Maestro Huw Edwards on His Final Season With Olympia Symphony Orchestra

By Melinda Minton Huw Edwards, Maestro for the Olympia Symphony Orchestra (OSO), is making a departure after 17 years. The symphony is a collection of local artists who enjoy taking the classics and not so well-known collections and working them into a local, live experience for the audience to breathe in and enjoy. Maestro Edwards …

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Theaters Are Getting Ready — and Ready for a Long Wait

By Molly Gilmore As restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus begin to lift, those running theaters in Olympia and around the state still have more questions than answers about when they can welcome audiences once again. What they do know is that it won’t happen anytime soon and that the plans they …

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Nonprofit Theaters Finding Ways to Navigate Through Closures

By Molly Gilmore Olympia theaters are dark these days — quite literally — yet those running them see light in the distance. Metaphorically speaking, “the show’s going to go on,” said Jill Barnes, executive director of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. “It will.” Barnes and the leaders of other local nonprofit theaters have …

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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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Ballet Northwest Brings a Holiday Classic to Life

By MOLLY WASH Out of the wings and onto center stage, Ballet Northwest will present its 35th-annual production of The Nutcracker at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts from December 13 to 22. Illustrating the time-honored holiday story will be choreography by Ballet Northwest’s co-artistic directors, Josie and Ken Johnson, who devised a show …

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The Washington Center for the Performing Arts Kicks Off 2019-20 Season

By Molly Gilmore This season, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts has the blues — and the world music, and the dance, and the touring musicals, and the comedy, and so on. “We’re continuing to provide something for everyone,” said Jill Barnes, the center’s executive director. “I say that every year, and I feel …

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Emerald City Music: Pushing the Boundaries of Classical

By MOLLY WALSH Emerald City Music, established in 2016, features over two dozen rising and established talents each season. In its upcoming fourth season, performances will explore the nature of the chamber music genre, centering around one question: What is classical music? Utilizing visual elements and collaborations with outside organizations, this season features a diverse …

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller

The Mueller Report at Washington Center

By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL On April 18, 2019, after almost four weeks in the hands of Attorney General William Barr, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings on the subject of foreign involvement in the election of President Donald J. Trump were released to Congress and the public — albeit heavily redacted — by the Department of Justice. …

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2019 Washington Center Anacker Scholarship Announced

By Billy Thomas The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, one of Olympia’s premier performing arts spaces since 1985, has announced their recipient of the Anacker Scholarship for the Arts. The scholarship is provided each year to a graduating high school senior from Thurston County who plans to study and pursue a career in the …

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