Moments ago, the nine semifinalists of the Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition were announced. The names are below, along with Sunday's schedule for the Schubert Sonata Round:

12:00PM-12:40PM Eric Zuber
12:40PM-1:20PM Hanchien Lee
1:20PM-2:00PM Grace Kim
2:00PM-2:30PM BREAK
2:30PM-3:10PM Helene Tysman
3:10PM-3:50PM Rui Shi
3:50PM-4:30PM Alessandro Taverna
4:30PM-5:00PM BREAK
5:00PM-5:40PM Howard Na
5:40PM-6:20PM Piotr Rozanski
6:20PM-7:00PM Pavel Yeletsky

As always, your comments are welcome.

Things really began to heat up at the Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition on Thursday. The lineup included two of the youngest contestants, both 20 -- Ukraine's Denis Zhdanov and Piotr Rozanski from Poland. Returning from the 2006 e-Comp were Rui Shi, 26, from China and Howard Na, 23, from the United States. In the '06 Competition, I remember Shi for her elegant playing and her ability to draw the listener into her world. As she performed Ravel's difficult and imaginative work Gaspard de la Nuit yesterday, she did just that.
My Italian blood was pumping with pride as I listened to Alessandro Taverna play Beethoven's Eroica Variations followed by Chopin, Liszt, Ligeti and Stravinsky (Petrouchka). At 25, Taverna has technique (of course), maturity and plenty of style. I'm hopeful that the judges will agree and send him on to the next round.

Listen to my conversation with John Birge
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Did you know Thomas Jefferson was a musician, among all his other talents?

He learned to play the violin as a boy, and was often invited to play chamber music in the home of the royal governor of Virginia. (Things must have gotten awkward when that whole "independence" thing got started.)

Read more about Jefferson the musician in this article from today's Wall Street Journal.

When I left Sundin Hall Wednesday evening, I had a smile on my face. It got there after hearing Russian pianist Elmar Gasanov play an imaginative program of Bartok, Liszt, Chopin, Medtner and Albeniz at the Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition. The Liszt Sonata in b minor is no stranger to piano competitions and Gasanov played it convincingly, with an understanding of its complex architecture. The rest of his recital gave us a chance to see additional facets his musicianship. This included Spanish dances by Albeniz, a Fairy Tale by Medtner, and a little more Liszt with a chaming Valse-Caprice after Schubert.
Word on the street is that today's lineup is one of the strongest. Stop by Hamline University's Sundin Hall anytime between noon and 9:30 pm to decide for yourself. And remember, admission is free!

Listen to my conversation with John Birge
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Here's an ambitious new Mozart website that launched recently. It's called MozartWays. Eventually they hope to have the complete correspondence of the Mozart family, complete with links, footnotes, translations in multiple languages and much else. They already have maps of Mozart's travels through Europe; you can download a map, drill down to specific cities, find out about the Mozart sites in each, along with dates of his stay, anecdotes.....and that's the beta version.

The Berlin Philharmonic will open the virtual doors of its Digital Concert Hall again for the 2009-10 season.

Almost all of their concerts will be broadcast live on the internet (video and audio), then archived on their website so that anyone can watch them again later.

Anyone willing to pay for a subscription, that is, though the cost is pretty reasonable. Read more about it here (registration required).

Happy Independence Day! The Classical MPR staff have put together an online music mix of a few of our favorites, for your holiday listening. This list is only a sampling--what are some of your favorite pieces for Fourth of July? Would you like to hear other similar mixes? Enjoy the music, and let us know your thoughts.

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Here's the playlist:

Alf Houkom, arr: Oh, Shenandoah
Dale Warland Singers
Blue Wheat (American Choral Classics 122)
Here, a classic American ballad meets the great Minnesota choral tradition.

John Williams: Liberty Fanfare
John Williams/Boston Pops
By Request (Philips 420 178)
In 1986, the Statue of Liberty was 100 years old. To mark the anniversary, the Statue got a complete restoration--and this fanfare.

Aaron Copland: At the River, from Old American Songs
William Warfield, baritone; Aaron Copland, piano
Modern American Vocal Works (CBS/Sony 60899)
It wouldn't be the Fourth of July without Aaron Copland, who enriched the repertoire with classics like "Appalachian Spring," "Billy the Kid," "Lincoln Portrait," and the "Old American Songs."

Jerome Moross: Main Title, from The Big Country
Tony Bremner/Philharmonia Orchestra
The Big Country Soundtrack (Silva 1048)
One of the classic Wild West themes, by a composer who wrote for Hollywood, the concert hall, and Broadway.

Stephen Foster: Hard Times Come Again No More
James Taylor, guitar and vocals; Yo-Yo Ma/Edgar Meyer/Mark O'Connor
Appalachian Journey (Sony 66782)
Stephen Foster was born on the fourth of July--literally. Over the years, his songs have been sung everywhere from vocal recitals to summer camp. As this performance suggests, his songs continue to resonate with American musicians of many genres.

