Central Ohio students are headed back to class and that's a sure sign that summer is winding down. Despite the approaching change from summer into fall, the heat remains high among Columbus' creative community.
Join host All Sides Weekend Host Christopher Purdy and his guests for a preview of arts and cultural events in and around the Columbus area.
Included among this week's topics is a preview of the upcoming Columbus Comedy Festival.
Host:
- Christopher Purdy, All Sides Weekend and Classical 101 morning host
Guests:
- Karen Peeler, professor emerita, Ohio State University, Older Wiser Lifelong Scholars (OWLS) program
- Walker Evans, founder, Columbus Underground/Columbus Comedy Festival sponsor
- Alicia Hui, violinist, Columbus Symphony/director of community engagement, VIVO Music Festival
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Christopher Purdy: Good morning, I'm Christopher Purdy, delighted to welcome you all to today's edition of All Sides Weekend. This is our Arts and Culture Friday, where we talk about exciting events coming on around town with the people making those things happen. I am delighted to welcome Alicia Hui. She is the principal second violinist of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, who by the way, I am saying this in case your parents are listening, graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music when she was 16 years old. Started when she was 11. So you took an extra year. Okay, because you were 11 years old And has been a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Among other ensembles since you were quite young and you're still quite young. So I welcome you Alicia is here to talk to us about the Vivo music festival, which is starting up here in a couple of weeks Walker Evans is here. Walker is the founder and runs Columbus Underground. If you don't read Columbus Underground, you're missing out because there are things on that website that you can learn that you could only learn there. And it is worth subscribing to Columbus Underground Walker is here to talk about that and to talk about the third annual Columbus Comedy Festival which you are superintending. So we will talk about that this morning. And Karen Peeler is here, Professor Emerita of Music at The Ohio State University. Karen is running the older, wiser, lifelong learning program at Westminster Thurber, the OWLS program, which presents wonderful adult education opportunities every fall. You're getting underway shortly with a concert, a Stephen Sondheim celebration. And courses running everything from music theater to AI to religions of the world to studies of the city of Columbus. So a lot going on there, but let's get some laughs first. Let's talk with Walker Evans. First of all, Walker, just reintroduce people to Columbus Underground.
Walker Evans: Sure, yeah. My wife and I started Columbus Center Ground in 2001, so we're celebrating 25 years this year. It's an online news publication that covers pretty much everything going on in central Ohio. We're locally owned and independent. And about 15 years ago, instead of implementing like a paywall or subscription model, we decided to start doing more event production. So we run a variety of events. We do an urban living tour in the spring where you can check out different apartment communities, you know, being built here Columbus. We do a coffee festival, which is coming up in October. It will be our 11th annual coffee festival Roasters from all over the Midwest. It's it's super fun and you leave with a very strong buzz And the Columbus Comedy Festival, which coming up next weekend. It'll be the third year for that. That's one of our newer events
Purdy: When you began in 2001 were you doing print media?
Evans: Nope, it's been digital. It's always been digital? Always digital since day one, yeah.
Purdy: Since you've that was new then 25 years ago are pretty pretty new
Evans: Pretty new. It was back when when you wanted to find news online. You sat down in front of a desktop computer. Hardly anyone had laptops. No one had phones, you know, smartphones anyway. So it's changed a lot since then, because, you know, I always say it, you know, 2001, it was like a century ago in terms of online, because it was before MySpace, let alone Facebook. There was no Yelp. Like finding local information in your community online was a very hard thing to do.
Purdy: Not anymore and thank you for Columbus Underground. I want to make the point as we continue our conversation that all of the information and links that we're going to talk about is available at one source, wosu.org slash all sides. So check out that website if, and I hope you will become interested in what each of my guests have to talk about as we talk about the arts and culture today with Alicia Hui, second. What does the principal second violinist of the Columbus Symphony do besides playing the violin?
Hui: Well, I lead the second violins in the orchestra. So we have first violins, which is led by our concertmaster, and then the second violin, which is led my myself.
Purdy: When you say lead, what, you yell at them or what? What do you do?
Hui: I'm not that mean. No, I try to convey what the conductor wants and show my section, especially if they're not able to see the conductor from all the way in the back. Show my section what the conductors wants and if we need to go faster, slower, et cetera. So.
Purdy: Now it says you went into the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, which is the gold standard for professional music education for performers, at the age of 11. So you were a college undergraduate at the age of eleven. What at that age was that like?
