Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine about the Bay Area Performing Arts, is back!
On this week's Open Air, a talk (by phone) about what the cancellation of virtually all performing arts venues have on various artists, including a talk with conductor Martin West about the San Francisco Ballet, with Bill English, co-founder of San Francisco Playhouse, and with freelance musicians Mads Tolling and Matt Szemela. Plus regular contributor Peter Robinson shares possible home and outdoor activities during "shelter in place". RESOURCES and diversions: The San Francisco Symphony's award winning "Keeping Score" video series The Metropolitan Opera streaming archive The Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall From our friends at KQED: "Emergency Funds for Freelancers, Creatives..." The Actors' Fund The Santa Cruz Symphony Musician Relief Fund Listen to the March 19, 2020 broadcast of Open Air with David Latulippe anytime!
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts in times of Coronavirus , host David Latulippe talks with AJ Baker, founder and executive artistic director of 3Girls Theatre Company , about their 8th New Works Festival, titled Hindsight is 2020: Reimagining Women’s History . The festival runs from runs from March 20-29 at Z Below (470 Florida St.) in San Francisco.
This week, you'll hear about the 2020 Pacific Musical Competition, whose finalists perform at the Live Finals and Winners Showcase, which will be held on March 8, 2020 in the Main Hall at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco from 10am to 7pm. For over a century, the Pacific Musical Society & Foundation has nurtured the growth of gifted musicians by awarding merit-based scholarships to promising students in the Bay Area and surrounding regions. Each year they hold a competition for instrumentalists, pianists, vocalists, chamber groups, and composers in various age categories. --- A talk with two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling , about his upcoming show at Yoshi’s in Oakland (510 Embarcadero West), together with his Mads Men (Colin Hogan on keys, Daniel Lucca Parenti on bass and Eric Garland on drums). Featured guest artists are vocalists Kim Nalley and Kenny Washington. ---- From the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble , a talk with flutist Stacey Pelinka and artistic
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, activist, international rock star, and 17-time Grammy Award-winner Sting (pictured, center), who is in town to star in his own new musical, The Last Ship , playing at the Golden Gate Theatre (1 Taylor St.) in San Francisco, through March 22.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with actors Lorenzo Pugliese and Daria Pilar Redus (pictured), who play the parts of SpongeBob SquarePants and his squirrel girlfriend Sandy Cheeks, in The SpongeBob Musical , which is in town through February 16.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Susi Damilano (pictured, left), star of the new production of Tiny Beautiful Things at SF Playhouse - and also the company’s producing director. Performances are through March 7 at SF Playhouse (450 Post St.) in San Francisco.
This week, on another web-exclusive edition of Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with co-founder and director Vinita Sud Belani from theatre company EnActe Arts, about The Case of the Vanishing Firefish , a fantasy fiction voyage inspired by both Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code .
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with concert pianist, actor, and author Mona Golabek, about her one-woman show The Pianist of Willesden Lane , presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (500 Castro St.) in Mountain View, through February 16.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with multilingual playwright and actor Ana Bayat , about her one-woman show, Mimi's Suitcase , an autobiographical story about identity, immigration, women’s rights, and involuntary displacement.
This week on Open Air, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, host David Latulippe will be talking with choreographer/performer Kathleen Hermesdorf about San Francisco’s 11th annual FRESH Festival of Experimental Dance, Music + Performance , held over three weekends from January 6 - 26 at the Joe Goode Annex (401 Alabama St.) in San Francisco.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the performing arts, guest host Leah Garchik talks about the African-American Shakespeare Company's unique annual holiday offering of Cinderella , with AASC founder and executive director Sherri Young and lead actress Funmi Lola (pictured). Cinderella, the often told tale of a scullery maid determined to take her life into her own hands and make it better, runs for 4 performances, December 20-22 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, guest host Noah Griffin talks with actors John Skelley and Benjamin Papac (pictured) about the exclusive West Coast production of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , in which they play the parts of Harry Potter, and his son, Albus Potter. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child runs at San Francisco’s Curran Theater (445 Geary St.) in San Francisco, through June 20, 2020.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Rinabeth Apostol (pictured, right) and Ryan Drummond (left), who are the lead actors in the San Francisco Playhouse production of Groundhog Day the Musical , which runs through January 18, 2020 at SF Playhouse (450 Post Street) in San Francisco.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with cellist and singer Amanda Zidow (pictured), who plays the role of the Island Queen Prospera, in Cirque du Soleil’s production Amaluna , currently visiting the Bay Area.
