Saint Paul Sunday often hosted performances of recent music by living composers — composers which have included Thomas Adès, George Tsontakis, Osvaldo Golijov, Fred Lerdahl, Derek Bermel, Frederic Rzewski, and dozens of others. In addition, Saint Paul Sunday has itself commissioned new works from composers such as Pierre Jalbert, Aaron Jay Kernis, Nicholas Maw (in partnership with PRI), Kenneth Frazelle, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Edgar Meyer, among others. For physical outreach, from time to time McGlaughlin and Saint Paul Sunday have traveled to do on-site programs with notable classical musical ensembles at various venues around the U.S. These concerts have generated much excitement from local audiences. To further make classical music more accessible to more people, Saint Paul Sunday has also done residencies at primary and secondary schools in the Midwest — which include recording sessions, performances, and question-and-answer sessions with McGlaughlin, the musicians, and the students. Inception and history During the late 1970s, Pennsylvania native Bill McGlaughlin, a trombonist and conductor, was engaged as Associate Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Before conducting a performance he often spoke to the audience, informally explaining the program and what to listen for. Garrison Keillor heard him, and invited McGlaughlin to fill in occasionally as host of his daily morning radio show on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). Around this same time, National Public Radio gained access to a communications satellite, which meant that production was no longer limited to New York, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C. Cities with uplinks, like St. Paul, could finally produce their own national shows. Consequently, in 1979 the Mellon Foundation provided MPR with seed money to make several pilot programs. In early 1980, via local benefactors, Minnesota Public Radio also built a new studio — the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio ("Studio M") — a beautiful space with 20-foot windows overlooking St. Paul’s cathedral district. This inspired producer Tom Voegeli, then working in national programming for MPR, to create a new show that would play to the studio’s strengths. Voegeli came up with the idea for Saint Paul Sunday Morning, with McGlaughlin as host — a distinctive, intimate program which would present world-class musicians, live, to a national audience. Voegeli also wanted McGlaughlin to sound like a musician rather than like a broadcaster, and to share his own spontaneous, animated enthusiasm with listeners. The show debuted on MPR in 1980, and was picked up nationally in 1981,