Music inspired by Mythology and Historical events of April 6th. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Atop Mount OlympusRead More
Music
Music written for Easter. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: EasterRead More
Inspired by Spring, the flowers, birds, wind, and growing warmth. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Spring!Read More
Music for St. Patrick's Day, pulling in a rainbow variety of classical music. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: IrelandRead More
The cover of Little Rope by Sleater-Kinney. Listen (Runtime 4:54) Read Olympia (now Portland-based) rockers Sleater-Kinney are back with another offering. Unlike their previous two releases, Little Rope gets loud.… Continue Reading Northwest Beat: Read More
Classical music can have a reputation of being all too serious. But not in the hands of Sarah Hagen. Part piano recital, part comedy show, “Perk Up Pianist!” pairs anecdotes and stories with pieces by Chopin, Debussy, and Liszt. NWPB’s Steve Reeder spoke with Hagen. Read More
Music can express and inspire so many emotions. That makes it a perfect way–a “heartfelt” way–for you to show your love and appreciation to someone who plays an important role in your life. Continue Reading Dedicate Classical Music To A Read More
Courtesy of MGM Studios/Boys inthe Boat. Read When a group of scrappy have-nots apply an all-out, can-do attitude to a seemingly impossible task, they can sometimes make history. In fact,… Continue Reading Reeder’s Movie Reviews: The Boys in the Read More
Biopics are notoriously fraught with difficulty. They have to achieve an emotional and intellectual resonance, as well as a period look and feel. The script has to reflect and enhance the inherent drama in the lives of its characters, and the main one really has to matter. In Oppenheimer, the British-American writer-director Christopher Nolan embraces the challenge of Read More
Selections of Beethoven's more boisterous and playful piano works and British folk songs he composed. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Sick of Beethoven? NEIN!Read More
Playlist of music selected for Variations on a Theme episode Winter is Coming. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Winter is ComingRead More
Turn on your radio, pour a cup of tea, cozy up to a warm fire, and enjoy uplifting music, heartwarming stories and inspiring performances to celebrate the season.
Here’s a list of special programs coming your way throughout the month of December. Continue Reading Special Holiday Radio Read More
Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude. For food, family, friends, and for the first stewards of this land we call America: Indigenous Tribes. This Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, join NWPB for music and stories that reflect the meaning of tradition and gratitude. Read More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and here is a story about how music programs and certificates are expanding Mariachi knowledge among younger generations in Washington. Continue Reading Educators share mariachi knowledgeRead More
All Hallow’s Eve is just around the corner, and the home of the Washington State Governor has some mysteries of the mansion to unveil — just in time for spooky season! Continue Reading Mysteries of the Governor’s Mansion: A spooky audio tourRead More
“Radio Free Olympia” is a book about a handful of characters, one of whom, Petr, is raised on the Olympic Peninsula. Without traditional parents, he’s also raised by the landscape. Petr guides readers through folklore of the peninsula by broadcasting spirits on a homemade radio. Reporter Lauren Gallup sat down with Jeffrey Dunn to discuss what inspired this surreal story Read More
The steins of beer. The plates of roast pork and chicken, sausages and dumplings. The brass bands. The throngs of people, many of them in traditional Bavarian dress. Dirndls or lederhosen, anyone? That’s how you probably identify Oktoberfest today. However, in the beginning, it had a very different feel. Read More
Art, music and dance show the cultural diversity of the Hispanic and Latino/e/x communities in Washington. “>”>Mapping Hispanic and Latino/e/x cultures in Washington To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, NWPB wants… Continue Reading Hispanic Heritage MonthRead More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and NWPB tells us about Lupita Infante, a prominent American singer and heir of the Infante’s legacy. She recently visited Central Washington and inspired younger mariachis. Continue Reading Lupita Read More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and it is a story on how the Mariachi Culture has settled into Central Washington and how different organizations are helping grow this tradition. Continue Reading Mariachi culture’s deep roots in Central Read More
This week, we are saying goodbye to longtime classical music host Gigi Yellen. For more than ten years, Gigi has delighted NWPB listeners with music and commentary, and contributed to many more projects and initiatives. You can read or listen to her work on the Music and Culture page. We wish Gigi a happy retirement, and all the best on her next chapter. Gigi sat down with Read More
