Jim Tevenan

We welcomed Gonzaga University composidtion professor Shuying Li and Spokane Symphony principal flute Bruce Bodden for conversation around the performance of Shuying's music by the Gonzaga Symphony, with Bruce Bodden as soloist.

Symphony Week continues with Verne Windham's conversations with SSO Music Director James Lowe, Education Manager Alexandra Rannow and Symphony Chorale Director Kristina Ploeger-Heckmatpanah. In-studio with us is Symphony percussionist Bryan Bogue who also talks with Verne and performs a pair of short pieces on vibraphone.

Tuesday of Symphony Week 2021 brings us a conversation with Spokane Symphony Conductor Laureate Eckart Preu. Also, from our studio, Syphony cellist Helen Byrne and husband, Symphony tubist Leonard Byrne talk with Verne Windham and play a two-part invention from living African-American composer, Adolphus Hailstork.

Symphony Week at Spokane Public Radio continues with a preview from another Montana orchestra featured previously on Concert of the Week. The new Bozeman Symphony season, the first planned by new Music Director Norman Huynh, debuts the 25th and 26th of September at Bozeman's Willson Auditorium. Here's Jim Tevenan's conversation with Nroman Huynh, puncutated by the music of Johannes Brahms, played in January 2020 by the orchestra.

As part of Symphony Week at Spokane Public Radio, we travel virtually to Montana to check out the new seasons of orchestras featured on our Concert of the Week broadcasts. John Zoltek, Music Director of the Glacier Symphony Orchestra and Chorale tells about GSC's upcoming season, and about a new piece for cello and orchestra by Maestro Zoltek that debuts this fall. More information about the orchestra, chorale and their season is at glaciersymphony.org.

Visiting our studio for the first time since 2015 is Dr. Andrés Jaramillo. After earning his Master's degree from EWU, Andrés moved to southern California to begin work on his doctorate at USC. He finished that degree last year and is resuming his teaching and concertizing careersAndrés is in Spokane for a series of recitals, and he dropped by to bring us up to date on developments in his life and, of course, to share some of his music with us.

Summer music festivals, those great opportunities to experience favorite sounds and hear new potential favorites in relaxed settings and frequently outdoors, were an early casualty of the COVID pandemic. In 2020 performances were few and almost entirely virtual. 2021, however, is a year of resurrection and rebirth for these events that are an essential part of the art music world’s chemistry.

Summer music festivals, those great opportunities to experience favorite sounds and hear new potential favorites in relaxed settings and frequently outdoors, were an early casualty of the COVID pandemic. In 2020 performances were few and almost entirely virtual. 2021, however, is a year of resurrection and rebirth for these events that are an essential part of the art music world’s chemistry.

This is a two-part preview of regional programs: the Flathead Valley’s Festival Amadeus, and, along the Clark Fork River, the Montana Baroque Music Festival. We begin

On The Piano Bench today, a live and lively session with Matt Goodrich, Music Program Director at the Sandpoint Music Conservatory and Head of Piano at the Coeur d'Alene Conservatory. Matt tells the story of his music upbringing and discusses the recital he gives this Friday evening at 7 at the Hamilton House in Coeur d'Alene, home of the Coeur d'Alene Conservatory. We'll hear several examples of music from that program played by Matt in our KPBX Performance Studio.

We welcomed Inland Northwest Opera's General Director Dawn Wolski and prinicpals in this weekend's INO production of G.B.Pergolesi's The Maid Turned Mistress, Heather and Derrick Parker, to our KPBX studio for music and conversation. Joining them was pianist for the production, Mary J. Trotter. In addition to hearing a performance of two duets from the show, we talked about opera, this production, the challenges INO faced during the pandemic, and how the company has adapted to new realities.

Northwest Arts Review is just about done packing in preparation for its first vacation in three years, but we're not going anywhere until we welcome Cheryl Coughlin of the Wallowa Valley’s Josephy Center with truly exciting news about that great cultural resource. Plus, a Nathan Weinbender review and a few musical and music-related gems from our first season, including a nugget of wisdom from pianist Stephen Hough and a return visit to a unique Inland Northwest performance space courtesy of flutist Alicia Mielke.  

We’re all about music on this week’s Northwest Arts Review. The Spokane Symphony’s Mateusz Wolski drops by to share insights learned during the pandemic year, Andrea Olsen fills us in on the Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s upcoming in-person events, and we’ll meet Bozeman Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Scott Lee. We’ve also got music from our studio, one of the student performances recently recorded, and Classical era sounds from the Spokane Symphony’s online spring series, beginning with this Mozart.

We're delighted to welcome back Spokane Symphony concertmaster Mateusz Wolski to our KPBX studio for a conversation about his major "take aways" from the extended pandemic restrictions and his violin festival, created to help fill the void left by cancellation MusicFest Northwest.

