Randy A. Salas

I’m returning to the Fanfare fold after a 25-year absence. I recently retired as the senior digital producer for classical music at Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media, which provides a hosted classical music service to more than 230 public radio stations across the United States. During my eight years there, I oversaw digital content for the classical department’s websites, social media, newsletters, videos, and podcasts. I collaborated regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Opera, as well as visiting artists from around the world, such as the vocal ensemble Voces8 and composer Eric Whitacre. Before that, I worked for nearly 30 years as an editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where I also wrote about video games, home video, and personal technology.

Music has always been a passion. I’m a lifelong trombone player and currently play euphonium with Brio Brass, a large brass ensemble. I played baritone for a few years with Minnesota Brass, including in 2011, when that all-ages drum and bugle corps won the world championship; I then served on its brass staff for several years. At 18, I co-founded a publication for fans of the Moody Blues (the first rock band to record an album with an orchestra!) that ran for 25 years and had 10,000 subscribers around the world. From that, I ended up contributing to a British documentary about the band and serving as a consultant on a deluxe boxed-set retrospective. I listen to all kinds of music and particularly enjoy experiencing albums in multichannel sound, with about 800 genre-spanning discs in that format. In the classical world, I seek out music for concert band and brass, anything involving Leopold Stokowski, film music, and recordings of those wonderful warhorses Pictures at an Exhibition, The Planets, and The Pines of Rome.

In retirement, I aim to watch a movie and listen to an album each day from my collection of thousands of physical discs. I enjoy spending time with my wife, Laura, who’s a not-yet-retired children’s author, and my two adult daughters. And I look forward to traveling as much as my bank account and desires allow.