The Hearth of the University Its grand reopening is historic —and deeply personal
1 8 S p r i n g 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA
s we look forward to the reopening of Northrop in April, I have found myself thinking back to my own earliest visits to that magnificent venue as a child growing up in St. Paul. Did I enter that grand space for the first time to hear the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra perform a “Young People’s Concert”? Perhaps, because my elementary school arranged buses to take its students there, and I remember the thrill of going with my classmates to those concerts. Did I go first holding my parents’ hands, perhaps to see The Nutcracker? That, too, was a magical event. As a teenager I often asked my parents to let me tag along to events at Northrop. They were regulars at Northrop concerts and performances, though my father, in particular, certainly didn’t have the good fortune I had to grow up with easy access to the arts. He grew up during the Depression, on a failing farm, but he had a high school teacher who took an interest in him and urged him to further his education and go to the University of Minnesota. My guess is that the first time he saw a professional musical performance was indeed at Northrop, perhaps during