This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with actors Meera Rohit Kumbhani (pictured, left) and Avanthika Srinivasan (right), cast members of the world premiere of Testmatch , which runs at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater through December 8.
Spencer McQueen says looking at his art isn’t enough. He wants you to feel his paintings. “It’s just this little extra ability that you can give someone to connect with you and the things that you created,” he says.
In the early 1800’s, American painter Edward Hicks began painting “Peaceable Kingdom," a series of 62 paintings inspired by a verse in the book of Isaiah. The verse says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” In Traverse City, two different art galleries are bringing that concept to the art world.
For the last 10 years, Karen Anderson has been writing weekly essays heard on Interlochen Public Radio. The essays are vivid, personal, and relatable. Karen takes time to notice the little details and experiences of everyday life.
Michael Moore has hired Joe Beyer as the new executive director for his Traverse City Film Festival. Joe replaces Deb Lake, who resigned last December. “It’s like we found our long-lost soul brother here for Traverse City in the being of Joe Beyer,” says Michael. Joe Beyer returns home to Michigan after working for the Sundance Institute for over 14 years.
A couple years ago, Chris Andrews, a senior at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, realized he was addicted to his smartphone. “It was something I was using as a crutch,” he explains. “Something that I was using in moments of boredom, moments of anxiety, or a moment of silence in a group of friends – we’d all reach for our phones.”
Ambrosia Sipping Chocolate is a brand new, gourmet hot chocolate that’s made in Traverse City. It hits the market on April 15th. “It’s literally like you’re drinking chocolate bars because that’s exactly what it is,” says co-owner Matt Shepler.
The Dennos Museum in Traverse City has almost three-thousand works of art in its collection. At any given time, around 280 of those works are on display, including Inuit sculptures, contemporary paintings and modern photographs. But on April 14th, the museum wants visitors to ignore most of these works and just focus on a handful of them.
Edward Beebe was a popular photographer in northern Michigan in the early 1900s. He created postcards with his photos but often deceived people regarding the location of the shots. “I think a lot of these cards were intended to take advantage of tourists and visitors,” says local author Jack Hobey.
The Boardman Review is a quarterly publication founded by brothers Nick and Chris Loud. They recently published their third issue, a winter edition.
When Anders Kelto listened to sports podcasts, what he usually heard was a couple of guys sitting around bantering with each other. “There was no good audio sports journalism in the world, at least that I had been exposed to,” he says. Anders is changing that. Today, the Traverse City native is out with his own podcast — it’s a sports documentary series.
Parallel 45 Theatre is about to try something new. The professional theatre company started in Traverse City seven years ago and typically produces three to four shows throughout the year. Next year, the company wants to produce more shows, for more people.
Jeremy Reisig, better known as brotha James, is a one-man band from Elk Rapids. He’ll do all sorts of things — beatbox, play the guitar, rap, sing — sometimes all in the same song. He’s able to do all that because he often loops his own music tracks.
Michael Cleveland has been called “one of the premier fiddle players of his generation, if not in all of bluegrass history.” He's also been completely blind since birth.
The Ford Mustang from the 1968 film “Bullitt” is currently on display at the Hagerty Insurance in Traverse City.
When "The Soldier's Tale" premiered in 1918, an influenza epidemic cut short it's European performance tour. Ironically, the flu caused some problems for Interlochen Arts Academy students as they practiced for the show earlier this year.
