Classical 95.9-FM WCRI

07-13-24 Author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg - Ocean House Author Series

Join Ocean House owner, actor, and bestselling author Deborah Goodrich Royce for a conversation with author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg. She will discuss her latest novel, Daughter of a Promise.
About Daughter of a Promise: Days after graduation, Betsabé Ruiz’s life in New York is turning out to be nothing less than cinematic. Although her first job at a white-shoe Wall Street investment bank is the opportunity of a lifetime, she is not prepared for the magnitude of wealth swirling about her, the long hours and close quarters that infuse her professional relationships with intimacy, nor an unexpected attraction to her boss. And like all great films, Betsabé’s New York dream comes with a twist that challenges her to find a balance between where she came from and where she’s going.
Narrated in the retrospective as a letter of wisdom to her unborn son, Daughter of a Promise captures not only Betsabé’s coming of age but also her journey to understand that deep-seated forces such as desire and love are more complicated than she ever could have imagined.
About Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg: Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning and bestselling author and essayist. Her novel The Nine (SWP 2019) was honored with the 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Thriller & Suspense and the Gold Medal and Juror’s Choice in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards, among others. Eden (SWP 2017), her debut, won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction. A Smith College graduate, Jeanne is both a teacher of writing and a lifetime learner who serves on the boards of the Boston Book Festival and GrubStreet. She reviews contemporary fiction for the New York Journal of Books and was named a Southampton Writer’s Conference BookEnds Fellow in April 2021. She splits her time between Park City, Utah, and a regenerative farm in Verona, Wisconsin.
For more information about author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg www.jeanneblasberg.com. For information on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit www.deborahgoodrichroyce.com
 

07-11-24 Keep an Eye - A Walk In The Park

In this week's A Walk In The Park with Jane Andrews, Jane talks about not knowing what just happened.

07-12-24 Pianist, Composer & Vocalist Malcolm John Rebennack - Jazz After Dinner

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist, Composer, and Vocalist Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., a.k.a. “Dr. John,” from his 1998 Virgin Records recording “Anutha Zone.”

07-14 -24 Annual Block Island Music Festival 2024 - Conducting Conversations

This week, for a special show about the 60th Annual Block Island Music Festival, we feature Eddie Dillon, Composer, Arranger, Singer, and Guitarist. We'll listen to some examples of his music and discuss the upcoming concert on July 27th at St. Andrew Church, which also features the Trade Secret Quartet and Nantucket Sound Quartet, which are both members of the Narragansett Bay Chorus. For more information, you can go to www.singnbc.com or www.eddiedillon.com 

07-06-24 Patriotic Pops with The Chorus of Westerly - WCRI‘s Kids Hour

On this month's episode of WCRI's Kids Hour, host Jamie and Skylar listen to a WCRI interview with the leadership of The Chorus of Westerly. We also hear music from some of their past performances!

07-04-24 Parental Amnesia - A Walk In The Park

In this week's A Walk In The Park with Jane Andrews, Jane recalls that she didn't always make the right decisions.

07-05-24 Trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez - Jazz After Dinner

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist, Composer, and Vocalist Henry Roeland Byrd, a.k.a. “Professor Longhair,” from the 1980 Alligator Records recording titled “Crawfish Fiesta.” 

07-07 -24 American A Cappella at Theatre by the Sea - Conducting Conversations

American A Cappella, presented by Theatre By The Sea, is the subject of this week's program with Bob O’Connell and Jamie Jones, who, along with myself, Mike Maino, were part of the cast of TBTS’s 2017 presentation of Music Man. The reunion will bring our current groups together, Street Corner Four, Second Nature, and the Narragansett Bay Chorus, on Monday, August 5th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

06-29-24 Trees in Song: Season 1 Finale - This Old Tree

Host Doug Still does a season one recap that features thematic highlights from the first 18 episodes, Doug's favorite songs about trees, and an interview with Dee Lee, arborist, and songwriter!

06-27-24 Adoption - A Walk In The Park

In this week's A Walk In The Park with Jane Andrews, Jane talks about day one of a very special relationship.

06-30 -24 Chorus of Westerly 2024 - Conducting Conversations

The Chorus of Westerly is the subject of this week's program with Ryan Saunders, Executive Director. We talk about their trip to Europe coming up from July 4th through the 16th and listen to music that will be performed in some of the concerts there. For more information, you can call (401) 596-8663 or go to www.chorusofwesterly.org

06-28-24 Trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez - Jazz After Dinner

This week, Joe is featuring Trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez from his 1995 Sunnyside Records recording “Ya Yo Me Cure.”

06-22-24 Kingston Chamber Music Festival-Special Concert on WCRI - WCRI Special Programming

This special Kingston Chamber Music Festival concert on WCRI highlights some of the performances at their 2023 music festival. The Kingston Chamber Music Festival (KCMF) will celebrate its 36th season this summer. The two-week festival brings renowned musicians and young, rising artists to perform seven exciting concerts in Edwards Auditorium at the University of Rhode Island. KCMF also presents special concerts and events in varied settings throughout the year. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (401) 308-3614 or visit www.kingstonchambermusic.org 

06-20-24 Brutality - A Walk In The Park

In this week's A Walk In The Park with Jane Andrews, Jane talks about seeing the balance of nature firsthand.

