Did you miss your ticket to ride?
Sorry to break the news, Ringo fans: The Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band concert at Northern Quest Casino on July 18 is sold out.
Did you wait too long to buy tickets? Yeah. So did I.
No big deal. It’s only the first time a Beatle has ever played Spokane.
A million bucks for the Symphony
The Welty Family Learning Fund, a local donor, has given $1 million to the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox and the Spokane Symphony to help fund a cutting-edge technological initiative at the theater.
The plan is still under development, but the general idea is to use ultra-high-speed internet technology for music education. For instance, symphony musicians could stand on the Fox stage and conduct classes for students in, let’s say, Colville or Sandpoint. Students and teacher could interact musically through the two-way high-speed connection.
The donation was announced at the symphony’s annual meeting by music director Eckart Preu and a special guest: violin legend Pinchas Zukerman.
Zukerman, one of the leading proponents of using high technology in education, made an “appearance” via the Internet from the National Arts Center in Ottawa.
A new symphony budget
In other Spokane Symphony news, the board approved a $4.3 million budget for 2009. This includes a pay raise for musicians ranging between 3 and 4.5 percent. The musicians are in the third year of a four-year contract.
The symphony said, in a press release, that this is a “competitive wage contributing to the institution’s ability to attract and retain musicians.”
Another symphony note: The Spokane Symphony Associates have earned the distinction of being the largest donor to the orchestra proper.
This volunteer group has contributed $198,000 to the 2008 budget. Most of that money came from the group’s Christmas Tree Elegance fundraiser.
An orchestral passing
We also should note the May 16 passing of Trula Whelan, who was instrumental in the founding of the Spokane Symphony.
She graduated from West Valley High School in 1934 and then went to the University of Washington, where she met and married violinist Harold Paul Whelan.
They moved to Spokane in 1945 and founded the Spokane Philharmonic Orchestra, which evolved into the Spokane Symphony and the Spokane Junior Symphony. They trained many young musicians in Spokane.
She and her husband moved to California in 1962, when he joined the musical faculty at California State College at Hayward. She died at a nursing home in Portland.
Walls of Warhol
The Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Wash. (in the Columbia Gorge), might seem like a long drive for a run-of-the-mill art exhibit.
But not, possibly, for a world-class exhibit titled “Andy Warhol & Other Famous Faces,” which will open July 19 and run through Nov. 15.
The exhibit will feature Warhol portraits of the Beatles, Sitting Bull, Queen Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe and many others. It will also feature portraits by other famous artists, including Chuck Close, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
This exhibit comes from the collections of Portland’s Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation.
The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (509) 773-3733 for more information.
Jay on ‘America’s Got Talent’
Word has it that Hillyard’s own comic, Jay Wendell Walker, will show up on Tuesday’s episode of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”
Will he pass the audition? We have no further information. The show runs at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Gorenson on the radio
Kristi Gorenson, familiar from her work as an anchor-reporter at KREM-2, has joined the staff of Spokesman Radio on KJRB-AM (790).
She’ll be a radio anchor on the station’s hourly newscasts.