KARRIN ALLYSON

William McGlaughlin’s introduction to music came late; he was fourteen before he took his first piano lessons. “Happily, I understood immediately what a wonderful thing I’d stumbled into. I can remember thinking as I walked away from my second piano lesson — “Well, that’s it. I’ll be a musician. Of course, I had no idea what that decision meant exactly.”

Over the years, McGlaughlin was to discover that “being a musician” could embrace a great many paths. He has served as an educator, as a performer— a trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony, and as a conductor — seven years as Associate Conductor with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, followed by periods as music director of orchestras in Eugene, Tucson and San Francisco, and most recently, a twelve year engagement as Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony. He has also been active as a guest conductor, leading the Baltimore Symphony, Denver Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, New Orleans Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Opera Theatre St. Louis, American Music Theater Festival and San Antonio Festival.

McGlaughlin has also been active in broadcasting, serving as host of the popular public radio program St. Paul Sunday since its inception in 1980. In 1996 the program received the highest honor in broadcasting, the George Foster Peabody Award. McGlaughlin has worked with PBS, the BBC and as co-host of the chamber music program Center Stage From Wolf Trap. In November 2002, the NEA announced a special grant to the WFMT Radio Network to fund the development of a new daily program: Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, which began syndication on October 6, 2003. Exploring Music plays in two hundred markets across the country as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Bill McGlaughlin is also the host of Concerts from the Library of Congress.

It was not until 1997 that McGlaughlin made a public debut as a composer. His Three Dreams and a Question: Choral Songs on E. E. Cummings — a work dedicated to memory of the young composer and pianist Kevin Oldham — was enthusiastically received by audience, performers and press at its premiere with the Kansas City Symphony and was quickly followed by five more premieres within a ten month span. Aaron’s Horizons, a work dedicated to the spirit of Aaron Copland, with whom McGlaughin worked in the 1970s, has been heard nation wide in a broadcast with members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Katherine Miller is an internationally renowned, award winning, sound engineer Katherine Miller has been at the board recording hundreds of sessions during the past thirty years. Miller began her career in the 1980’s at Platinum Island Studios and Skyline Studios, working on numerous pop music sessions before striking out on her own to work with Mariah Carey and C & C Music Factory for the better part of 2 years.
In the 1990’s Miller worked on a series of jazz albums, finding her true calling working in that idiom. Since then she has worked on countless sessions, recording, mixing and mastering innumerable discs by some of the music’s greatest artists, including Lewis Nash, Catherine Russell, Andy Bey, Bill Charlap, Cyrus Chestnut, Freddy Cole, Little Jimmy Scott, Archie Shepp, Cedar Walton, Joe Locke, Chano Dominguez and many others.
Among her most critically acclaimed recordings are Jazz and Latin Jazz Grammy Award winning albums by Bebo Valdes (El Arte de Sabor), Carlos Franzetti (Duets) and Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (The Offense Of The Drum).
Her talent as an audio engineer has earned her the admiration and respect of numerous industry professionals and accolades from many of the musicians whose artistry she has helped to document. Vocalist Catherine Russell proclaims, “Katherine will always be my first choice for a recording and mixing engineer. She is meticulous when it comes to getting instruments and voices to sound natural. I was immediately drawn in by the warmth and clarity of her recordings”, while vibraphonist/composer Joe Locke asserts, “Having Katherine Miller at the recording console of any session is a great asset. She is undoubtedly one of the finest recording engineers working today”, and drummer, Lewis Nash states, “Katherine, in my opinion, is one the finest engineers in the business. When I walk into a studio and see Katherine in the control booth, I immediately relax and know all is well!”