By Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review April 27, 2023 Hundreds of elementary students from far-flung areas of the Inland Northwest brought their recorders to their lips Wednesday morning, awaiting instruction from Kelsey and Marissa Weddle. Improvise, the singing duo told the rapt pupils at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox. “Feel the ...

By Taylor D. Waring Huckleberry Press April 20, 2023 An international group of up-and-coming conductors converged in Spokane to partake in The Conductor Workshop, a weeklong program helmed by the Spokane Symphony’s own James Lowe and James Ross. Over the course of the intensive week, students worked with Lowe and Ross in order to transcend ...

By Larry Lapidus The Spokesman-Review April 16, 2023 Your normal concert program assumes that the audience needs a while to settle down and adjust to listening carefully. Thus, most programs start with a brief, easily digested work, followed by a dazzling concerto and conclude with the important, serious work of the evening. ...

By Ed Condran The Spokesman-Review September 15, 2023 Preseason games are often the bane of a season-ticket holder’s existence. However, the opposite is so for those who subscribe for the 2023-24 season of the Spokane Symphony. Iconic cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will make his Spokane debut, is the preseason event. The virtuoso ...

By Colin Tiernan The Spokesman-Review April 2, 2023 Armand Birk was waving his baton and leading the Spokane Symphony when conducting teacher James Ross stood up and cut him off. Ross didn’t have anything to say to the strings or woodwind sections, but he did have advice for Birk, who apparently wasn’t putting ...

By Larry Lapidus The Spokesman-Review February 5, 2023 Music directors and conductors, such as our James Lowe, customarily try to plan a program to end with a bang. In this weekend’s pair of concerts by the Spokane Symphony, Lowe chose to begin with one: the world premiere of an inspiring new work ...