Regional Spotlight: Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal

St. Paul, Minn. — When Lars Hannibal and Michala Petri play together, they create a kind of combustion that makes you sit on the edge of your chair and listen more attentively, while at the same time you have a big grin on your face.

The two have been making music together since 1992, touring the world, playing over 1500 concerts and knocking people out with a whole batch of CD's on their own label, OUR Recording.

Their two concerts at the Beethoven Festival have been sold out for weeks, but I caught up with them at Saint Mary's University in Winona just as they arrived in the United States from performing at the International Expo in Shanghai for a chat and a private concert.

One thing I was very curious about was the description of their duo as about "conversation, companionship and communication." They share some wonderful insights about what it means to be a performer and how one gets into the energy of a performance venue and its audience.