Classical Minnesota Public Radio Host John Birge interviews composer Peter Schickele before the VocalEssence P.D.Q. Bach & Peter Schickele Birthday Bash performance on Friday, April 10, 2015.

It’s been 50 years since Professor Peter Schickele released P.D.Q. Bach on an unsuspecting musical public. And it’s been 80 years since the professor’s mother released him on a society ill-prepared for such singular genius. And now, because everyone loves a birthday, Professor Schickele has reached back across the decades to explore the damp vaults and dusty attics of Leipzig to once again celebrate the twenty-first child (out of twenty) of the great J.S. Bach, called the “youngest and oddest.” This special, once in a half-century, musical extravaganza features the crème de la crème of history’s most justifiably neglected composer as well as some enchanting works by Peter Schickele himself, performed by VocalEssence and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble.

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