06-21-24 Pianist Thelonious Monk & Saxophonist John Coltrane - Jazz After Dinner

This week, Joe is featuring Pianist Thelonious Monk and Saxophonist John Coltrane from their 1957 Blue Note Records recording, titled “Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall.” 

06-23 -24 Theatre By The Sea's production of "Tootsie" - Conducting Conversations

Theatre By The Sea's production of “Tootsie” is the subject of this week's program with Richard Hinds, Director, and Choreographer Brooke Jacob, who plays the role of Sandy, and Kyle Nicholas Anderson, playing Michael/Dorothy. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the songs from the show. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

06-13-24 Earth & Death - A Walk In The Park

In this week's A Walk In The Park with Jane Andrews, Jane talks about earth and death.

06-16 -24 Newport Classical Music Festival 2024 - Conducting Conversations

Newport Classical is the program's subject with Trevor Neal, Artistic Director, this week. We talk about their upcoming Concert Season at many venues throughout Newport that runs from July 4th to the 21st. For more information, you can go to https://www.newportclassical.org/

06-14-24 Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley - Jazz After Dinner

This week, Joe is featuring Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley from his 1963 Riverside Records recording titled “Jazz Workshop Revisited.”
 

07-08-24 New York Times bestselling authors Joanne Leedom-Ackerman and her son Elliott Ackerman - Ocean House Author Series

Join Ocean House owner, actor, and bestselling author Deborah Goodrich Royce for a conversation with New York Times bestselling authors and mother/son duo Elliott Ackerman and Joanna Leedom-Ackerman. They discuss their books: Joanne Leedom-Ackerman’s The Far Side of the Desert and Elliott Ackerman’s 2054.
About the Authors: 
Elliot Ackerman is the author of the novels Halcyon, Red Dress in Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, Green on Blue, and the memoirs The Fifth Act and Places and Names. His books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a Marine veteran, having served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart.
About 2054:
From the acclaimed authors of the runaway New York Times bestseller 2034 comes another explosive work of speculative fiction set twenty years further in the future, at a moment when a radical leap forward in artificial intelligence combines with America’s violent partisan divide to create an existential threat to the country, and the world
It is twenty years after the catastrophic war between the United States and China that brought down the old American political order. A new party has emerged in the US, holding power for over a decade. Efforts to cement its grip have resulted in mounting violent resistance. The American president has control of the media but is beginning to lose control of the streets. Many fear he’ll stop at nothing to remain in the White House. Suddenly, he collapses in the middle of an address to the nation. After an initial flurry of misinformation, the administration reluctantly announces his death. A cover-up ensues, conspiracy theories abound, and the country descends into a new type of civil war.
A handful of elite actors from the worlds of computer science, intelligence, and business have a fairly good idea of what happened. All signs point to a profound breakthrough in AI, of which the remote assassination of an American president is hardly the most game-changing ramification. The trail leads to an outpost in the Amazon rainforest, the last known whereabouts of the tech visionary who predicted this breakthrough. As some of the world’s great powers, old and new, state and nonstate alike, struggle to outmaneuver one another in this new Great Game of scientific discovery, the outcome becomes entangled with the fate of American democracy.
Combining a deep understanding of AI, biotech, and the possibility of a coming Singularity, along with their signature geopolitical sophistication, Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis have once again written a visionary work. 2054 is a novel that reads like a thriller, even as it demands that we consider the trajectory of our society and its potentially calamitous destination.
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her works of fiction include Burning Distance, The Dark Path to the River, and No Marble Angels. She has published PEN Journeys: Memoir of Literature on the Line and was the editor for The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate. Former International Secretary of PEN International, she is a Vice President of PEN International and a former board member and Vice President of PEN American Center. She serves on the boards of Refugees International, the International Center for Journalists, the American Writers Museum, and Words Without Borders and is an emeritus director of Poets and Writers, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and Human Rights Watch and an emeritus trustee of Brown University and Johns Hopkins University. Joanne is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Texas Institute of Letters. A former The Christian Science Monitor reporter, Joanne has taught writing at New York University, City University of New York, Occidental College, and the University of California at Los Angeles extension.
About The Far Side of the Desert: A terrorist attack—a kidnapping—the ultimate vacation gone wrong Sisters Samantha and Monte Waters are vacationing together in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, enjoying a festival and planning to meet with their brother, Cal—but the idyllic plans are short-lived. When terrorists’ attacks rock the city around them, Monte, a U.S. foreign service officer, and Samantha, an international television correspondent, are separated, and one of them is whisked away in the frenzy.
The family mobilizes, using all their contacts to try to find their missing sister, but to no avail. She has vanished. As time presses on, the outlook darkens. Can she be found, or is she a lost cause? And, even if she returns, will the damage to her and those around her be irreparable?
Moving from Spain to Washington to Morocco to Gibraltar to the Sahara Desert, The Far Side of the Desert is a family drama and political thriller that explores links of terrorism, crime, and financial manipulation, revealing the grace that ultimately foils destruction.