It's KBAQ's "This week in classical music" -- an update on what's happening in the classical music world... I'm Randy Kinkel.

Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit has been named interim conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra while it searches for a new director. Dutoit has been a frequent guest conductor and will lead the orchestra in up to eight weeks of concerts per season, with a contract that expires in 2012.

Some soldiers from Minnesota were able to see and speak live to loved ones via a live feed TV hookup and also enjoy a concert by the Mankato Symphony Orchestra recently. The hour-long concert, held at the Minnesota national guard training and community center, the soldiers watched the concert from the freedom call center in Iraq, which allows troops video access to friends and family. Music Director Kenneth Freed said, "These families have been through so much, how can we as an organization and musicians be of service to the troops' families? ... music provides healing and comfort."

Two decades after disappearing in a robbery, a 1727 Stradivarious violin is back home with the Dallas Symphony orchestra, newly reconditioned and ready for a homecoming concert. The DSO bought the Strad in 1978 for concertmaster Eliot Chapo to use. When Emanuel Borok took over the job in 1985, he was able to use the violin; but it was stolen from his apartment in Europe and disappeared until a DSO violinist noticed what he believed to be the instrument for sale in the string magazine "The Strad". After some investigation, the DSO was able to claim the instrument and bring it home. This weekend, gary Levinson, the DSO's associate senior concertmaster, will play the violin in Glazunov's Violin Concerto.

For more information on these and other items and events, go to the KBAQ website at KBAQ.org... be listening every week at this time for another update, and join me at noon every weekday for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I'm Randy Kinkel, for KBAQ's "This week in Classical Music" on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

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March 4th, 2007 by Randy Kinkel courtesy of KBAQ.

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Title: March 4th, 2007
Author: Randy Kinkel
Publisher: KBAQ 89.5 FM
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