A well-known horse whisperer has passed away in northern Michigan. Alex MacLellan was the owner of H&H Stables in Leelanau County.
Songwriter and producer Luis Resto says other music scenes are more polished than Detroit, but that’s one reason why the Motor City is so special to him. “Detroit has this street grit, what we call ‘stank,’” he says. “Which is good.”
Next week, the movie based on Doug Stanton’s book ‘Horse Soldiers’ will hit theaters nationwide. It’s about a small group of Special Forces who rode horses to fight the Taliban. “It’s a Western with lasers,” says Doug.
Pines of Arcadia. That’s the name of a new artist residency and studio north of Manistee. The studio is built into a sand dune and surrounded by pine trees. Judy Jashinsky is the owner and came with the idea to start the residency.
It’s gameday in Denver. Before the Broncos start playing football, players are announced as they sprint onto the field through a smoke-filled tunnel shaped like three wild, galloping horses.
Families across Illinois have had to adapt to e-learning due to the stay-at-home order. But with the school year winding down, they’ll soon have to adapt to another new normal -- the lack of summer activities. A Rockford organization has made the decision to postpone its summer camp programs until 2021. The Rockford Area Arts Council has summer art programs for children of all ages. There’s ArtsPlace, ArtsPlace II and RAAC camp. Mary McNamara Bernsten is the executive director. She said although the programs are postponed, families will still have options. “We are now working collaboratively with New Genres Art Space and the United Way of Rock River Valley to provide Art Space instruction, mentorship and skill-building while practicing safe social distancing,” she said. She said children in the programs will also wear personal protective equipment, or PPE. McNamara Bernsten said New Genres Art Space uses cutting edge technology which allows them to work with two groups of six children
The Illinois State Police on Friday made an announcement about the May 6 arrest in Iowa of Clark Terry Baldwin. He was wanted for the 1991 Tennessee murders of Pamela McCall and her unborn son, and the murders of two unidentified women discovered separately in Wyoming in 1992. In the ISP announcement, titled "Illinois State Police Announce An Update to the Tammy Zywicki Case," the ISP indicated that "at this time, Baldwin does not appear to have been involved with the murder of Tammy Zywicki." Zywicki, a 21-year-old college student, was abducted and killed by an unknown assailant after experiencing car trouble on I-80 near LaSalle, IL in August 1992. Reports at the time that she had been picked up by a trucker led nowhere. Baldwin was a long-haul trucker and suspected serial killer operating during the same time frame. He fit the profile of Zywicki's murderer and it was reported that authorities were investigating whether he might be involved. The ISP said it was continuing to
Hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors' offices take care of us and our loved ones, but who is taking care of them? Melissa Butts has one answer. She is the co-chair of the grassroots organization Taking Care of Our Caretakers - DeKalb County. TCOCDKC has provided meals, treats, and random acts of kindess throughout the community since March. Butts says many people are involved and though she is humbled by the response, she is not surprised. "Growing up here, I know what the community can do when it pulls together," Butts said, "and I've never been more 'proudly DeKalb' in my life." Butts talked about the impact her organization has made in less than two months. "We have fed 5,300 meals or treats. We have raised $28,350." She added, "We've already spent $26,000 of that, which is awesome -- it just went back into the community." Butts says they have supported 40 restaurants and bakeries and that all of them are in DeKalb County. Butts says after they raise funds from the community, they
Around 60% of DeKalb students qualify as low-income, according to the Illinois Report Card . That means they also qualify for reduced or free meals. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, schools scrambled to keep providing food for students who rely on their district for much more than education. Pansy Oderio is DeKalb’s food services director. Her team serves around 700 meals a day. They have 10 locations either at schools or mobile sites in the community. She says it’s mostly a combination of fruit, cereal, sandwiches and milk, but they try to offer more variety when they can. The program is also largely run by dozens of volunteers. “It's community members. It's teachers, our administration, they all can sign up and pick time slots to help distribute the meals,” she said. Soon they’ll also be offering boxes with a week’s worth of meals at DeKalb High School. Oderio says that’ll double the number of meals they give out. They’re also exploring ways to get more pre-cooked options for