After more than 50 years behind the mic, and 10 years at Northwest public Broadcasting, Classical Music Host Gigi Yellen is retiring. Gigi’s last show will be September 27. Continue Reading Gigi Yellen RetiresRead More
Fair and carnival season is upon us! Catch music reminiscent of the fair in this edition of Variations on a Theme! Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: The Fair!Read More
This painting of Edward R. Murrow hangs at the entrance of NWPB TV studios in Jackson Hall on the WSU Pullman campus. Historically, a Lucky Strike cigarette is left for… Continue Reading Smoke Screen, a noir radio mystery for pledge driveRead More
El Grito de la Independencia Selections of Mexican composers, performers and conductors for the celebration of the Mexican Independence from Spain. It began September 15th 1810 with “The Shout of… Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Mexican Read More
The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882. The labor movement is long, varied, and complex. But at the heart of it is the desire for better living conditions for… Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Labor Day!Read More
NWPB receives no funding and has no control over ads played on Spotify. All great composers were students and one time or another. Danse bohemienne by Debussy was written when… Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Hearing HomeworkRead More
There’s nothing better than sun-warmed ripe fruits from the garden. Gardens are also very nice to walk in and to bask in their fragrance. In the Country Gardens, a standard… Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: GardensRead More
Biopics are notoriously fraught with difficulty. They have to achieve an emotional and intellectual resonance, as well as a period look and feel. The script has to reflect and enhance the inherent drama in the lives of its characters, and the main one really has to matter. In Oppenheimer, the British-American writer-director Christopher Nolan embraces the challenge of Read More
We heard a rumor that Paula Poundstone was heading to our neck of the woods, so NWPB's Thom Kokenge caught up with her to find out what she's up to. Continue Reading Comedian Paula Poundstone talks the importance of librarians and how to ‘Get back Read More
You might not have imagined a connection between the new Barbie and the acclaimed 2001: A Space Odyssey. True enough, Barbie the toy character does have pilot and astronaut on her résumé. In this case, however, she makes her big screen appearance to the accompaniment of Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, enhanced by the droll narration of Dame Helen Mirren. Read More
Music to commemorate the lunar landing of Apollo 11, July 20th, 1969. Music about the moon and moon related things. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Moon MusicRead More
Terry and Kwasi Buffington at NWPB. (Credit: Connor Henricksen / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 1:53) Read A cultural anthropologist who campaigned during the Civil Rights Movement now calls the Palouse home.… Continue Read More
When Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) laments to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) that “you’re playing four-sided chess with an algorithm,” his character couldn’t possibly have appreciated the irony of his words. The seventh and latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise has burst onto theatrical screens just as the actor-members of SAG-AFTRA have gone on strike. The Read More
This Variations on a Theme excavates music from composers active in 1799, featuring a Napoleon favorite, Haydn, Beethoven, and a celebration of the discovery of the Rosetta stone! Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Party Like It’s 1799Read More
Music that sparkles! A musical pick-me-up to dazzle you. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: Spark!Read More
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. Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: SummertimeRead More
Uplifting and poignant, this playlist celebrates African-American composers for Juneteenth! Continue Reading Variations on a Theme: 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. Continue Reading The Results Are In! Classical Countdown Spring 2023 PlaylistRead More
Joseph Bologne lived a fascinating–indeed, important–life. The French aristocracy of the late eighteenth century welcomed, then disowned, him. Continue Reading Reeder’s Movie Reviews: ChevalierRead 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. Continue Reading 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. Continue Reading 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 recordings Continue Reading Music Moment: The Read 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. Continue Reading Reeder’s Movie Reviews: ChampionsRead More
