For twenty seven years, Bill McGlaughlin hosted St. Paul Sunday, one of the most honored programs in public broadcasting. Some of the most renowned performers in the world made their way to the broadcast studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, to talk with McGlaughlin about their artistry and then demonstrate that artistry with in-studio performances.

“From the beginning,” said McGlaughlin, “this was a radio show, not a public performance where an engineer happened to hang a microphone. We wanted to give the radio listener the sensation that he was sitting four feet away from Yo Yo Ma, hearing him speak and then enchant us with his music making. The whole presentation was intimate, from the sound with the mikes in tight, to the level of conversation. You were listening in to a couple of friends in the world’s best living room.”

a couple of friends in the world’s best living room

And what friends — The Emerson Quartet, with Oscar Shumsky, Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Richard Goode, The Beaux Arts Trio, Christopher Hogwood and Trevor Pinnock and Jordi Savall, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra — on and on for nearly thirty years, a Peabody Award and a place in radio and musical history.

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