"America-2009"

Our Inauguration Day concert on January 20 at St. John’s, Smith Square, London will be recorded for broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio the same evening in Minnesota. And that means you can listen from anywhere in the world at minnesotapublicradio.org – click on the green Classical tab. Check out today's issue of Minnesota Public Radio's "The Classical Post" for a feature story on the broadcast!

It’s hard to get your head around this with all of the time changes, so let me elaborate. The concert, which will be professionally recorded, takes place at 7:30 pm London time (that’s 1:30 in the afternoon in MN). That means around 9:30 or 10 pm Minnesota Public Radio’s classical music host and producer John Birge, who is traveling with the Ensemble Singers, will begin editing the concert and adding his commentary. He has just a few hours to turn the project around in time and upload it to MPR for an 8 pm (Minnesota time) broadcast.

The good news is that you can listen to the concert at your Inauguration parties Tuesday night — and sing along with the Ensemble Singers on the new version of “America-2009” that Garrison Keillor has written for the occasion. We’ll even post the lyrics for you on Tuesday!