mid-twentieth-century.
I attended the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Lyric Opera in Chicago for years, so you’ll hear a portion of operatic music on any given show.
The lives of composers and artists fascinate me. I tell some of those stories whenever time permits.
Sarah Caldwell: Listening to the classical station while sitting in my car at the Sacramento Waldorf School circa 1997… I heard Vivaldi’s Music for Lute & Mandolin for the first time. My jaw fell open in awe as the tender composition touched my heart. A true “aha” moment….
Ever since then I have cultivated a classical music habit which sustains me in my darkest hours, bringing comfort as well as delighting & exciting my soul. I am grateful to join the other hosts here in offering classical music once a month sharing the joys, tender sorrows, and moving drama of the genre.
Ed Martinez and his wife, Barbara, moved to Viroqua in 2005…Ed retiring from years of public service in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and overseas. He sees life through a lens of striving for equity, genuine diversity and improving our common human condition. Interest in music started at early age in a boys’ choir in Los Angeles and continued (with a changing voice) with choral work, especially Gregorian chant and liturgical music, in high school, college, and beyond.
In retirement…in addition to obsessive gardening and landscaping, Ed finds time to learn more about music of all kinds…especially early music. He believes music is at its best when it moves people to genuine emotion…joyful or sad…excited or serene…but always hopeful.
Heron Splinter has been a classical music fan since a little boy when he began obsessively playing Beethoven’s Best Hits CD over and over and over again. After beginning the cello in 4th grade, his love of classical was assured for life. Today, he expresses his love of music as a cellist, singer, and disc-jockey. Heron is honored to share his passion as a host of Symphony Sunday . You can expect to hear him play unique Classical and Romantic pieces, 20th and 21st century composers, innovative tracks from film and video games, and international classical-fusion pieces.
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