Hui: Well, didn't feel any different. I went to school. Basically you had to take classes. You took lessons
Purdy: But you couldn't hang out because you were a minor. Could you hang out?
Hui: No, I mean, aside from like, in classes and orchestra, that was just my social interaction with the other students, but it just felt like any other school, albeit I was short, shorter than most people.
Purdy: What is the Vivo Music Festival?
Hui: So the Vivo Music Festival is a chamber music festival that happens here in Columbus. And it's one of my favorite events that I'm a part of. I'm so proud to be a part of since its inception over 10 years ago. And we bring high quality music to as many people as we can around central Ohio who are not able to come to concerts or in this day and age. Are not able to afford to come to concerts due to high inflation and everything. So we try to bring music to people and it's something that we are all passionate about.
Purdy: What what so is it every September it's an annual thing and it's it's the same time of year as I remember
Hui: Yeah, it's usually around the same time of year. Sometimes it happens during Labor Day weekend. This time, it is happening after Labor Day.
Purdy: Yes, this time it's in September. Help me out here, what's the date of the first concert?
Hui: The date of the first concert.
Purdy: There's a 12th or something like that.
Hui: The date of the first concert is actually September 10th.
Purdy: Now, you're at the School of Music at The Ohio State University in the Timyshev Hall. You're also at Natalie's in Grandview. You guys move around. You're are you at Yellow Springs Brewery?
Hui: No, we're only doing beer in Beethoven at Natalie's in Grandview. Beer in Beethoven? What's that? Oh, it's a fun concert where we just the it gives a chance for the artist to just relax and play whatever pieces they want. And it also gives the our patrons the opportunity to see the musicians in a more relaxed environment rather than, OK, you're in a concert. And it's for lack of a better term on the prim and proper side.
Purdy: Well, we don't want to do that, but it's a wonderful idea. I've been to a couple of them. They're very, very enjoyable. It's a lot of fun. The Vivo Music Festival. We'll talk more details as our conversation continues with Alicia Huey, who is, I'm going to say this right, the Director of Community Engagement for the Vivo music festival. That's one of your titles. You're also a violinist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. And you appear internationally in orchestra, concerts, and chamber music. But you're based here because you have a young child. So your life is pretty much over.
Hui: My life is not over!
Purdy: Okay, so, Karen Peeler, what are the, or who are they, or what is the older, wiser, lifelong scholar program, the Owls?
Karen Peeler: Oh, Owls, this we are now in our 32nd year of presenting classes, two-day classes of a really college-level nature with fabulous presenters and interesting content on a variety of subjects, but at a very low price and in a rather casual setting during the month of October. We begin on October 1st and 2nd with a two- day course on the American musical that Steve Anderson will be teaching. And Steve is a local. Expert in all things theatrical. And then we proceed on through, as you mentioned, some very interesting courses about what you need to know about artificial intelligence to use it in your life. And the most sought after course right now is on the American founding documents that Rich Herman is going to teach. We're doing a couple of things at this 250th year. And in very apparent election time about America and our place in the world, globalism versus nationalism. And so, and then there are things about short, the American short story, there's a chorus and also on how to write your own memoir. So it's a variety of topics, two days each topic. They meet from 10 to 12 and then have a lunch break from one to three and it's a very casual, enjoyable setting. That has been quite successful and we hope people will be again this year. We always have a kick-off concert in September and that's another thing I want to make people aware of because we're going to do it twice this year we're doing the same program on September 25th and 27th, Friday night at five, no at seven, and Sunday at five. Seniors Sing Sondheim. Now these are all local singers very well known for their vocal abilities in most cases. And they are also, I won't say how old, but they are not on the young side, but they're wonderful performers. Cabot Ray, Michael Kirkman, Stephanie Carter-Hinkle, Stephanie Sakura, and I may humbly say myself. And Rose Zuber, who teaches at Columbus State, will be the pianist and will be doing a whole review from Comedy Tonight to Company. Of things from Sondheim musicals, and it's gonna be a lot of fun program. We hope people come.
Purdy: Where does all of this happen? Classes and concerts, where are people going?
Peeler: They go to the tallest new building at Westminster Thurber on Neal Avenue. It's Heritage Point up on our 11th floor in our big community room that serves a wide degree of purposes but the classes are there as will be the concert.
Purdy: You don't have to live at Westminster Server to come, right?
Peeler: Absolutely not. In fact, several people on our board and lots of folks who attend our club courses are town residents and so it no you don't have to live there and check out your website and you'll see how to apply if you don't live there.
