Music
Music for that free flow of summer, when adventure - or a nap - can happen at any moment. There's music written by composers on Summer retreats, and music that evokes the sun-faded feeling.Read More
Uplifting and poignant, this playlist celebrates African-American composers for Juneteenth!Read More
Welcome back to the Multiverse. If the most recent Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All at Once, stoked your interest in compelling alternate realities, then the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe merits your attention, too. This movie has intelligence, humor, relatable themes and dazzlingly crafted animation.Read More
The Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington couldn’t be further away from waterfront property. But at the end of the last ice age, the area was, at times, underwater. Torrential flooding cascaded through the area and created the current landscape, including the Grand Coulee.
Some 15,000 years later, that geological gravitas has inspired a composition for guitars. Read More
The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival (LHJF) is a jewel among the rolling Palouse hills. Held for 56 years at the University of Idaho in Moscow, this festival has gathered on stage such luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and the man of note, Lionel Hampton, who has the U of I School of Music named in his honor. This festival is a grand event that brings together Read More
Badger Mountain Challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQTyTxkMOS0&list=PL6pHcbVJ2q0GlWFInFMhze7AALPhxA-zs&index=42The annual Badger Mountain Challenge brings together an extraordinary community of people who celebrate running and support each other on this unique, treasured and threatened ultramarathon course […]Read More
Five years since it was first published, Maps, a collection of poems by Tacoma writer Christina Vega, is still relevant today as a response to social injustice, they said.
“I'm asking readers to return to the work,” Vega said. “Let's look at it again, these issues are still here.” Read More
You voted for your favorite classical works. See how they are ranked in the countdown. Read More
Joseph Bologne lived a fascinating–indeed, important–life. The French aristocracy of the late eighteenth century welcomed, then disowned, him.Read More
For those with just a casual interest in classical music, the name Joseph Bologne might draw a blank. However, a new movie dramatizes the fascinating life of this multi-talented, eighteenth-century figure. Read More
What is your favorite symphonic movie score? Your favorite aria or overture? Whether it's a well-known composition by Bach or Beethoven, or a hidden gem by a lesser-known composer, NWPB wants to know what pieces resonate with you. Read More
That history tends to repeat itself, especially when people don’t learn lessons from the past, is the guiding sentiment for Teresa Pan-Hosley in her work as the president of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. This organization is solely dedicated to reconciling the dark history of the Chinese expulsion from Tacoma in 1885. Read More
Quick: name a classical music composer. Chances are, the first names that come up are not women. Now there’s a new database that opens up centuries of women composers, linking their names to stories, performing scores, and recordingsRead More
To borrow from basketball terminology, this is a movie with slam dunk potential that commits too many turnovers. It has good intentions, but indifferent execution.Read More
When’s the last time you watched a Tiny Desk Concert? NPR’s popular in-office show became the Tiny Desk (Home) Concert when the pandemic hit. On June 24, 2021, one artist’s home studio performance came from a remote island in the south Pacific Ocean, two thousand miles west of Chile. The pianist Mahani Teave (teh-AH-veh) offered not only Handel and Chopin, but also a tour Read More
You’ve heard so much about the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, but there were daughters, too. Bach was 23, and his wife Maria Barbara was 24, when the first of their children was born. They named her Catherina Dorothea. CD grew into a singer, and helped out in her father’s music work. Fifteen years passed, her mother died, her father remarried, and finally, CD Bach Read More
LaFarge’s Chopin journey began with an email to the creator of the video game “Frederic: The Resurrection of Music” during the 200th anniversary year of Chopin’s birth. An amateur pianist, she wanted to explore the game’s use of Chopin’s iconic “funeral march.” Of course, like all explorers, she couldn’t stop there.Read More
James DePreist was a gifted communicator whether speaking, writing, or conducting. He is the subject of this “Music Moment” from NWPB Classical.Read More
From our very first broadcasts, in December 1922, music has been an important, and popular, part of this station’s programming. Listeners were thrilled to hear music on the new medium of radio, so a partnership quickly developed between the station (then known as KWSC) and the Washington State College School of Music. 100 years on, the collaboration continues. Read More
Dr. Jacqueline Wilson of Yakama Can an instrument suit your personality? Dr. Jacqueline Wilson of Yakama would say so. She believes her personality fits best with a large, low sounding, […]Read More
Photo of Richard Old recording this episode of Traverse Talks across from Sueann Ramella. When you cross paths with a wild animal, oftentimes you notice it and recognize it by […]Read More
Do you know a girl who bounces across the lawn, no matter what dress she’s wearing? Jumping, singing, climbing trees? That’s the kind of girl this story is about.Read More
Zoe Hana Mikuta recording Traverse Talks in the KTVI Tacoma studios on December 4, 2021. Zoe Hana Mikuta is the young author of the YA science-fiction novel, “Gearbreakers” and its […]Read More
You'll hear an interview of Dr. Jaqueline Wilson about her upcoming album featuring new music by Native American Composers, and how her high school band teacher guided her to her music goals. Read More
Today marks the 150th birthday of one of England's most revered composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who is also widely beloved beyond Britain. A folksong expert who logged long trips collecting traditional tunes all over the British Isles, Vaughan Williams famously produced gently modal folksong fantasies evoking England's "green and pleasant land."Read More
Four walls of Gallery 110 in Seattle have been transformed with dancing animals displayed within colorful, boxed scenes that jump to life against the otherwise white space.
