MPR People

John Zech

Host, Classical Music/Composers Datebook
Minnesota Public Radio
jzech@mpr.org

John Zech got started in broadcasting as a news anchor at his high school's closed-circuit television station (KRUD). At St. Olaf College, his love of classical music earned him his first "real" radio experience at WCAL-FM. After a dozen years doing virtually everything there was to do at a small public radio station, John crossed over into the private sector, doing audio production and narration for a major educational publishing company, managing translation projects for an international communications company, and generally learning what it's like to work for a living. Having seen the light, John returned to radio in 1992. After deciding his zen garden was too much of a headache, John looks for enlightenment on the tennis court and the billiard table instead.

John Zech Feature Archive

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Music in Patrick O'Brian's novels

When I was a lad, books like Captains Courageous and Two Years Before the Mast, The Sea Wolf and later, Moby Dick, all gave me dreams of being a sailor. But after several Channel crossings and a sailing weekend on Lake Superior, I've found I don't have the stomach for it. It seems I'll have to keep my sailing adventures to the printed page, and the silver screen. But as a classical music broadcaster, I have to give O'Brian especially good marks for the way he treats music in his novels. How could you not love a writer who ends a rollicking sea adventure, The Letter of Marque, with everyone on deck singing an aria from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte! (11/13/2003)