Purdy: You go to wosu.org slash All Sides for all of the information for the programs. Our guests are running. This is All Sides Weekend. I'm Christopher Purdy Walker Evans. Um, this is the third annual Columbus comedy festival weekend. How much work is this? Cause there are a lot of people coming.
Evans: It's turned into a year-round operation, you know, in terms of having comedians apply to be a part of the festival and judge and review their sets and kind of map out the schedules for everything. So yeah, as soon as it's over, we start thinking about next year.
Purdy: But a lot of some of your people have been on Jimmy Fallon some of they've been, you know, they've already really gotten some some traction.
Evans: Yeah, yeah, the festival is very much a mix of national, regional, and local talent. Standup performers, you know, people who have been on some of your favorite TV shows, actors doing sketch comedy, doing improv comedy. So there's a lot of different styles of comedy for everybody.
Purdy: And Greg Fitzsimmons has a wonderful podcast that's available. It's also on YouTube. That's a lot of fun. Nina West is with you now. Nina West has going to make not Nina's operatic debut, but a continuing with opera Columbus's Pirates of Penzance or we're supposed to call it something else. The pirates, whatever. But Nina's coming to you as well.
Evans: Yeah, yeah. I reached out to Nina to see, you know, if she wanted to be involved this year and resounding yes. And so we've worked, you know, the festival takes place across nine different venues in the city. And so we worked with our friends at Kappa for a couple of years and they wanted to do something kind of new and different at the Southern Theater. So we started to kind of just have some meetings and put our heads together. And so Nina is hosting the big queer comedy show. So Nina is the host. Kristen Key from Los Angeles will be the headliner. She does music and comedy. We have a puppet act from Chicago called Chad the bird that will be doing show tunes Chad the Bird is great. Shout out Chad Gwyn Rose from Chicago another kind of up-and-coming, you know stand-up comedy performer and then DJ Brown Johnson from Cleveland will be coming down for that show and our local Jules Wagner who will also be on that lineup So a really like nice variety show collection hosted by Nina the third annual
Purdy: The Vivo Columbus Comedy Festival weekend kicks off on August 27th, it is being presented by Columbus Underground and my guest Walker Evans, and we have the Vivo Music Festival and the OWLs program and concerts. We are going to take a very quick break and come back with more information on these programs and maybe some gossip and some fun, too. This is All Sides Weekend, I'm Christopher Purdy, don't go away.
Purdy: We are back, this is All Sides Weekend. I'm Christopher Purdy. We are talking about arts and culture and local goings on with this program with Karen Peeler, who is here talking about the older, wiser, lifelong learning program, the OWLS program. We are taking with Walker Evans from Columbus Underground, who is producing the third annual Columbus Comedy Festival, and with Alicia Huey, who is the Director of Community Engagement for the Vivo Music Festival. That is one of your. Local credit. So I want to come back to Alicia really just because there are people probably listening who don't go to chamber music concerts, who don t go to concerts. Let's sell some tickets. Why aren't we here? Why else are we here. So why would somebody go to one of your concerts and where do I have to go and what am I going to experience when get there.
Hui: Well, you can go to our website, Vivo Festival.
Purdy: No, you're gonna go to WOSU.org slash All Sides. That's where you're going to go.
Hui: And click the link to Vivo and you're going to see a lot of information about the artists, who we are, you're gonna see our concerts, our first concert which is September 10th over at the Timyshev Recital Hall at OSU, then we have two concerts on September 11th both at Natalie's and Grandview, the first is at 6 p.m. Called Beer in Beethoven which is sold out. And then the next one, which is at 9 p.m., which is called Different Trains, which features a really nice program. And then our final concert, which is going to be September 13th over at the Southern Theater. And what you're gonna expect with the performers, you'll see our passion, you'll how much we love to perform, we love play. And the most important thing is, how much fun we have playing with each other. That is one of the jewels that I love about Vivo Music Festival. For me personally, I've known Siwoo, the co-artistic director of Vivo music festival for at least a couple of decades at this point. And it's, nah, for like- Did he-
Purdy: Did he also graduate when he was 15 years old? Probably, yes.
Hui: Actually, no, but it's basically like going back to college, reliving those college days and just having chamber music parties and having grattle time.
Purdy: That's a great description. It's like a chamber music party. That's what you're doing there. So when you say chamber music, what are you talking about in terms of instruments? Who's playing what?
