Features

John Fadial teaches violin at the University of Wyoming. On Thursday, April 17 he’ll perform with pianist Theresa Bogard at 7:30 pm at the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. Fadial says the recital emphasizes contemporary repertoire for violin and piano written since 1995, including works by Richard Danielpour, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Arvo Pärt.

The estate of acclaimed artist Harry Jackson is inviting art dealers and collectors from across the country to evaluate Jackson’s life work. It’s part of an ongoing effort to sell the collection that’s housed in Cody.

When John Simms moved to Jackson, he started a business giving tours of the Flag Ranch. After getting married, he started Jackson White Water Trips. In this story, John tells his daughter Morrison about an unexpected late night visit to their Jackson home.

An exhibit opening this weekend at the University of Wyoming Art Museum is among the first major displays of astrophotography as art. ‘Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography’ is a dazzling exhibition, ranging from night skies and landscapes to deep space photography.

The life-size copper Tyrannosaurus rex statue that stands guard outside the University of Wyoming Geological Museum is celebrating its 50th birthday today. The museum will host two cake parties—one today over lunch, and again from noon until 2 pm Saturday. Wyoming Public Radio’s Anna Rader and Micah Schweizer visited the T. rex and heard from passers-by and well-wishers.

Harold Turner grew up on the Triangle X Ranch in Jackson, Wyoming. Here, he recounts how some childhood mischief taught him a valuable lesson.

Grammy Award-winning soprano Dawn Upshaw will perform in Laramie Wednesday evening. The singer is a world-renowned opera star and the winner of a MacArthur Genius Grant. Her recital is part of the University of Wyoming’s Eminent Artist-in-Residence program, and Upshaw says she’s looking forward to performing at UW.

The University of Wyoming Muslim Student Association is inviting the public to experience Muslim people and culture first-hand during Islam Awareness Week, April 8-13.

One of the organizers is an education student from Morocco. Adil Bentahar has lived in the U.S. for four years, and he says many Americans know very little about his religion, Islam. “When I watch the news, I see that much of what is being communicated does not describe me as I am.”

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Buddy MacDonald is a fixture in the Cape Breton music scene and is no stranger to Wyoming, either. Here’s a song that fits both places.

Josh and Susan Anderson—Evanston natives who met only after they were both going to college in Utah—work for the Uinta County school district. In this story, the couple talks about how they arrived at their vocations.

Both of the Andersons’ children were born in Jackson—the closest hospital to their home at the time, and more than a two hour drive away. Naturally, this left the couple with some wild stories about childbirth on the frontier.

Even though he doesn’t like the term, Laramie’s Jeff Duloz is a formidable one-man band, with crunchy guitar and primal kick drum underpinning his simmering vocals.

The University of Wyoming is hosting its first annual jazz festival Thursday, March 27 and Friday, March 28. Both days are filled with concerts by high school and middle school jazz groups from around Wyoming. Guest artists from around the country will provide feedback to the performers and conduct clinics with the groups. UW professor and festival organizer Scott Turpen says first and foremost, the festival is about education.

Wyoming has a long tradition of sheep ranching.  The first flocks arrived with Mormon pioneers in the eighteen-eighties. By the early nineteen-hundreds there were six million sheep and Wyoming led the nation in wool production.  Now, there are fewer than 400-thousand sheep in the state and competition in the global market is stiff.  But Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards visited one family that believes that—against all odds--the life of the flockmaster is worth keeping alive. 

We’re joined now by former U.S. Forest Service employee Brian Stout. He was supervisor of the Bridger-Teton National Forest from 1984 to 1994 and held various other positions in the forest service for the 24 years preceding that.

Stout recently published a book called “Trees of Life: Our Forests in Peril.” He says he wrote the book because he feels that the current way of managing forests is misguided.

Like his dad and two uncles, Curt Artery is a rancher. His involvement  in rodeos gave him the idea of raising Corriente cattle—the cattle used for team roping. Curt learned to make black powder horns as a young man. Later, after thinking about the Corriente horns that would otherwise go to waste on his ranching operation, he began using them to craft jewelry and other decorative items. WPM listener Georgia Wier spoke with Artery.

Governor Matt Mead has appointed three new board members to the Wyoming Arts Council.

One of them is writer and University of Wyoming instructor Nina McConigley. McConigley published her first short story collection, “Cowboys and East Indians” late last year. She won a major Arts Council grant in 2010, an experience McConigley says gave her the confidence to finish her book.

