Rachel Barton Pine performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e minor with the Lafayette Symphony Saturday evening April, 27 at 7:30 at the Long Center. She talks with WBAA’s Greg Kostraba about her career, including her upcoming solo turn with the LSO. She also performs music by Brahms and Piazzolla in our studios.
Eighteen years at WBAA! Where has the time gone? I worked here as a Program Host/Producer from 1995 to 2001, hosting classical music, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and the weekly 20th-century classical music series “The Kostraba Conundrum.” After a short stint as Program Director at a public radio station in Kansas, I moved with my family to Toledo to serve as Classical Music Director at WGTE-FM, staying for seven years. One of my highlights there was winning the 2007 Ohio Public Broadcasting Award for "Radio Producer of the Year" for my monthly in-studio performance program “Live From FM 91” and special programs celebrating the lives and music of composers William Grant Still and Samuel Adler. As much as I loved northwest Ohio, it was a joy to return home to Greater Lafayette in 2009 as Program Director (now Content Director) of this remarkable station: freshening our sound, developing the WBAA Arts Spotlight, hosting Afternoon Classics, and in general deepening our relationships with the arts community.