Billy Thomas 
By Lucy Volker Kicking off its fifth year as Seattle’s up-and-coming classical music company, Emerald City Music often graces the pages of OLY ARTS with showcases featuring world-renowned artists who specialize in reimagining the boundaries of classical music. This year is no exception; come February 15, the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet will perform its collection “Songs …
By Aigner Loren Wilson This past January, Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) won a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The grant will be used to bring awareness, resources, activities, and fund its annual Dia de los Muertos Festival that happens in the fall of each year. With the grant, TAM plans …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS At least once in every season Olympia Family Theater presents a serious drama in lieu of their usual fare of upbeat children’s stories told with song and dance. This season’s drama is Number the Stars, based on the Newbery Award-winning book by Lois Lowry, adapted by Dr. …
By Jerica Pender The Koresh Dance Company, an internationally renowned dance troupe, will dance its way into Olympia at the end of March. In a multi-day experience and learning opportunity is made possible by a $10,000 Challenge America grant recently awarded to the Washington Center for the Performing Arts from the National Endowment for the …
By Alec Clayton “Stop Kiss,” by Diana Son, was timely and controversial when it debuted off Broadway in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York City. According to critic Becky Sarwate, writing in The Broadway Blog, it still resonates today. “Stop Kiss delivers a 90-minute emotional wringer, set to a nostalgic, late 20th-century pop music soundtrack,” Sarwate wrote. “The …
By Molly Walsh Crossing old-time folk with percussive dance, Oakland, California-based duo Evie Ladin and Keith Terry bring a fresh take to the longstanding old-time-music tradition. Echoing the rich sounds of Appalachia, Ladin and Terry marry notes from a clawhammer banjo, bass and guitar with dance and storytelling. A daughter of a folk-dance teacher, Ladin …
By Molly Walsh A hometown act, Yodelady, has been kindling the traditional music scene in Olympia and surrounding areas since forming in 2010. The members of this triple threat trio have deep roots in the Pacific Northwest old-time music community, and their sets boast three-part harmonies that send audience members to their feet for a …
ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Tacoma artist Sharon Styer is primarily known as a photographer whose photographs of vacant and abandoned buildings, among other subjects, are haunting and mysterious. Now she’s onto something new. About two years ago, Styer began making collages that are funny, bizarre and intelligent – often with known …
By Ned Hayes In 1991, MC Hammer was huge. I was a published music critic; yet I wouldn’t write about Hammer’s platinum hit “U Can’t Touch This.” Instead, I was obsessed with a young, touring folk musician. In an era when hip hop was going corporate and rap and rock bands were increasingly signing their …
By Aigner Loren Wilson This February, the Arbutus Folk School will host their volunteer-run Oly Old Time Festival that aims to bring together fans, players and appreciators of old-time fiddle music. Events at the festival celebrating old-time music in Olympia last for several days and feature musical performances, workshops and dances all around the theme …