In its 100 years, the Southern Theater in Minneapolis has been many things, from a vaudeville stage to a garage to a second playhouse for the Guthrie. Now, for what is arguably the first time, the intimate 200-seat space is becoming a hot spot for new music, thanks to its music-programming director, Kate Nordstrum.
Nordstrum took the job in 2008. In just two years she has booked such big names as indie singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens and East Coast classical- music whiz kid Nico Muhly, and put the Southern on the map for touring acts that represent an emerging brand of music that straddles classical, folk, alt-rock and electronic.
She has done so while also sharing the space with bookings for dance (under Laurie Van Wieren) and theater (curated by Jon Ferguson).
"Having one curator in charge of music allowed for us to start thinking about a full season of music at the Southern, which we really hadn't done before," Nordstrum said.
Nordstrum already had been working as the theater's marketing and communications director. She helped Jeff Bartlett, former artistic director at the Southern, set up the theater's Wordless Music Series, showing she had the zeal and experience to add music booking to her job description.
The yoga network
A Wisconsin native and graduate of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, Nordstrum designed her own major in arts administration. She arranged an internship at New York City's Lincoln Center, which eventually turned into a job. There, she established contacts all over the classical-music world, working on the Mostly Mozart festival and even meeting musicians in yoga classes she taught.
Nordstrum didn't aspire to do music programming until she began at the Southern. The theater's intimacy and acoustics inspired her. "The space was just so right for atmospheric music," she said.