Joseph Lamb: Ragtime Bobolink
Virginia Eskin, piano
American Beauties (Koch 7495)
Joseph Lamb was a contemporary of Scott Joplin, and brought his own elegant, personal style to ragtime.

Randall Thompson: Largo, from Symphony No. 2
Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic
Bernstein Century: American Masters (Sony 60594)
If you've sung in a church or school choir, you may have sung Randall Thompson's "Alleluia," one of the classics of American choral music. As this section of his Second Symphony shows, he could also express himself eloquently in orchestral music.

George Gershwin: Summertime
Kathleen Battle, soprano; Andre Previn/Orchestra of St. Luke's
Honey and Rue (DG 437 787)
A memorable melody--and equally memorable words. Stephen Sondheim points out that it would have been easy to write, "Summertime, when the livin' is easy." Of course, it's actually, "And the livin' is easy" - one little word makes all the difference.

Earl Robinson: Joe Hill
Paul Robeson, bass-baritone
Songs of Free Men (Columbia/Sony 63223)
This is the best-known piece by Earl Robinson, who also wrote "Ballad for Americans" (also recorded by Robeson), "The House I Live in" (recorded by Frank Sinatra), and a concerto for banjo.

Leonard Bernstein: Make Our Garden Grow, from Candide
Original Broadway Cast Recording
The Bernstein Songbook (CBS/Sony 44760)
Voltaire's novel "Candide" ends with the words, "We must cultivate our garden." At the end of his stage version, Leonard Bernstein turns that terse observation into a soaring, expansive anthem.

Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
New England Conservatory Ensemble
The Red Back Book (EMI 47193)
The iconic rag.

MacDowell: To a Wild Rose
Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell, piano
Singer (Amade 6395)
Edward MacDowell was one of the first Americans to play a part on the international classical music scene on an equal footing with European musicians. He excelled in the musical miniature, such as this favorite, played by Minnesota pianist Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell.

Stephen Foster: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
Chanticleer
Chanticleer: A Portrait (Teldec 49702)
Here's Chanticleer, giving a sophisticated close-harmony spin to Foster's ballad.

John Klohr: The Billboard
Frederick Fennell/Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra
March World, Vol. 4 (Brain 7504)
You may not recognize the title of this march, or the composer--but you'll definitely recognize the big tune.

Leonard Bernstein: Tonight, from West Side Story
Original Cast Recording
West Side Story (Columbia/Sony 32603)
"West Side Story" is still going strong, 52 years after its premiere. Check out this online exhibition from the Library of Congress.

Virgil Thomson: Allegro, from Symphony on a Hymn Tune
Howard Hanson/Eastman-Rochester Orchestra;
(Mercury 434310)
Virgil Thomson was an American original: a Missouri boy who went to Harvard, moved to Paris in the Jazz Age, knew everyone from Picasso to Frank O'Hara, and wrote some of the most memorable music criticism of any American. This symphony shows off some of his Parisian cheekiness--but his affection for his Baptist childhood comes through.

Kurt Weill: September Song
Walter Huston, vocals; Victor Young & His Orchestra
Hits of '46 (ASV 5246)
Hard to guess from listening to this bittersweet ballad that it comes from a Broadway show satirizing Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Peter Schickele: Lively, from Piano Quintet
Lark Quartet; Peter Schickele, piano
Schickele on a Lark (Arabesque 6719)
Peter Schickele says that his quintet "couldn't be more American" -- echoes of the blues, boogie and fiddle music abound.

The Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition is underway at Hamline University's Sundin Hall. I was there for all of day one (Tuesday) which included solo recitals from five of the 21 contestants. Highlights for me came from German pianist Andrej Yussow and Han-Chien Lee of Taiwan. Jussow, 28, captured my attention with his diverse program (Schnittke, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin), his overall musicianship, and his willingness to play softly. What I liked most about Han-Chien Lee's playing was her interpretation of Ravel's Miroirs. It illustated her deep understanding of impressionism and her ability to exhibit that in the colors she drew from the piano.

The Recital Round continues through Friday. Playing begins at noon and runs until 8 pm. The public is welcome to attend and, best of all, admission is free. If you decide to stop by, be sure to bring a sweater or two. It's cold in there!

Listen to my conversation with John Birge
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Some artists can be patient with a new piece, and let it take its own form in its own time. But the film composer is not one of them.

"You don't wait for the muse to hit you," says the composer of the scores for two very different recent films. "It's music to order. A certain discipline and knowledge is required."

Get a bigger glimpse into Harry Gregson-Williams's world (and find out how he developed that discipline) in this profile.

Minneapolis has ranked in the top-five of the nation's rudest drivers, according to a study just out. We out road-raged notoriously congested cities like Miami and Houston for laying on the horn, using obscene gestures, blabbing on our cell-phones and basically driving way too fast. New York came in first and the unlikely laid-back San Diego hit the top-ten for the first time.

So, if traffic's down and one could take their Ferrari as fast as it might go, it might sound a bit like this.