Can’t make it to tonight’s concert? Tune in.

Photo: Classical MPR engineer Cameron Wiley prepares for the live radio broadcast during Thursday’s rehearsal.

We’re just eight hours away the opening notes of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and the start of a new SPCO season.

We’ll also mark the start of our 46th season of broadcasting on Classical MPR, a collaboration that has brought our performances to audiences around Minnesota, across the United States, and internationally through the European Broadcasting Union.

Tonight’s concert will be the first of five live broadcasts this season—a series that will include the final concert in the Ordway Music Theater and the first concert in the new Ordway Concert Hall.

At 8 p.m. CDT, tune in to your local station or listen to a live stream on ClassicalMPR.org.

One of the things many people don’t realize is just how tiny the Ordway Music Theater’s radio host booth really is. There’s room for a chair, two music stands, a microphone and a small video screen… and not much else. That will change in March, when SPCO radio hosts will move to more spacious quarters under the stage of the new concert hall.

Here are two more photos of the Ordway’s radio studio:

Tonight at 8 p.m., Alison Young will greet audiences from the Ordway Music Theater through this microphone in the radio host booth.

While our early concerts were recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, today’s SPCO program are digitally recorded for Classical MPR broadcasts and inclusion in our Listening Library.