Northwest Music

Dina Gilbert appeared as Guest Conductor with the orchestra back in February. She currently serves as Music Director of the Kamloops Symphony, as well as Assistant Conductor of the Montreal Symphony in her native Québec. She sees Walla Walla as an “orchestra of the future,” and as a place where she can help develop new and younger audiences.

Olympia (now Portland-based) rockers Sleater-Kinney are back with another offering. Unlike their previous two releases, Little Rope gets loud. Pointed…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.