Saint Louis Beacon

Help inform our coverage: Who deserves your thanks this year? | How does your race or ethnicity affect your life?

Home

Arts + Life

Music

Donna Korando

Features and Commentary Editor

When Donna Korando was a freshman at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, she started work at the Daily Egyptian setting type on a Justowriter and learned to read just enough code to find paragraph breaks and simple words, so she knew where to make fixes. Thirty-nine years later, she has learned enough html to locate problems. What goes around...

In between Carbondale and the Beacon, she taught high school in Manitowoc, WI., and worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the copy editor and letters for the editorial page from 1973-77. As an editorial writer from 1977-87, she covered Illinois, the city of St. Louis, education, agriculture, family issues and sub-Saharan Africa. She had the most enjoyment as editor of the Commentary Page from 1987-2003. The page won awards from the Association of Opinion Page Editors in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. From 2003-2007, she headed the features copy desk.

In addition to a journalism degree from SIUC, Donna earned a masters of studies in law from Yale Law School. Her son stayed in South Beach after graduating from the University of Miami. Her daughter is at Bard College in New York. The house is ruled by two cats.

Send an e-mail to this Contact:

Editors' Picks

People
- S. African singing legend Miriam Makeba dies at age 76: The woman hailed as Mama Afrika stirred hopes of freedom among millions. | International Herald Tribune
- Motown mourns the passing of Levi Stubbs, baritone frontman of the Four Tops. Abdul "Duke" Fakir is now the only living member of the famed group. | CNN
- Four Tops' Levi Stubbs dies at age 72: You may not have known his name, but you certainly couldn't miss his rough, raw, intense voice. | Detroit Free Press
- Yesterday? Beatles music helps trigger memories. And you can add yours at www.magicalmemorytour.com. | BBC.com

Popular
- The Webster University Jazz Singers present their annual winter concert at 7 p.m., Dec. 8 at the Moore Auditorium 470 E. Lockwood Ave. $3 at the door. For information, call 314-968-7032 or 314-968-7128.
- Forget Simon Cowell, the real critics have spoken. David Archuleta's debut album comes out to very mixed reviews. | Los Angeles Times
- At Obama inaugural, Chicago music should rock the house: Mavis Staples? Kanye West? Wilco? Who's the best to represent the city's musical strengths? | Chicago Sun-Times
- Swing Set brings its music to a Coffee Concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Dec. 8, 9 & 10. Coffee and pastries served at 9 a.m. Concert begins at 10 a.m.
Classical
- The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra released the second of its series of live recordings to be distributed exclusively online. Live at Powell: Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1 & Scriabin The Poem of Ecstasy is available at online music stores, including iTunes and Amazon.com. Christian Tetzlaff performs as soloist on the Szymanowski concerto. As a bonus, David Robertson discussed the repertoire.
- The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir will perform at 8 p.m. Nov 6 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. For information, call 314-533-7662.
- The UMSL Symphonic Band, Musikkapelle Röthenbach and Northwinds Concert Band will perform separately, then together for a finale featuring music by Austrian and German composers and American John Philip Sousa. at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Touchill Performing Arts Center at UMSL. The concert is free; call 314-516-5980 for information
- Webster University Symphony Orchestra Presents “Masters of the Art” under the direction of Allen Carl Larson in his final season. The concert will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Community Music School of Webster University 535 Garden Ave. For information, call 314-968-7040 or 314-968-7128.

Jazz with Jerome Harris

Video by Christian Cudnik

Jazz musician and educator Jerome Harris talks about the importance of teaching. See a larger version of this video and read a profile of Harris.

Voices

If the government's in the bailout business, what about 'we the people'?
Beacon Columnists

M.W. Guzy notes that a case can be made that the financial problem started when Congress required credit-card companies to charge a minimum payment that actually included principal as well as interest. So, shouldn't Washington get to the root of the problem?
Jimmy Carter was right
In the News

In his much-maligned "malaise" speech, President Jimmy Carter spoke of a "crisis of the American spirit" and a Congress paralyzed by special interests. He warned that shared sacrifice had been "abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends." Those warnings hold true. The United States needs to come to terms with its lowered economic position and restore its moral leadership.
When is a bailout counterproductive?
In the News
The Big Three automakers may well be facing drastic, forced reorganization, but they do not have the same compelling case for a government bailout as the financial sector had. Business professor Anjan Thakor explains the difference.
Protest at the School of the Americas teaches lessons in human rights
In the News
Posted 5 p.m. Mon. Nov. 17 - This weekend, nearly a hundred St. Louisans, many of them high school students, will travel to Fort Benning, GA to protest the School of the Americas. Among its graduates are some of Latin America's most notorious dictators, guilty of some of the continent's most savage human rights violations. Rachel Heidenry, who participated in the protest while a student at Nerinx Hall and Bard College, describes the experience and took the photographs that accompany the story and are in a slideshow at the end of the article.

The Lens

B-i-r-t-h-d-a-y M-o-u-s-e

Time for a celebration!

Today is the 80th birthday of one of Hollywood's most beloved creations: Mickey Mouse !

..while yesterday was the 30th anniversary of something they'd rather not talk about: Star Wars, The Holiday Special .

Giving Back

The Beacon wants to help you share the news about good deeds St. Louisans are doing. See our spotlight on those who are giving back.

The Beacon features links to the latest work by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.This Washington-based non-profit organization promotes in-depth international coverage of topics that have been under-reported, mis-reported - or not reported at all.

To see a list on our World news page, click here . The Pulitzer Center's founder is Jon Sawyer, former Washington Bureau chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Join the folks who have already found the Beacon on Facebook, the social networking site. See the most popular stories of the day, photos, videos and upcoming events. Visit the St. Louis Beacon page on Facebook and become a fan.

Twitter is a "microblogging" service where users can provide short updates about what they are doing. stlbeacon is our official Twitter feed – check it out to find our featured stories and the news that matters.

Mortgage foreclosures are at the heart of the current economic crisis. The Beacon and KETC/Channel 9 have been covering how mortgage problems affect St. Louis area residents.

Visit our special section to read coverage of these issues, watch Channel 9's stories and access resources to find help.

What's this icon? It's the standard icon for RSS.

RSS gives you another option for reading the Beacon, in a way that may be more convenient for you. As explained below, you can use our RSS feed to get alerts about new Beacon content. The Beacon's main RSS feed is here.

For more about RSS, read this quick introduction or watch this video: RSS in simple English.