Matthew Melendez of Great Bend Center for Music

Community Through Harmony: Great Bend Center for Music

Community is the cornerstone of Matthew Melendez’s approach to music and teaching, whether in person or online. He believes music slips past ideology, identity politics and other distancing factors, thereby helping people meet on common ground.

Ensemble Mik Nawooj: A Contemporary Renaissance

As rap music continues to evolve and diversify, it only makes sense that talented artists raised on hip hop and armed with music degrees seek to sample from the greatest discoveries of every musical era. That’s absolutely the case with Ensemble Mik Nawooj, the hip-hop orchestra coming soon to The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

The Paper Moon, July 2020

UPDATED: Big Things Are Coming to Olympia Family Theater

The arrival of artistic director Lily Raabe to Olympia Family Theater (OFT) means big things for the family entertainment company in spring of 2022. Two mainstage shows open days apart, followed by the long-awaited debut of a musical mystery by Oly playwright Ted Ryle.

Ballet Northwest's The Nutcracker, 2021

The Land of Sweets Is Back at The Washington Center

This year marks The Nutcracker’s jubilant return to The Washington Center, with Josie and Ken Johnson at the helm. Guest artist Lucas Horns will dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier alongside a cast of over 150.

A Full-Length Premiere at the Washington Center

Composer Andy Akiho’s full-length percussion program, Seven Pillars, debuts this weekend at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, presented by Emerald City Music.

Erin Cariker as Lydia Bennet Wickham and Anne Tracy as Elizabeth Bennet Darcy in The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, OLT, 2021

A Downstairs Christmas at Pemberley

In OLT’s “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley,” Mr. and Mrs. Darcy are hosting a Christmas party. That creates endless work for the servants downstairs, but the real hitch is the impending arrival of Mr. Darcy’s sworn enemy, Mr. Wickham.

Christmas Revels 2019

A Wild Hunt for Christmas

By Christian Carvajal As far back as the heyday of Norse mythology, northern Europeans have cherished and embellished the legend of the Wild Hunt. In some versions, Odin or one of his chief minions led a party of the dead on a rampage through nighttime woods. The legend inspired creations from a Liszt étude to …

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Eli Sterling, photo by Laura Killian

Postponement of the Species: Eli Sterling Explains Importance, Benefits

By Christian Carvajal For two decades, the indisputable highlight of Olympia’s spring arts season was Arts Walk and its attendant, handcrafted parade, the Procession of the Species. Those events will go on hiatus this year due to SARS-CoV-2 and the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Formerly scheduled for April 24 and 25, the revised date of …

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Ballet Northwest: En Pointe for Half a Century

By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL For all the influence they had on popular music genres, aside from success they’ve enjoyed on their own, the Fab Four were only together eight years. Alexander the Great ruled the Macedonian empire from 336 BC till his death a mere eight years later. The Qin dynasty that reunified China lasted a …

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