Hui: So we have 16 different artists this year, including myself. So we a violinist, we have violists, we have a couple of composers actually this year who are gonna be, we've commissioned them to introduce world premieres at our performances. We have cellists. We have- Is it all strings? No, it's not all strings. We have a clarinetist who's from Minnesota Orchestra. And we have another returning trumpet player, Brandon Rinnauer, who does wonderful arrangements of different pieces. If you've ever been to some of our prior Vivo concerts, he's fabulous.
Purdy: So if you want a lovely experience just listening to some music either at Natalie's in Grand View or the Southern Theater or in Ohio State Vivo is for you and it starts September 10th, right? Correct. That's the first concert and you can get tickets and information on the links at our website wosu.org slash All Sides and later on I want to talk to you about the Columbus Symphony's having a significant anniversary this year so we'll talk about that as well. Um, Karen Peeler. Give us a little more details about the Sondheim concert.
Peeler: Well, gladly, we just dreamed this up because Sondheim is not known so much as Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe. But Sondheimer, Stephen Sondheim really did do a great deal to create what was considered contemporary Broadway, 20th, 21st century Broadway style. And some of his music people know, even if they don't know that it's by Sondhein. So, uh... This concert, I had this idea of seniors sing Sondheim because I thought it would appeal to the demographic that often comes to Owl's Things. Westminster Thurber is kind of turning into a pretty artsy community with lots going on. We've started a chorale over there and we have several singing groups and there's another event about to tell you about it later that we're sponsoring. But this is an opportunity for people to become more aware of of the aging experience not as the end of things but as the culmination of all that you've learned and all that are in your life and I wanted to show that that is true for musicians as well that we continue to love sing and produce music all of lives and so that the folks Stephanie Carter-Hinkle who is one of the singers was recently honored by the symphony as a lifelong for a legendary lifelong achievement award for her 30 years of fabulous voice teaching and and she has affected so many young singers lives in this community.
Purdy: She's like the perfect mentor for a young for a young musician.
Peeler: She certainly has been and is, and she's a wonderful performer herself. And then, of course, Cabot Ray is known for singing all over the place, and he'll be singing with the Westerville Symphony later this, in September, and of course he was the anchor for many, many years on Channel 4. So he brings a lot to the program. Michael Kirkman is a local lawyer. Many people will know him, and he sings. At many sacred institutions in town, and he's sung with the opera for about 30 years. If there's opera happening, Michael Kirkman is probably gonna be on the stage. So it's gonna be a very interesting program, and we'll be doing things like the agony duet from Into the Woods, and Stephanie and I are gonna do a duet called I Never Do Anything Twice, and I'll let you guess what that's alluding to. And then we'll have, I'm doing. A wonderful song written for Laine Stritch called I'm Still Here.
Purdy: Good times, bad times, bye.
Peeler: I've seen them all, and my dear, I'm still here. So you look at Sondheim's music, and while the lyrics apply to all ages, he was a fabulous lyricist as well as composer, as you get later on in your life, they take on a special meaning, and I hope people get that from the concert. We're gonna have a nice little free wine bar in between, so it'll be a totally fun event, and I hop people will come and just have a good time enjoying Sondheimer and his music sung by seniors.
Purdy: And everything you're talking about today is going to be is held at Westminster Thurbrough on the 11th floor of the Heritage Point building. And again, on the website, all the links are there with all the information, wosu.org slash All Sides. Um, okay. Walker Evans. I still want to laugh some more, um, and I mean, I know it's nothing but work putting together a festival like this and running Columbus underground, but you had to have some, some laughs. Watching tapes or putting this together.
Evans: Yeah, yeah, the application process we we had over 250 applications this year to be a part of the festival And so we've got a panel of judges I'm just one of several um, but going through and watching all of these submissions some good some Need some work, uh, but a lot of them just really impressive, you know
Purdy: Now, how do you, when you say there are venues all over, the venues are all over the city, give me an example of a few places where people could be going.
Evans: Yeah, we kind of created this with a lot of different community partners because, you know, if we tried to just do our own event in a silo, it would it would exclude a lot of people that do this kind of, you know, work in the in the entertainment and comedy space, you know, all year round. So we are producing Columbus Underground is producing shows at Seven Sun Brewery in Italian Village, as well as Mad Lab downtown, which is a staple. And then we have the big kickoff show that we talked about with Nina West, which is going to be at the Southern Theater. That's That's the That'll be the first night on Thursday, a big, big kickoff. It's getting close to selling out. It's about 90% sold out.
