Audio Real hard rock (story audio) Photos Billy Steiner looks over the quarry table which soon will hold thousands of people. Rockin' in the Quarry. City Mouse leader Billy Steiner. View full slideshow (6 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Real hard rock
by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
June 5, 2003

Musician Billy Steiner has performed in all five of the "Rockin' in the Quarry" concerts. The flat area in front of him will soon hold thousands of concert-goers. (MPR Photo/Mark Steil)

Each June in Mankato you can find great music in a strange location. It's a concert in a quarry. A working quarry. Each year it produces thousands of tons of crushed rock for the construction industry. But in June the quarry becomes a stage. Thousands of people show up to listen to a symphony orchestra and a blues rock band.

Mankato, Minn. — The quarry provides a dramatic backdrop for the concert. Sheer rock cliffs reflect the late afternoon sun. Mounds of crushed rock shadow the audience. The quarry is owned by the Southern Minnesota Construction company. This is how the company's Dick Lundin greeted the audience at the first "Rockin' in the Quarry" show in 1999.

	Rockin' in the Quarry.

"You're sitting in the bottom of a seabed from four hundred million years ago," said Lundin. "Ninety some percent of all the people in Mankato and the surrounding area have never been here and we thought we'd open it up and let you see it."

As in 1999, the audience this year will bring lawn chairs and refreshments. They'll hear the Mankato Symphony Orchestra play pop and classical pieces. They'll also listen to the sounds of the blues and rock and country bounce around the old seabed.

	City Mouse leader Billy Steiner.

Those notes come from the band, "City Mouse". It's the musical home of one of Minnesota's most distinguished band leaders, Billy Steiner. He started out playing music full-time more than 30 years ago. But like all the band members he's got a day job now. Steiner works in radio and is on the North Mankato City Council. The group's drummer, Mike Pengra, is a producer at Minnesota Public Radio. Billy Steiner says he's seen a lot in three decades with the band, but the quarry date is special.

"It's sure a different twist," says Steiner. " I guess in 1971 I didn't think we'd be playing with a symphony in a stone quarry in front of half the town. It's a real fun deal."

As many as 7,000 people have attended a single concert. They see a combination of fine arts and heavy industry. They might examine dump trucks and front end loaders used at the quarry while the Mankato Symphony Orchestra plays. Enroute to the stage, the audience walks past car sized blocks of cut stone. Southern Minnesota Construction President Larry Nurre says the stage itself is built out of stone.

	Larry Nurre is president of the Southern Minnesota Construction Company.

"Our main motivation was that we had this rock quarry, it was somewhat isolated, it was large enough to accomodate a large crowd," says Nurre. "And would present to the local people or anybody else that attended that you can do things other than crush rock in the quarry."

Nurre says the acoustics are great. He says the rock cliff behind the musicians reflects the notes back at the audience. Those acoustic quirks make themselves most noticed during one of the closing numbers. The orchestra performs the 1812 overture while real cannon fire reverberates across the ancient seabed. The Mankato show is not the only concert in a quarry, but it may be the longest running. An Indiana orchestra has performed in a similar setting, but not as often as the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and City Mouse.

Our thanks to the Maverick Radio Network, KMSU Mankato and KMSK Austin, for the 1999 recording of "Rockin' in the Quarry".

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