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1 week ago | 
twincities.com | Rob Hubbard
Before I tell you why I think you should make every effort to experience Theater Mu’s beautiful, heartbreaking production of Diana Son’s drama “Stop Kiss,” I should provide some context for why it affected me so deeply, although I think you’ll find it meaningful no matter what you bring into it. While I’ve been a Twin Cities arts journalist for decades, I have a full-time job for the first half of the year as a writer for the Minnesota House of Representatives’ journalistic arm, Session Daily.
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2 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Rob Hubbard
It doesn't get much better than this. As one who's attended St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts for decades, it's my judgment that it's evolved into one of America's great orchestras. And I'm not sure that they've ever played with such an arresting combination of expert musicianship and emotional expressiveness as when artistic partner Gábor Takács-Nagy is conducting.
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2 weeks ago | 
twincities.com | Rob Hubbard
If you’re looking for a good example of making some sour lemons into the sweetest of lemonades, consider the origin story of “Legally Blonde.” When Amanda Brown entered law school at Stanford University, she concluded pretty quickly that it was a bad fit for her, a fashion-loving, blond-haired, bubbly young woman who took notes with a fluffy pink pen.
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2 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Rob Hubbard
By Rob Hubbard On Saturday night, Minneapolis native Evren Ozel took the bronze medal at North America's foremost classical piano competition, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. By virtue of his third-place finish, Ozel, 26, will receive $25,000 and three years of career management, tours, recordings and assistance with press kits, videos and websites. Ozel also received a special award for the competition's best performance of a Mozart concerto.
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2 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Rob Hubbard
If you ever feel compelled to complain about your commute, consider the one that Jacques Ogg has been taking for 25 years as artistic director of the Twin Cities-based Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
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2 weeks ago | 
house.mn.gov | Rob Hubbard
Did the pledges by some legislators not to raise taxes this session go to pot?
The chief revenue raiser in the 2025 tax agreement passed by the House Monday is a plan to increase the state’s 10% cannabis gross receipts tax to 15% and repeal local government cannabis aid. According to the Revenue Department, that change could enhance the state’s coffers by $76.5 million in the next biennium.
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2 weeks ago | 
twincities.com | Rob Hubbard
Every revolution starts with a rebellion. And you could say that the sound and style of musical theater in the 21st century was indelibly shaped by composer Stephen Sondheim’s rejection of the old order. Although mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II — the lyricist half of the duo that last revolutionized the art form, Rodgers and Hammerstein-Sondheim took things in totally unexpected directions during the last few decades of the 1900s.
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2 weeks ago | 
house.mn.gov | Rob Hubbard
If the omnibus energy bill were a light bulb, most legislators seem to agree that it would be a dim one.
With its appropriations devoted chiefly to keeping the Public Utilities Commission and the Commerce Department’s energy division in working order, and policy changes limited to initiating a financial safety net for unexpected natural gas price spikes, SSHF7/SSSF2* — sponsored by Rep. Patty Acomb (DFL-Minnetonka) and Sen.
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3 weeks ago | 
house.mn.gov | Rob Hubbard
On Friday, the transportation working group presented what it characterized as its completed omnibus bill. At that meeting, county commissioners and administrators from the seven-county metro area expressed their disapproval of a proposal to shift half of the funds that counties would collect from a metro-wide sales tax toward the Metropolitan Council to build out Metro Transit’s bus rapid transit lines.
But something changed over the weekend.
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3 weeks ago | 
startribune.com | Rob Hubbard
"Here's something from our latest album." That's a phrase you'll frequently hear from a pop, rock or country act, but not in a classical concert hall. However, the conductor for this weekend's Minnesota Orchestra concerts could make such a claim. Romania's Cristian Măcelaru was on the podium for what are, arguably, the definitive recordings of two of the three works on the program.
