Northwest Music Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Northwest Beat: Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope

By Connor Henricksen February 8, 2024

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

Northwest Summer Music Festivals Are Back! Here’s A Guide Of What To Hear And How To Attend

By NWPB Music August 6, 2021

Midsummer Update! As of the beginning of August, the 2021 season of Northwest summer music festivals finds some fests concluded, some continuing, and some just getting underway. Some continue to stream past performances. Read More

2021/2022 Northwest Concert Season Premieres

By Jessie Jacobs July 28, 2021

The orchestra tuning up. A quieting audience. Applause as the conductor enters the stage. Familiar sounds marking the start of a live performance. After a year and a half pause, symphony season has been a notably missing companion in our community. Continue Read More

Passing The Baton: Puget Sound Professor Of Violin Dr. Maria Sampen

By Anjuli Dodhia June 18, 2021

From the teaching studio to the concert hall, musicians are uniquely poised to create community through their work. For one Tacoma-based violin teacher, inspiration comes from camaraderie with fellow performers and students. Continue Reading Read More

Passing The Baton: Professor of Flute and Music History Dr. Sophia Tegart

By Anjuli Dodhia June 17, 2021

The last time orchestras had a regular concert season, few works by female composers were played. In fact, less then 9% of music programmed by the top orchestras in the U.S. were by women composers. Where are all the women? Dr. Sophia Tegart, professor of flute and music history at Washington State University is making sure they take a prominent place in her classroom. Read More

Passing The Baton: Northwest Composer And Educator Austin Schlichting

By Jessie Jacobs June 4, 2021

Austin Schlichting is a high school orchestra and choir director, in addition to teaching fifth grade strings in Lacey, Washington. He is part of a music education legacy. On top of being a performer and composer, Schlichting continues a four generations-long tradition of northwest music teachers in his family. Read More

Passing The Baton: Oboist And WSU Professor Of Music Dr. Keri McCarthy

By Anjuli Dodhia May 21, 2021

Music is a tough business, but a diverse one. Not everyone can take center stage in the concert hall. At Washington State University, Dr. Keri McCarthy is one of the professors encouraging her students to think about their future roles in society as musicians– as music consumers, creators, and educators -- by looking to the past. Read More

Passing The Baton: Susan Speicher

By Jessie Jacobs May 7, 2021

Like traditional classroom education, Music education has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic - new boundary breaking virtual approaches, problem solving how to get students music and supplies, and fast tracking more advanced techniques simply to get through a lesson. Continue Read More

Women’s History Music Moment: Mary Davenport-Engberg

By NWPB Music March 10, 2021

Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, JWS17383

Mary Cornwall was born in a covered wagon in 1881, as her parents made their way from California to the Washington Territory. The family settled in Spokane, and young Mary impressed her music teachers right from the start. When her mother died, the Davenport family adopted her and moved to Bellingham. Read More

Women’s History Music Moment: Marion and Emilie Frances Bauer

By NWPB Music March 9, 2021

Once upon a time in Walla Walla—it was the late 1880s—a little girl named Marion sat on a piano bench, watching and learning music skills from her older sister, Emilie Frances. Seventeen years apart in age, the Bauer sisters would eventually move to New York City, where each in her own way would help shape American music history. Their first music teacher was their Read More

Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th In The Northwest

By Anjuli Dodhia February 6, 2020

2020 marks the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the world is saluting him with festivals, concerts and exhibitions all year long. Vienna and his birthplace - Bonn - are at the center of the festivities, but the Northwest is also celebrating the great composer, humanist, visionary and nature lover. Here are a few concerts you can look forward to in 2020. Read More

A Salmon Run And Rock Music: Inspiration For A New Northwest Fanfare

By Anjuli Dodhia March 12, 2019

Composer Austin Schlichting was raised in Bellingham and currently works as a music educator in Lacey. Last year, he partnered with the Olympia Symphony to write and premier a new piece celebrating the Orchestra's 65th Anniversary. His new work for the Olympia Symphony is Nisqually River Run: A Fanfare to the Pacific Northwest. Read More

Tasty Treats For Melodic Summer Nights: What Fuels The Musicians At Northwest Summer Festivals?

By Gigi Yellen July 23, 2018

Photo Credit: Cheryl Crooks, Cheryl Crooks Photography

A long, relaxed summer evening in the company of live classical music and fine food. That’s a favorite Northwest pleasure offered around the region: Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (Concert on the Village Green), Bellingham Festival of Music (Chamber by the Bay), and Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival (Music Under the Stars), to name a few. It’s the kind of Read More

Seattle Symphony Nominated For Gramophone’s ‘Orchestra Of The Year’

By Gigi Yellen June 20, 2018

Britain’s prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards have created a new award for 2018, called Orchestra of the Year. The shortlist includes a familiar name to Northwest listeners: the Seattle Symphony. For the first time in the history of these awards, public voting will decide an outcome. The 2018 Orchestra of the Year Award will go to the nominee receiving the most Read More

The Symphony Season Begins: September Opening Concerts

By Jessie Jacobs September 3, 2015

NWPR’s Steve Reeder and Dr. Nikolas Caoile, Music Director of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony at a performance in 2015. Keep an eye out for Steve at concerts during the… Continue Reading The Symphony Season Begins: September Opening Read More