Peter Ostroushko
Encyclopedia
Peter Ostroushko is an American
violin
ist and mandolin
ist.
ancestry, Ostroushko grew up in northeast Minneapolis
. He has released numerous recordings and is a regular performer on the A Prairie Home Companion
radio program.
Blood on the Tracks
. He has toured with Robin and Linda Williams
, Norman Blake
and Chet Atkins
. Ostroushko also worked with Emmylou Harris
, Willie Nelson
, Johnny Gimble
, Greg Brown, John Hartford
and the New Orleans-based rock/blues band The Radiators http://www.theradiators.org/index3.php, among many others.
and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
. Ostroushko's compositions have been performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia
, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, he played with the Minnesota Youth Symphonies at Orchestra Hall. Music from Heart of the Heartland was used by Ken Burns
for the PBS documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
and his arrangement of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" was used in Burns' Mark Twain
.
, Late Night with David Letterman
, and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, as well as performing regularly on Garrison Keillor's
A Prairie Home Companion
.
for his soundtrack to the 2005 PBS Series Minnesota: A History of the Land
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
ist.
Background and career
Of UkrainianUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
ancestry, Ostroushko grew up in northeast Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. He has released numerous recordings and is a regular performer on the A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
radio program.
Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Mandolin
Ostroushko's first recording session was an uncredited mandolin player on Bob Dylan'sBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks is Bob Dylan's 15th studio album, released by Columbia Records in January 1975. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia after a two-album stint with Asylum Records....
. He has toured with Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They began their musical association in Nashville, TN in 1971, performing in local clubs....
, Norman Blake
Norman Blake (American musician)
Norman Blake is an instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 50 years Blake has played in a number of folk and Country groups...
and Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
. Ostroushko also worked with Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Johnny Gimble
Johnny Gimble
John Paul Gimble , better known as Johnny Gimble, is an American country musician associated with Western swing. He is an award-winning fiddle player and considered one of the most impressive fiddlers in the genre's history....
, Greg Brown, John Hartford
John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford was an American folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore...
and the New Orleans-based rock/blues band The Radiators http://www.theradiators.org/index3.php, among many others.
Orchestral
Ostroushko has performed with the Minnesota OrchestraMinnesota Orchestra
The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...
and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...
. Ostroushko's compositions have been performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia
Minnesota Sinfonia
Minnesota Sinfonia is a professional non-profit orchestra whose mission is to serve the musical and educational needs of the citizens of Minnesota, especially families with children, inner-city youth, seniors and those with limited financial means...
, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, he played with the Minnesota Youth Symphonies at Orchestra Hall. Music from Heart of the Heartland was used by Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
for the PBS documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery is a 1997 documentary film directed by Ken Burns. Its subject is the Lewis and Clark Expedition.-Actors and historians:...
and his arrangement of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" was used in Burns' Mark Twain
Mark Twain (documentary)
Mark Twain is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain produced by Ken Burns in 2001. Burns captures both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. The film was narrated by Keith David and the voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway....
.
Television and radio
Ostroushko has appeared on television on Austin City LimitsAustin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
, Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, as well as performing regularly on Garrison Keillor's
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
.
Awards
Ostroushko received a regional Emmy awardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for his soundtrack to the 2005 PBS Series Minnesota: A History of the Land
Minnesota: A History of the Land
Minnesota: A History of the Land is an album by Peter Ostroushko, released in 2005. It is the original score to a four-part public television series aired in 2005.Ostroushko received a "regional" Emmy award for the soundtrack.- Track listing :...
.
Discography
- Sluz Duz MusicSluz Duz MusicSluz Duz Music is the debut album by American multi-instrumentalist Peter Ostroushko, released in 1985."Sluz Duz" is an Old World sound developed by Ostroushko that combines the dance music of the Ukraine and other European countries with American blugrass, ragtime and swing...
(1985) RounderRounder RecordsRounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students... - Down the Streets of My Old NeighborhoodDown the Streets of My Old NeighborhoodDown the Streets of My Old Neighborhood is the an album by fiddle and mandolin player Peter Ostroushko, released in 1986. It is out of print.- Track listing :All songs by Peter Ostroushko unless otherwise noted.#"Sluz Blues"#"Back Home in N.E...
