posts by Molly Gilmore
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS When they perform at The Oly Old Time Festival, Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle won’t simply play and sing. They show as much as they tell, accompanying their songs with “crankies,” rolls of fabric or paper with illustrations that move with the turn of a crank. The duo’s music—and …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Country superstar Vince Gill will perform Friday in Olympia, but he won’t, strictly speaking, be playing country music. Gill, who’s won 20 Grammys and 18 Country Music Association awards, is coming to town not on a solo tour but as one-tenth of Western swing supergroup The Time Jumpers. Western …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Heartsparkle Players is best known for its Playback Theater performances, in which the players act out audience members’ stories. Away from the spotlight, though, the troupe helps train doctors and other medical professionals at Madigan Army Medical Center. Some players act the parts of patients for interns and others …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Foghorn Stringband has long been lauded as one of the main forces behind the Northwest revival of old-time music. These days, though, the quartet has gone international. “We’re not really a local, Northwest band anymore,” founding member Caleb Klauder said. Klauder, who plays mandolin and fiddle, and guitarist Reeb …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Music is part of the mission of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the annual Service of Lessons and Carols is a shining example. The service is both a religious observance and a musical event that draws a community crowd far exceeding the regular congregation. “Last year, there were at …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS As the 124th anniversary of its first production approaches, The Nutcracker might be more popular than ever. There’s an entire website (NutcrackerBallet.com), in fact, devoted to listing productions of the holiday ballet about a little girl who gets a nutcracker for Christmas and finds herself transported to magical lands …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Library concerts, once startling, have become commonplace. But PoetryMusic—which fuses literary classics with wide-ranging music—is truly at home among the stacks. The Port-Angeles-based chamber-jazz duo, performing Where Words and Music Meet at the Olympia Timberland Library this Thursday, has played libraries from California to Massachusetts. “They’re the main venues …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS In its 29th year, Providence Christmas Forest is a different kind of winter wonderland—a forest of trees and wreaths decorated in themes from traditional to surprising. One tree will have a NASCAR theme, while another was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. The forest is the …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS During the winter holidays, people’s thoughts turn to feasting: stuffing both turkeys and themselves. Thoughts also turn to giving: sharing the season with friends who need an invitation to dinner, and with families who can’t afford a meal with all the trimmings. No wonder it’s the biggest season for …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS A cello is kind of a big fiddle, and in Scotland, it’s traditionally been paired with the violin (or “wee fiddle”). Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and American cellist Natalie Haas are reviving that partnership and making it their own. “They’re both world-class master musicians,” said Emily Teachout, vice president …