Sonic Architecture: Exploring Minnesota Through Sound

Minnesota is a land of beautiful spaces: from modern cities to rolling prairies, from dense forests to lakes large and small. And within all of those lovely lookouts there exist spaces of sound.

Sonic Architecture — a collaboration between Classical Minnesota Public Radio and Cantus, Classical MPR's 2010-2011 Artists-in-Residence — is a sound-based exploration of Minnesota's spaces. MPR cameras and microphones will venture into environments across Minnesota as each one is brought to life by the voices of a world-class vocal ensemble.

Imagine the majestic echoes beneath the limestone bluffs of St. Paul, or the gentle lapping of water filling the space between Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles; the unexpected reverberation inside empty grain barges hauling on the Mississippi, or the breathtakingly silent sound of winter's first snowfall. Now imagine these settings and many more commingling in a rich tapestry of soundscape and song, where Minnesota itself becomes the concert hall. That's Sonic Architecture.