Saturday February 22  7pm (An evening Program for adults)

Tickets $10
Creativity and Mindfulness
Using Puppetry and other Art forms in Education, Therapy, for more mindful parenting and raising self awareness.
* In this event our host Salila Andrea will share her experience of working with Creativity and Mindfulness with children and  young adults. * We will experience a Mindfulness Meditation that is designed to reconnect us with innocence, relaxation and playfulness.* The evening will end with a Zen Tale performed with String Marionettes. Followed by questions & answers.

Sunday February 23,  1:30pm $5
Puppet Show for the Community ” The Gruffalo”
The show will be performed with hand carved Rod Puppets  ~ 45 – 50  min.

Sunday February 23,  2:30 – 4:30 $40

 “Parent and Child Puppet Making Workshop”
The workshop is designed for parents and children to create together.* In this workshop participants will create a String Marionette out of wood, beads, felt, feathers, fabric, wool….Every participant works on a pre fabricated puppet base.* Character development exercises to bring the puppets to life.

Includes material fee for one puppet base.

SPECIAL BUNDLE PRICE * Must buy before 2/22

$50 for all three events!!! PURCHASE PUPPET PACK NOW

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.

-Diane Arbus

Next open rehearsal dates are February 1 and 8 at 3 pm.

People are still welcome to show up and audition! 

In a world where everything is reliant on a slick sales pitch or novelty marketing ploy Hussy Hicks are a genuine breath of fresh air. This is a band that exists solely for their love of music, and not only do they love it, but they’re pretty damn good at too.
In a few short years Julz Parker and Leesa Gentz have racked up a remarkable list of festivals, venues and dedicated fans from around the globe, and they’ve done it all with a couple of instruments and a passionate desire to share their songs with the world.
Their performances have been described as spontaneous, explosive and emotive; Julz is regarded as one of Australia’s finest guitarists and has traded finger-style, flamenco, gypsy and Arabic licks with everyone from street performers to Phil and Tommy Emmanuel, John Jorgenson and Joe Robinson. Leesa is most recognised for her soaring vocals and joyful, endearing stage presence and she has been steadily earning respect as one of our most accomplished vocalists.
Conforming to a musical genre has been difficult for the girls, however they have been welcomed into the Roots circuits, as well as Folk, Blues and Country, but with a broad range of influences their music generally appeals to a wide spectrum of music lovers.

-Last.Fm

Trio Pronto! is a new Anchorage chamber ensemble – harp, soprano and piano.  Harpist Megan Bledsoe Wardwas born and raised in Anchorage and earned two degrees at Eastman plus a doctorate in harp performance at the Univ of Washington; she lives in Honolulu – but commutesregularly to play with the Anchorage Symphony, AK Chamber Singers and Anchorage Opera (keeping her Alaskan roots alive!) – and was the featured guest artist with the Hiland Mountain Women’s Correctional Center orchestra in December.  Soprano Kara Guggenmos won the prestigious 2002 NATS competition, had a Carnegie Hall debut and has had too many opera roles to count; she moved to Alaska two years ago and is adjunct voice faculty at UAA plus has a lively voice studio in Palmer and is a welcome addition to the vocal adjudicator community.  She was recently the soprano soloist with Anchorage Concert Chorus in “Elijah” and will be soloist with the Anchorage Symphony in April, 2020 in Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with singers from four Anchorage high schools.  Pianist Susan Wingrove-Reed moved to Anchorage in the 9^th grade and is the keyboardist for the Anchorage Symphony, a collaborative and rehearsal pianist with West, Bartlett and Dimond HS, AK Chamber Singers, Sitka Music Festival, Sitka Fine Arts camps, Hiland Prison Orchestra, & is the pre-concert lecturer/program annotator for the SMF and ASO. 

The three music-loving friends collaborated on school concerts and a museum program in 2018 and have decided to make it formal, so more concerts are being planned.  Trio Pronto! repertoire includes pieces originally written for harp and piano or voice, orchestral reductions, and transcriptions – and a shared passion for presenting little-known gems by female composers.  Highlights of the Talkeetna concert include a set of songs by beloved American composer Amy Beach and piecres featuring harp then piano about thrushes and their bird songs.  Also, an excerpt from a romantic harp concerto by Henrietta Renie.  PLUS – splendid works by Debussy, a haunting Civil War song, a Broadway tune, Spanish music by Turina and much more! We love to play and sing together – join us for some unique, joyful music – the harp and company are excited to share our unusual music with you!