I’ve been watching a pair of yellow-bellied sapsuckers excavate a cavity in a dead white oak behind the shed. Since I’m home all the time, I can wander over and look at them whenever I feel like it, which is more often than you might expect. Sapsuckers, a kind of woodpecker, aren’t supposed to be here. They nest in northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada. In fact, according to the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, there has never been a confirmed nesting of yellow-bellied sapsuckers in my neck of Wisconsin. Yet here they are anyway, doing their thing in my dead oak. I guess they got lost and didn’t have a Bird Atlas. You can’t watch a woodpecker batter the trunk of a dead tree for very long without thinking about... brain trauma. I’m sure you’ve also wondered how woodpeckers sustain such head rattling without concussing themselves. My father-in-law used to say that woodpeckers could wrap their tongues around their brains to soften the blows. What an image! Without ever looking up, I
We are living through historic times: How are you documenting them? Art? Poetry? Photos? Music? We’d love to see what you’ve been creating during our stay-at-home order. Send us your original poems, essays, and photos! Take pictures of your painting, drawing, sculpture, or whatever visual medium you’re working in. Send us a link to your performance of an original song. We’ll share them on our website. Email your submissions to WNIJpix@niu.edu If you have a statement about your work you’d like to include, send it along. Give us your name and the city or town where you live. We’d like our virtual talent show to represent how our community is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. It’s not a contest or a place for critiques: It’s a place to show off your talent and see what everyone else has been up to these past few challenging months. Work from kids is welcome, too! A few simple rules: The work must be your own. No cover songs, no memes ripped from Facebook, no plagiarizing! Shorter is good!
We left Studio A for this week's episode and headed to Severson Dells Nature Center in Rockford, where we caught a set from Baltimore husband and wife duo, The Honey Dewdrops. The Honey Dewdrops performing "Silver Lining" live at Severson Dells Nature Center Performing Americana and bluegrass music, The Honey Dewdrops' suck you into their songwriting with visual lyrics and soaring vocal harmonies. Listen to their performance at Severson Dells and check out some behind-the-scenes footage right here! The Honey Dewdrops performing "Horses" live at Severson Dells Nature Center Find more music from The Honey Dewdrops at their website and keep up with them on social media . The Honey Dewdrops peforming "More Than You Should Know" live at Severson Dells Nature Center
All Illinoisans are required to wear a mask when they are doing things like grocery shopping, using public transportation or any other activity where they can’t maintain a distance of six feet. This order went into effect May 1. But what about other things like walking or running outside? The Illinois Department of Public Health’s guidelines suggest that masks are not needed when you are doing things like mowing your lawn or even running and walking in your neighborhood. Sandra Martell is the public health administrator for Winnebago County . She said that although a mask isn’t required, people should be prepared. “I think it always becomes important for people to always be intentional about it. To have one with them if they need to wear one,” she said. “They see someone approaching them to be able to put that on or if they are going to pass someone, to make sure that they can put one on as well.” She said there is a theoretical risk that extends past a direct encounter. Martell said a
We have a winner. "Stay Home Songs" is a songwriting contest sponsored by Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. It was launched in April to provide a creative platform for musicians to highlight the resiliencey of Rockfordians amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nick Povalitis is the vice president of marketing and sports development for the RACVB. He says there were 25 entries comprised mostly of individual songwriters, but, he said "a couple [of] bands, a couple [of] mother/daughter combos and a high school" also competed. Entries were reviewed by a panel of five judges comprised of local musicians Jodi Beach, Vince Chiarelli, Duntai Mathews, Miles Nielsen, and Antonio Ramirez. They selected Rockford native Clark Kelly's song "Up, Up, Up" as the winner. "It's really an awesome song," said Povalitis, "And we're super proud of the songwriting contest, the whole experience, and what the end result thus far is. It's really a fantastic song to show the community." Kelly won a $200 gift
