by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
The great acoustic performer/composer Peter Ostroushko will be the subject of a benefit concert set for 7:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 18 in Sartell.
Ostroushko is renowned worldwide for his mandolin- and fiddle-playing and for his original songs and musical scores. He suffered a debilitating stroke 17 months ago.
The venue for the event is the Charles Fillmore Auditorium, in the Unity Spiritual Center of Central Minnesota, 931 Fifth Ave. N. Doors will open at 7 p.m. The host for the concert is the Granite City Folk Society. The concert is free, although donations are welcome. All donated funds will go to help cover Ostroushko’s medical bills.
Ostroushko, who lives in Minneapolis, has many fans and followers in the greater St. Cloud area, including best-selling author and musician Douglas Wood of Sartell. In fact, Douglas Wood and the Wild Spirit Band will be one of the musical acts in the show. That band, a trio, has been described as “a prairie wind blowing through a concert hall.”
The Emmy-award winning Ostroushko suffered a heart attack in late 2017. He then had a quadruple heart-bypass operation, but just weeks later, in January 2018, he suffered a severe stroke during a follow-up visit to the doctor’s office. During his therapy and recuperation, he and wife Marge have been inundated with ever-mounting piles of medical bills because their insurance does not cover the therapeutic processes and assisted-living costs he now requires. A GoFundMe page has been started to help with the bills. It’s www.GoFundMe.com/peter-and-marge.
Besides Douglas Wood and the Wild Spirit Band, other performers at the concert are local favorite Paul Imholte, hammered dulcimer; Dennis Warner, performer of folk-Americana songs; Prudence Johnson, revered jazz singer; and Dean Magraw, a virtuoso guitarist who has often performed duets with Ostroushko.
Of Ostroushko, Douglas Wood said this: “Peter, you’re the best. Your heart, your artist’s soul come through every note you have ever written or played. You inspired me to pick up a mandolin. Thanks, too, for the inspiration, for the beauty and the legacy.”
Ostroushko
The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Peter Ostroushko grew up in Minneapolis. A born musician, he found a great affinity for the fiddle and the mandolin and for strikingly original compositions in virtually every musical genre. He has performed with the likes of Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and Willy Nelson. He has also performed classical music worldwide as a guest performer with many orchestras, including the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra.
For many years, he was widely lauded as a performer on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion Show. In 2005, he won an Emmy award for composing the score for “Minnesota: A History of the Land.”
Since his medical crisis, Ostroushko, at least so far, can no longer perform. He can walk very short distances with the aid of a cane, and he still loves to cook and watch the Minnesota Twins, which are two of his passions. Friends say his determination, wit and humor are still in top form.
Peter Ostroushko, now incapacitated due to a stroke, is known as one of the finest fiddlers and mandolin players in the world. There will be a benefit concert in his honor June 18 in Sartell. This photo, taken by photographer Larry Marcus for Red House Records, graces the cover of his CD entitled “The Mando Chronicles.”