Short INDIVIDUAL BIOS:

Megan Bledsoe Ward has been hailed by Downbeat Magazine for her “sharp musical intelligence” and “scintillating plays of light and subtle colors.” Her debut album, Pacific Harp Project, was awarded the 2016 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Instrumental Album of the Year by the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts. Ward holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Eastman School of Music and earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Washington. Ward currently performs as a soloist, orchestral harpist, and chamber musician with ensembles throughout the United States and regularly performs with the Anchorage Symphony and other Anchorage groups; she was the soloist with the ASO in March, 2017.  Ward is an adjunct professor at Pacific Rim University and Chaminade University, in addition to instructing private harp students of all ages and ability levels. In addition to performing and teaching, she is a gifted composer and arranger.  In December, she was the soloist with the AK Chamber Singers and the guest artist with the Hiland Women’s prison orchestra!

Lyric Soprano Kara Guggenmos is best known for her renditions of the Strauss Four Last songs, her operatic roles of MIMI in LA BOHEME and DONNA ANNA in DON GIOVANNI, as well as her deep love for art songs and recitals.  Drawn especially to French art songs, she is equally at home with Sacred concert repertoire, especially the arias of Handel’s MESSIAH and the Verdi and Mozart Requiems.  Ms. Guggenmos, the 2002 winner of the prestigious NATS competition, has toured with Met Opera Bass Keith Miller and relocated to Alaska from Colorado where she is excited to continue her career of passionate singing.  She received her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder and her Bachelor of Sacred Music from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.  She was soprano soloist with Anchorage Concert Chorus in “Elijah” in October and will be the featured soprano soloist with the Anchorage Symphony in April 2020 in Vivaldi ‘s “Gloria.”  

Susan Wingrove-Reed has been the principal keyboard player for the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years and also collaborates with the Sitka Summer Music Festival (& has performed in Talkeetna with cellist Zuill Bailey), Sitka Fine Arts camps, Alaska Chamber Singers, Hiland Mountain Correctional Center orchestra, Alaska All State Choir and a variety of community and student ensembles including the West, Bartlett, Dimond and Romig choirs. Reed writes program notes and gives pre-concert chats for the ASO and the Sitka Music Festival.   Her family moved to Anchorage when she was in the 9^th grade; she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and Master of Arts in Teaching at Indiana University and taught music and drama in the Anchorage School District for 27 years.   She received an Alaska Governor’s Award for her contributions in arts education and the 2016 Alaska Music Educator Advocacy award.  In February, she will be performing in the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes with the AK Chamber Singers AND is super thrilled about the keyboard parts in the Harry Potter film with the Anchorage Symphony!

Join us this Sunday the 19th 2-4pm for a reading by UAA Teachers and MFA grads! Donation based. Concessions will be open!

Check out a featured few writers below👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

✍🏼Jessica Shepherd, a long-time Alaskan, is a biologist and science writer. She lives in Homer and finds pleasure in wild places, gardening, and dogs, which find their way into her literary works. She is a 2019 graduate of the UAA MFA program.

 
✍🏼Pamela Simmons is an English and Creative Writing Instructor in the UA system and teaches for both KPC and MatSu College. She is a 2019 MFA graduate from the Creative Writing and Literary Arts program at UAA, and she is president of the board of directors for Alaska Women Speak.
 
 
✍️David Stevenson is the director of the Creative Writing and Literary Arts program.  He has been teaching creative writing for over twenty years.  His novel, Forty Crows, is set in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
 
✍🏽Dan Branch lives and writes in Juneau, Alaska. He has won two first prizes for poetry, one awarded by Charles Bukowski. His essays have appeared in Swamp Ape Review and other literary journals in the United States and Wales. 
 
✍🏽Monica Olson recently retired from a 30 year Foreign Service career at USAID.  She is a graduate student at UAA working towards an MFA in Creative Nonfiction.  Her work in progress:  Searching for Benny’s Grave, a genealogical journey that uncovers a secret gangster uncle whose detailed life provides a window into her estranged father.
 
 
✍🏻Ginger Hudson writes about the environment and gardening. She is active in the Alaska Native Plant Society and the Master Gardeners. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UAA. Her work in progress is: The Life and Legacy of Verna Pratt, Alaska’s Wildflower Wizard, for which she is always collecting stories. 

✍🏿Pamela Hays is a clinical psychologist in Soldotna, former faculty member of Antioch University in Seattle, and author of several books on psychotherapy including the self-help book Creating Well-Being: Four Steps to a Happier, Healthier Place.