Attention bibliophiles! If you like e-books, but have missed holding and reading real books, the Rockford Public Library is providing curbside pick-up by appointment at all of their branches. Bridget Finn is the marketing director for RPL and she says customers can reserve items through the website or by phone. "After that," Finn said, "the staff will pull the items -- if they're available -- sanitize them, call the customer, set an appointment for them to come pick up the items, and get them ready for retrieval." Customers will get called up to the door and asked to show their library card or State ID through the window. Once the staff verifies the customer's identity and items, they will ask that person to step back six feet. The staff member will then place the items on a cart and roll it outside. When the staff member is back inside the building, the customer may retrieve the items. Customers may also reserve DVDs and CDs. To reserve items from the library and learn more about
Coronavirus testing will continue at a drive-thru testing site in Rockford this morning, after the state health department and the Governor’s office intervened in a problem with receiving test results. Winnebago County Board chairman Frank Haney asked for help from the state, saying 2,100 tests taken at the site at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford were “missing.” Haney said test results were not available after nearly two weeks when they should have taken only a few days. He announced Wednesday evening that testing would be suspended at that site. However, the state determined the tests were never missing, but the laboratory the state had contracted with to process the samples used a paper system to report results, significantly delaying them. The site will now be served by a different lab, which can report results to the county electronically. The Illinois Department of Public Health told the Winnebago County Health Department late Wednesday it developed a
Running is more than exercise, it’s therapy. That’s what Jonah Garcia says. So he’s training now harder than ever. Garcia’s a senior distance runner on Auburn High School’s track & field team in Rockford. Like so many spring athletes, Jonah had his final high school season stolen by the COVID-19 pandemic. He says he was feeling good about the season and had personal records he figured he could easily break. “I was hoping to go Division-1 and maybe try and get a scholarship based off of my times this year,” he said. But, luckily, this isn’t the end for Garcia. He’ll be running at Iowa Central Community College next year. And running and talking to his coaches and teammates has been a salve, he says, as his high school journey winds down in the most unpredictable way possible. “Basically, people are saying just something along the lines of control that which you can control,” said Garcia. Many spring athletes aren’t continuing to the collegiate level. They took their last swings and
I love words. But sometimes this romance is a curse. I am not a word expert. But I should be. I read and write. A lot. Oh, and I’m a journalist. Words are my foundation — bricks for building stories. My touchstones for telling it as it is. And always, always my friends … for being there when I need them. But … I am not a word expert. I keep a dictionary nearby. If you’re in a newsroom you can just shout. “Help! Who knows the rule on lay vs. lie?” “No one!” someone shouts back. “Find a different word.” I use little tricks to remember proper spelling. I pronounce words wrong to get the spelling right. Like “paradigm.” I know how to pronounce it but instead tend to say pair-a-dig-em to make sure I spell it correctly. For years I stumbled over the word “facade.” I pronounced it “fay-kayed,” like it’s spelled. Silly me. I do get edgy when people abuse words. Perhaps I’m too sensitive. Like most married people, I announce my plans when leaving a room. Such as, “I’m taking my shower now.”
Illinois U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos is pushing for expansion of health insurance enrollment during the Covid-19 pandemic. She made the comment after leaving a House hearing Wednesday regarding the successor to the CARES Act. “I believe it’s shortsighted of the Trump administration not to reopen the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act when we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic.” Bustos cosponsored a bill in April that would create this very enrollment period. It is currently in committee. Also after the hearing, she said a key area that needs to be included in future legislation is contact tracing of people who have been exposed to an individual with COVID-19. “If we don’t get a plan figured out for that, not just the money, but a plan, it is going to be very difficult for our country to get back into some state of normalcy," she said. "And that was clear in the hearing that we held today that that will be absolutely critical for our nation’s future.” Bustos also