Paintings of Chief Washakie that have spent more than 40 years in storage are now on display in the Capitol Rotunda in Cheyenne. The 24 pieces by western artist J.K. Ralston were originally commissioned for the dining room of the Noble Hotel in Lander in 1945.

They depict scenes from the life of the Eastern Shoshone chief, including battles, encounters with white settlers, and treaty signings that are part of Chief Washakie’s legacy of diplomacy and peace.

Wyoming State Museum Education Curator Nathan Doerr says the collection tells a sweeping story of the American West.

Alison Teal grew up traveling the world with her adventure-photographer parents. She’s following in their footsteps by globetrotting with a camera and a pink surfboard to create the online TV show Alison’s Adventures. Teal shares her cross-cultural experiences at the University of Wyoming on Wednesday, March 12. She stopped by the WPM studios to speak with Wyoming Public Media’s Micah Schweizer.

Mark Soldier Wolf is a Northern Arapaho tribal elder. He grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation, outside of Riverton. For him, the past is forever inscribed on the present, a sentiment he shares in this lesser known version of the Battle at Little Bighorn.

When Soldier Wolf returned to Wyoming from the Korean War, there were very few resources for veterans. In this story, he describes how he got his life back together, and the atmosphere of Riverton during wartime.

An example of Cheyenne-based Sleeping Cranes’ fragile, poetic music.

The Lincoln Highway is 100 years old this year, and Wyoming PBS will be screening a new documentary about it this weekend. Much of what was the Lincoln Highway in Wyoming is now Interstate 80, but parts of the original route are still separate. The film tells the story of the highway in Wyoming. Producer Tom Manning joins us now. He says the Lincoln Highway holds an important place in Wyoming’s history and in the history of the U.S. as a whole.

Wyoming writer CJ Box and his daughter, Molly Donnell, talk about one of their favorite pastimes: fly fishing. Box is a self-taught, avid fly-fisherman and from the time his daughters were very young he was intent on teaching them about the sport, too. He remembers the first time he handed his daughters fishing rods.

Eminent Artist in Residence Bently Spang is spending the spring semester at the University of Wyoming. His exhibition 'Bently Spang: On Fire' is on display through March 22 at the UW Art Museum, and he'll host the multi-media Tekcno Pow Wow III April 2 at the Wyoming Union Ballroom.

The University of Wyoming won the national college basketball championship in 1943. Shortly after their triumph, several Cowboys started training for a bigger fight: World War II.

A new movie about the Cowboys’ epic championship game victory over St. John’s University in fabled Madison Square Garden premieres tonight, March 6, in Laramie at The Wyo Theater at 7pm.

A new video-dance premiers at the University of Wyoming this week. To make the five-minute video, three dancers improvised in front of the camera at Curt Gowdy State Park and Lake Hattie, near Laramie. The video-dance explores what it means for the dancers to be fully present in and influenced by nature—hence the title, ‘by and in.’ Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer spoke with the film’s director, Rachael Shaw.

On Thursday, March 6, the University of Wyoming Symphony is collaborating with two guest artists: jazz harmonica virtuoso Gregoire Maret and visiting conductor Tonu Kalam. Kalam has directed professional orchestras around the world, and for more than two decades, he’s directed the University of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Wyoming Public Radio’s Micah Schweizer asked Kalam what he most enjoys about conducting student orchestras.

Melanie O’Hara grew up on the far side of the Hogback in Centennial. She reflects on the astonishing diversity of Centennial in the 19th century.

Walt Niekamp and his wife, Dorothy, lived in Casper years ago where they taught in the Natrona County schools. He has never forgotten Wyoming’s hospitality and landscape. Walt describes how his love for Wyoming, as well as his own career in media, inspired him to support Wyoming Public Media.

Here’s a new song from Mississippi-raised, Laramie-based singer-songwriter Jason Burge.

Murray "Murf" Self grew up in Centennial where his father Pat ran the Old Corral Hotel & Steakhouse. When Pat was eighteen years old, he started receiving a money from the VA on account of his own father’s death in World War I. This windfall marked the beginning of Pat Self’s tumultuous life with fancy cars.

Have you ever wondered why so many small towns have turned their old train depots into museums? In a story about his mother’s quest to open an interpretive center in Centennial, Self explains how.