Opus

Gretchen and Opus bid goodbye with this edition of Opus. We will miss hearing her weekly, but she promises to return for special broadcasts and to help during our fund drives. 

What started as a group of WWI soldiers trying to play music has turned into a century of marches, pops and band tunes. You can hear them Sunday night and over the course of the summer at the Grandview Park Bandshell. Dave Madsen drops knowledge on 100 years of striking up the band!

Holocaust survivor, Dr. Inge Auerbacher is Gretchen's guest today on Opus. Dr. Auerbacher was on hand to take part in Tolerance Week in Sioux City. She shares her stories about being taken out of school before finishing the 1st grade, her time at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, earning her PhD. and how she shares her story with thousands of children today.

Gretchen welcomes Hillary Purrington, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra's 2019 Composer of the Year, and conductor Ryan Haskins to Opus. 

Gretchen sits down with Douglas Humpherys who will be giving a performance tonight in the next installment of the Morningside College Piano Recital Series. Mr. Humpherys is an educator with the Eastman School of Music as well as an adjudicator but today we're going to focus on his role as an award winning pianist.

Composer of the Year, check. Two-time Grammy Nominee, check. Two-time Grammy Winner, check. Two architechtural gems of the Sioux City skyline with an after party DJ'd by the aforementioned Grammy Nominee, check. Just another season finale with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.

We talk about Russian Composers and dancing elephants on this edition of Opus with Ryan Haskins and guest-host Steve Smith

Audio FileThe Sioux City Symphony's Ryan Haskins sits down with Steve Smith (guest host) for Opus today. Maestro Haskins is teaming up with the dancers of Dance Heginbotham to present An Evening of Symphonic Dance, Saturday 3-09 at 7:30 pm at the Sioux City Orpheum Theater.

The Prokofiev ballet will be performed by the Siouxland Civic Dance Association later this month. Gretchen talks to Tracy Bennett about putting on the 3 act production, and then we'll hear the music to it.

A look at the career of one the greatest composers of all time today on Opus as Gretchen sits down with Ryan Haskins to talk about this weekend's all-Mozart concert with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.

Mary Day is the guest but the topic is "The Voice of the Century" Marian Anderson

Gretchen takes Opus just up the road to Eppley Auditorium in anticipation of the next concert in the Morningside College Piano Recital Series. Saturday's recital will be given by her guest, Yi-Yang Chen, who also happens to have piano nearby.

Christmas With The Symphony is tomorrow night at the Orpheum Theater. Gretchen welcomes two of the main elements of that production, guest cellist, Zuill Bailey and conductor, Ryan Haskins. They talk about other great cellists, Zuill's outreach programs, how world class muscians obtain those priceless instruments and without revealing any surprises, tomorrow night's show.

Michele Ivener talks with Gretchen today, she has the skinny on latkes, menorahs, dreidles and everything you ever wanted to know about Hanukkah but were afraid to ask.

A two for one on Opus today. First Gretchen talks with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra Conductor and Music Director, Ryan Haskins about The Second City Guide to the Orchestra. The second half Ellen Osborn is the interview subject. She is featured in USD Opera's production of Hansel and Gretel in Vermillion.

Gretchen talks dance with Ballet Sioux/Siouxland Civic Dance's Tracy Bennett. Specifically an upcoming performance of The Little Match Girl, Sunday, Novwember 18th at Klinger Neal Theater.

Gretchen welcomes Dr. James March to Opus today. Jim is busy this week preparing for another recital in the Morningside College Piano Recital Series this Saturday with Alan and Alvin Chow, but today on Opus he looks back on the recital with Andrew Russo on October 13th at Eppley Auditorium and we listen to recording made from that night. 

The Morningside College Piano Recital Series will return with a performance for piano and cello Saturday evening at 7:30 in Eppley Auditorium. Gretchen talks with the pianist, Shichao Zhang and the cellist, Stephanie March, who met their freshman year of college at the Eastman School.

Gretchen welcomes SCSO Music Director and Conductor Ryan Haskins to talk about the season opener for the Symphony's 2018-2019 Concert Season, STAR WARS - A New Hope.

Gretchen welcomes Ellen Osborn to Opus today. Osborn is a singer and actor when not at her day job (as an attorney) and she talks about some of her favorite roles, productions and musical pieces.

Join Gretchen on Opus today for G.F. Handel's Water Music, 3 suites of orchestral music composed after a request from King George I to hold a concert on the River Thames.

A prelude to the afternoon of a French Impressionist, with composer Claude Debussy the focus of this episode of Opus. Join Gretchen for his Nocturnes for Orchestra, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Clair de Lune.  

It's a Yankee Doodle Dandy edition of Opus this time! Gretchen will play the Symphony #3, the final symphony of Aaron Copland, composed during WWII. Also we'll double the dose on Copland with A Lincoln Portrait, narrated by the resonant bass of James Earl Jones. 

Sioux City Symphony Orchestra Conductor/Music Director Ryan Haskins sits down with Gretchen on this episode of Opus. Ryan has a preview of the music on the schedule for this upcoming season of concerts, including film music from John Williams' score to Star Wars A New Hope.