Poster Brian Newhouse and Osmo Vanska
Classical MPR host Brian Newhouse, left, and Minnesota Orchestra conductor Osmo Vanska prepare for the orchestra's concert at the BBC Proms in London in 2018.
Brian Newhouse

Brian Newhouse signs off after 25+ years of Minnesota Orchestra live broadcasts

Editor's note: After more than 25 years of being behind the mic on Friday nights, Brian Newhouse stepped down as host of Classical MPR's live broadcasts with the Minnesota Orchestra. Before his final broadcast on June 14, he reflected on moments from his experiences throughout the years. As a special bonus, we've added his audio recollections on a variety of topics after each paragraph of his essay.

I remember that night so well because I'd never kicked in a door before. I was a few months out of college and living alone in a rented farmhouse. The cornfields that stretched for miles around the house were buried in snow.

LISTEN — Brian on his first live broadcast with the Minnesota Orchestra

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Brian Newhouse talks about his first thoughts on his first live broadcast with the MN Orch

A northwest wind had drifted the roads shut and badgered the house all day. Just after dinner, the bathtub pipes burst. It sounded like two small firecrackers. Twin rooster tails of water sprouted from the pipes and sprayed the walls.

LISTEN — Brian on when things don't go as planned

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Brian talks about how he handles the times when things don't go at all as planned.

A frantic call to the landlord in town. He told me where in the basement I'd find the main to shut off. He didn't mention the lock on the basement door. So I kicked it in. That sounds way more Rambo than it actually was, but the door was as rickety as the farmhouse walls, and it popped right open.

LISTEN — Brian on the orchestra's soloists over the years

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Brian talks about the many soloists that joined the MN Orch over the years, some of which gave such powerful, unforgettable performances, like violinist Leonidas Kavakos.

As I mopped up the water, I couldn't get over the cry of the wind and how the house shuddered. What if the power went out and the roads were still closed?

LISTEN — Brian on one of the worst tragedies America has witnessed

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Brian talks about announcing a MN Orch broadcast just a few days after one of the worst tragedies America has ever witnessed.
Brian Newhouse and Brad Althoff hotel studio
Brian Newhouse, left, and producer Brad Althoff improvise a studio in a hotel room during the preproduction recording before the Minnesota Orchestra's concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 2016.
MPR photo/Michael Osborne

I turned on the radio, and a few minutes later there was this reassuring voice: "Good evening from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and welcome to a live broadcast by the Minnesota Orchestra." Something about that moment struck me, and I just sat there on the floor with the cold wet rag in my hands: Someone was talking to me from hundreds of miles away, talking to thousands of us in the same moment, gathering us wherever we were, making, for at least a little while, a kind of community in the winter dark.

LISTEN — Brian on the time he felt the most pride in the orchestra

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Brian talks about the time he felt the most pride in the orchestra, tragedies America has ever witnessed.

When the orchestra played Brahms' Second, oh man, it was like pouring 40 minutes of June sun into that January night.

LISTEN — Brian on a moment that gave him goosebumps

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Brian talks about a moment that gave him goose-bumps.

Fast forward a few years, and I sat down at that very Orchestra Hall mic, stupefied at my good fortune. My first live broadcast was of a Sommerfest concert in 1983. An hour earlier, though, a gully-washer of a thunderstorm had blown a roof vent off Orchestra Hall. Rainwater gushed in, and the smell of wet carpet filled our broadcast booth and the whole hall.

LISTEN — Brian on one piece that the orchestra has never programmed

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Brian talks about one piece that the MN Orch has never gotten around to programming

For years after that, I'd walk in the stage door and take a little breath in; a hint of that smell still hung there. I liked it. It reminded me of a warm, muggy night when I'd found a new kind of home with 90 amazing onstage artists.

LISTEN — Brian on having Friday nights free

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Brian talks about how he'll need to adjust to having his Friday nights free.

I've stepped away from the mic a few times since then, and these hosts and engineers have kept the live broadcasts thriving: Silvester Vicic, Preston Smith, Nick Kereakos, Mark Sheldon and Eric Friesen. For the past decade-plus, engineer Michael Osborne has been the invisible genius behind the on-air sound you hear of the orchestra.

LISTEN — Brian on standout moments with the orchestra

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Brian talks about standout moments with the MN Orch.

After more than 25 years hosting the orchestra's broadcasts, I still feel inordinately blessed. Memorable moments? There are dozens, but here are three: Elgar's Nimrod Variation, when we were desperate for music in the unnervingly quiet and frightening empty-sky days immediately after 9/11.

LISTEN — Brian on conductors' personalities

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Brian talks about getting an idea of conductors' personalities by watching them work

That heartbreaking moment when Osmo Vänskä turned to the audience and asked for no applause at the end of his farewell concert during the lockout. And when the orchestra played the Cuban national anthem, and the translator standing next to me in our Havana broadcast booth burst into tears.

LISTEN — Brian on one conductor who returned several times

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Brian talks about one conductor that returned several times and was nothing sort of chuffed with each invitation.

After 25-plus years of trying to make a little community for a few hours on a Friday night, I've decided that now's the time.

LISTEN — Brian on a conductor who changed over the years

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Brian Newhouse watched one particular conductor, Edo de Waart, change over his years of announcing live MN Orch broadcasts on Classical MPR.

The other hat I wear is as the managing director of Classical MPR, and I would like one of my colleagues to have the same fantastic Orchestra Hall opportunity that I've had. So this summer, I'll announce my successor. I guarantee you'll be in good hands.

LISTEN — Brian on Osmo Vänskä and the orchestra as family

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Brian Newhouse talks about Osmo Vanska and how the orchestra became like a family.

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