(1986) Rounder - Buddies of SwingBuddies of SwingBuddies of Swing is the an album by fiddle and mandolin player Peter Ostroushko, released in 1987.- Track listing :# "Liza " – 4:15...
(1987) Red HouseRed House RecordsRed House Records is an American independent record label specializing in folk music and is based in St. Paul, Minnesota.The label was originally created in 1981 by Greg Brown as a method to distribute his own music, and is named for a farmhouse in Iowa where he was living... - Blue MesaBlue Mesa (Peter Ostroushko album)Blue Mesa is the an album by American fiddle and mandolin player Peter Ostroushko, released in 1989.- Track listing :# "International Medley:Lost Indian/Reel of the Hanged Man" – 5:27# "Marjorie's Waltz, No...
(1989) Red House - DuoDuo (Peter Ostroushko and Dean Magraw album)Duo is the an album by fiddle and mandolin player Peter Ostroushko with guitarist Dean Magraw, released in 1991.- Track listing :All songs by Peter Ostroushko unless otherwise noted.#"The Whalebone Feathers" – 4:33#"Musette in a Minor" – 3:36...
(1991) Red House (with Dean Magraw) - Heart of the HeartlandHeart of the HeartlandHeart of the Heartland is the first album in Peter Ostroushko's "heartland trilogy", released in 1995. Pilgrims on the Heart Road and Sacred Heart complete the trilogy....
(1995) Red House - Pilgrims on the Heart RoadPilgrims on the Heart RoadVisions of Love is an album by Peter Ostroushko, released in 1997. It is the second of the three albums Ostroushko calls his "heartland trilogy" — Heart of the Heartland, Pilgrims on the Heart Road, and Sacred Heart....
(1997) Red House - Sacred HeartSacred Heart (Peter Ostroushko album)Sacred Heart is an album by Peter Ostroushko, released in 2000. It is the final part of the trilogy Ostroushko calls his "heartland trilogy" — Heart of the Heartland, Pilgrims on the Heart Road, and Sacred Heart...
(2000) Red House - Meeting on Southern SoilMeeting on Southern SoilMeeting on Southern Soil is an album by Norman Blake and Peter Ostroushko, released in 2002.-Reception:Writing for Allmusic, music critic Chris Nickson wrote of the album "Albums like this renew the roots of American music, bringing new blood into what is really a flowing river of history...
(2002) Red House (with Norman BlakeNorman Blake (American musician)Norman Blake is an instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 50 years Blake has played in a number of folk and Country groups...
) - Coming Down from Red LodgeComing Down from Red LodgeComing Down from Red Lodge is an album by American musician Peter Ostroushko, released in 2003.All the songs were written for performance on A Prairie Home Companion...
(2003) Red House - Minnesota: A History of the LandMinnesota: A History of the LandMinnesota: A History of the Land is an album by Peter Ostroushko, released in 2005. It is the original score to a four-part public television series aired in 2005.Ostroushko received a "regional" Emmy award for the soundtrack.- Track listing :...
(2005) Red House - The Heartland Holiday Concert (2005) Red House
- PostcardsPostcards (Peter Ostroushko album)Postcards is an album by American musician Peter Ostroushko, released in 2006.The songs on Postcards are culled from songs Ostroushko wrote for A Prairie Home Companion...
(2006) Red House - The Mando Boys Live: Holstein Lust (2006) Borderland
- Peter Joins the Circus (2008)
- When the Last Morning Glory BloomsWhen the Last Morning Glory BloomsWhen the Last Morning Glory Blooms is an album by American musician Peter Ostroushko, released in 2010.-History:A collection of nine waltzes and one ballad, many of the songs were written by Ostroushko for family and friends that he didn't expect to record...
(2010) (Red House)
External links
- Peter Ostroushko official site
- Audio clip: Lafayette/ Turtle Dove - Peter Ostroushko, Shoe Band, GK and Andra Suchy, 2/20/2010.