Minnesota Public Radio will periodically profile the work of music teachers around the state. This week, MPR’s Daniel Nass talked to Virginia High School’s Matthew Krage. Krage reinvigorated the program at this eastern Mesabi Range school and brought back musical theater after a 15 year hiatus.

You can read the interview here, or listen below. It’s another reminder that despite our status as a “blue collar” region, the Iron Range was once a bastion for arts education. The scourge of the 1980s set us back, but the seeds are still planted around the region.