They are sculptures of human dancers, costumed like animals, the ensemble of Dorothy Anderson Wasserman’s latest exhibit, The Carnival of the Animals. It’s a study of music, dance, theater and visual Read More
Photo of Sara Minkara. Sara Minkara lost her sight at the age of seven but gained a greater awareness of herself and the world around her. Because she can’t interact […]Read More
From the first festival held in Munich over 200 years ago, Oktoberfest has spread around the world, even to Northwest Public Broadcasting! If the drinking songs and autumn music you hear on NWPB Classical has you in the mood to attend an Oktoberfest in your area, here are a few festivals happening in October. Read More
Sarah Zabel is focused during the interview with Sueann Ramella. This interview of Traverse Talks was recorded on March 15, 2022 at the Spokane Public Radio station. Sarah Zabel is […]Read More
In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, founder of a local newspaper, The Black Lens, in Spokane, Washington. Sandra Williams shares her life story growing up in the predominantly white Inland Northwest as a Black woman, her work ethic and what she is doing to insure future generations have a place that feels like community in Spokane.Read More
Photo of author Sam Maggs. Book, comic book and video game author Sam Maggs is working to carve a path for minorities in industries traditionally populated by cisgender, heterosexual white […]Read More
Alithea Binnie, a scholar of mythology, believes in credibility. Then she encounters The Djinn, who spins fanciful and unreliable tales of lost love and palace intrigue. Her independence and his freedom become the themes of the fantasy-romance, Three Thousand Years of Longing.Read More
When evaluating a documentary, you might ask several questions. Does the film have a clear protagonist, or several? Does it have a compelling story and message? Does it have substance and depth? Has the director organized the material in a coherent way? In the case of Alex Pritz’s new movie, The Territory, the answers are a resounding “Yes.”Read More
In a year dominated by cinematic tentpoles, sequels, blockbusters and superheroes, along comes a sweet, unabashedly romantic fairy tale. It’s not loud or brash or cynical. It’s just charming.Read More
Photo of disability culture activist Petra Kuppers. Petra Kuppers holds many titles: disability culture activist, community performance artist, disabled woman, academic and writer, among more. She’s written several books, primarily […]Read More
The original log book for KFAE. CREDIT: Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries When you come to Northwest Public Broadcasting in 2022, you can do so anytime, […]Read More
Eight twenty-somethings gather at a mansion for a “hurricane party.” After some awkward introductions, they begin indulging in drugs and alcohol. With inhibitions fading and the storm now raging, they decide to play “Body Body,” the murder-in-the-dark game. Only in this case, an actual body count ensues. There you have the premise for the new horror-comedy film from Dutch Read More
Photo of Jiemei Lin recording Traverse Talks in the Pullman studios on November 17, 2021. Born in Hangzhou, China, Pullman-based artist Jiemei Lin has made a home and a name for […]Read More
Photo of Chris Matthews recording Traverse Talks in the Pullman studios on April 20, 2022. Chris Matthews, a self-described centrist, spent his lifetime in politics. A speechwriter during the Carter […]Read More
Baz Luhrmann has always had a flair for the operatic, sometimes literally so. The Australian writer-director-designer loves to tell stories on a grand scale. The bigger the emotions, the flashier the production values. Romeo and Juliet, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Great Gatsby have all made appearances in his films. Now his spotlight turns to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Read More
Photo of Ann Curry during the recording of Traverse Talks in WSU’s Jackson Hall Studio B on April 4, 2022. The next day, Ann received the Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award […]Read More
Photo of Nikkita Oliver during the recording of Traverse Talks inside Washington Hall in Seattle on December 6, 2021. Nikkita Oliver is a Black, queer, Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, […]Read More
According to the real-life paleontologists, dinosaurs disappeared from Earth 66 million years ago. To judge by the sixth entry in the Jurassic Park franchise, its fresh story ideas have been exhausted as well. The original wonder has waned.Read More
NWPB Classical is proud to present a special re-broadcast of the west coast premiere of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem. The program airs Monday, June 20 at 8:00 pm. Read More
Photo of Tabitha Simmons (left) and Kathy Sprague (right) answering questions in two-part harmony at the Northwest Public Broadcasting studio on March 22, 2022. Wives Tabitha Simmons and Kathy Sprague […]Read More
For the longest time, it just wouldn’t fly. A sequel to Top Gun {1986), one of the highest-grossing movies of its decade. The movie that made the charismatic Tom Cruise box office gold. Even when the sequel finally came to fruition, the pandemic delayed its release by two years.Read More
Photo of Kwabi Amoah-Forson recording Traverse Talks in the KTVI Tacoma studios on December 4, 2021. Peace campaigner and humanitarian, Kwabi Amoah-Forson, journeyed across America asking people what “peace” means […]Read More
The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) made its debut fourteen years ago this month, as a glib and charismatic Robert Downey, Jr. established his superhero credentials as Iron Man. That universe has expanded steadily ever since, although in ways that could easily elude the geometrically challenged.Read More
If you’re a devoted fan of Downton Abbey, the global television phenomenon now back on the big screen, that line certainly rings true. Creator and writer Julian Fellowes, director Simon Curtis (the real-life husband of Elizabeth McGovern/Cora Grantham), a superb ensemble cast and composer John Lunn have crafted another period piece drama brimming with intelligence, Read More