This week on Northwest Arts Review we take a trip south to investigate the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, back this summer after a COVID-enforced hiatus in 2020. Artistic Director Timothy Christie fills us in on the festival’s offerings and we’ll hear a bit of music from an earlier season that is part of this year’s festivities as well. Also, Dan Webster is by to offer his take on a new pandemic-inspired film, and we’ll have music in and out from our studio, courtesy of pianists Archie Chen and Rhona Gouldson-Chen.

Archie Chen and Rhona Goudlson-Chen played live on The Piano Bench today, Archie from the Bunte Blätter of Robert Schumann, then Archie and Rhona with duets of dances of Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvorak, closing with a nicely jazz-tinged arrangement by Milton Kraus of Henry Mancini's "Moon River."

On this edition of Northwest Arts Review, we dip into our archives for segments from two interviews with author Timothy Egan, whose fascinating true life crime story Breaking Blue is currently featured on The Bookshelf. Also up are Nathan Weinbender and Dan Webster’s takes on the new sci-fi thriller A Quiet Place, Part II and the final installment of music from our recent Sibling Revelry Kids’ Concert, featuring the Treis family of St. John, Washington.

We welcome baritone (and Sandpoint Conservatory Music Director) John Fitzgerald and pianist (and familiar KPBX presence) Melody Puller for conversation and performance. The piece we'll hear, and one especially relevant these summery days, the Songs of Travel of Ralph Vaughan Williams, setting the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson.

This week on Northwest Arts Review, Chris Maccini welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning author and next Hagan Series speaker, Hilton Als. We’ll also meet Gatie Nicario-Geelan, artist and recent immigrant to Spokane from the Philippines. Music is from another of the families who contributed to our latest Kids’ Concert.

Opus 31 of Music that Matters honors one of our region’s beloved musicians and educators, Marc Hafsø. Retiring after a very long teaching career that included 18 years as director of choral and vocal activities at Whitworth University, Marc joined us for conversation around his musical upbring and subsequent career, illustrated by performances from the Whitworth Choir.  

Today, Chris Maccini welcomes Trent Reedy and Jawad Arash, two writers from opposite sides of the globe who are collaborators on a new young adult novel, Enduring Freedom. Dan Webster reviews Without Remorse, the latest Tom Clancy screen adaptation, and we have music from the Girges family, performers in our latest Kids’ Concert.

KPBX Program – EWU Music Majors

The Piano Bench

11:00am – May 18, 2021

Vocalise (Arr. Adrian Mann)                                                                         Rachmaninoff

EWU Cello Ensemble

Grace Ahola (Sophomore-Composition/Cello Performance)

Gloria Miller (Freshman-Music Ed)

This week on Northwest Arts Review, Chris Maccini welcomes Marnie Rohrholm from SAGA grant awardee, Spokane Valley Summer Theatre, Verne Windham chats with Lieutenant Chris Cornette, leader of the Navy Band Northwest in honor of Navy Week in Spokane. Also, Nathan Weinbender offers a movie review, and Navy Band Northwest has music for us.

Today, Chris Maccini welcomes the next SCC Hagen Center “Diversity Dialogues” speaker, Luis Rodrigues. Two of Verne Windham’s recent From the Studio guests, Sandpoint Conservatory director Karin Wedemeyer and the Spokane Symphony Music Director James Lowe offer their observations and strategies for dealing with the current state of pandemic affairs through engagement with music. A particularly sublime moment from a young pianist and some Spokane Symphony sounds complete the aural picture on this edition of NWAR

Polina Beymanov is a junior piano and voice major at Whitworth University, a piano student of Dr Judith Schoeflin and voice student of Scott Miller. She came to our KPBX studio to play her junior recital program, which included music of J. S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Of particular interest were two selections somewhat off the beaten path, Oscar Peterson's arrangement of Richard Rodgers' "Little Girl Blue," and two Bagatelles of William Bolcom.

Today, we continue to celebrate winners of the most recent SpokaneArts grants as Chris Maccini talks with Garfield Elementary School teacher, Samuel Rasmussen. Verne Windham presents reflections by Spokane Poet Laureate Chris Cook on his Poetry in the Neighborhood project. I’ll talk with Gonzaga University’s Matt McCormick about this Friday’s Student Film Festival, and we’ll have music from out studio, courtesy of pianist Melody Puller.

North Idaho pianist  and music educator Melody Puller rejoins us for an hour with Jim Tevenan around the music of one of the greats of the French Baroque, Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Whitworth University senior Piano Pedagogy and Composition major Mikah Turpin plays a reprise of his Graduation Recital for us, with music by Sebastian Bach, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Toru Takemitsu, Ludwig van Beethoven and Jenö Takács.