Purdy: That's all about. Yeah.
Evans: And then the other five venue partners are The Funny Bone out at Easton, The Attic in Old Town East, The Nest in Old North, Hashtag Comedy in The Short North, and Don't Tell Comedy, which does pop-ups all over town.
Purdy: Sounds like a lot of fun. How did you do the first one? Whose idea was this?
Evans: Um, well, there's been comedy festivals in the past in Columbus. I think the most recent one, I think kind of went away in 2020 during the pandemic when a lot of mass gatherings were, were kind of, uh, put to bed. Um, and nothing ever kind of came back. And so, you know, we, we kind of were sitting around thinking of new event ideas to, to fund journalism, um, and thought, you know, let's let's do our own spin on a comedy festival and kind of.
Purdy: Did you just say doing this to fund journalism? That's interesting. Talk about that a little bit.
Evans: Yeah, I mean I mentioned a little bit earlier, but we We don't have like a paywall or a subscription model So we do event production and so we're able to just kind of tell our readers Hey If you want to support journalism year-round buy a ticket come to come to an event whether it's the coffee festival comedy festival You know anything we do all year long and know that that money helps to fund our writers
Purdy: it's clearly working because you you you always have great content uh at columbus underground and i'm do do you uh i know you work with freelance writers as well do you just uh do you function as like the news or features editor and say go here or did or did they bring things to you
Evans: Uh, it's a bit of both. Yeah. We, we like people that bring ideas to the table, but I'm, you know, we're constantly getting story pictures and things like that. So we'll, we'll send assignments out when they, when they make sense.
Purdy: I'm gonna ask you you get you get to see your website for the underground
Evans: It's in the name, columbusunderground.com. Yeah, pretty easy.
Purdy: If you want to know what's going on in Columbus and again things things that you look at and think this is really interesting and I don't know where else I would see this go to columbusunderground.com it's it's a great resource for the city and the third annual Columbus Comedy Festival begins August 27th it is produced by Columbus Underground and the opening night is at the Go on there. And then you are all over town for that weekend.
Evans: Oh yeah, you won't be able to miss us.
Purdy: Won't miss anything. The Vivo Music Festival is back beginning September 10th. You generally come for like a long weekend in the fall, let's put it that way, generally in September. How are the programs put together.
Hui: Well, our co-artistic directors ultimately decide the programs. But the theme that we, that Siu and Jack decided, like so many other organizations this year, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. So we're having composers such as Barber, Samuel Barber. We have Philip Glass. Oh, he's-
Purdy: Oh, he's alive. Good, yeah, you're good.
Hui: We have Amy Beach and we also have one of the things that I can also tease is we're ending our season with Copeland's Appalachian Spring.
Purdy: Really? How wonderful. Yes. What night? Well, that that's the last night. Yes, that is the last.
Hui: Yes, that is the last day.
Purdy: Is that the Southern? Yes. That'll be the Southern Theater. Now, you are in the Columbus Symphony. You've been there for how many years?
Hui: Since October of 2011.
Purdy: You've been there 15 years. You are the principal second violin. This is the 75th anniversary of the Columbus Symphony. Now, I was involved with the 50th anniversary celebrations. That was 25 years ago. I can do math. I mean, it just seemed like yesterday. That was a really big deal. You were at the Curtis Institute when you were 11 years old. Yes. Yes. Not even. And that included a concert in Carnegie Hall. Uh that was broadcast live back to uh columbus uh and that was the mechanics of doing that were were an absolute trip uh and were a lot of fun it was it was a great event a great weekend and guess what the columbia symphony is going back to carnegie hall yes talk about that a little
Hui: Yes, well, we're very excited to go back to Carnegie Hall personally. It's been a while since I've been back to a Carnegie Hall for a different organization, but
Purdy: Wouldn't you love to be able to say to somebody it's been a while since I performed in Carnegie Hall?
Hui: Um, but yeah, it's going to be so exciting and not just going back to New York, but also just to go back to new York and just to see the sights and see how much it's changed in person and just relax for lack of a better term.
Purdy: That's in October, that's when they go into Carnegie Hall, they're taking two pieces that are being written as we speak, one by Michael Spears, I know, and also I think the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony? Yes, that is correct. Yes, with Russel Milanov, your music director, conducting the Columbus Symphony in the Ohio Theater and in Carnegie Hall for its 75th anniversary season. Are there any other events for the anniversary that you know about that we can talk about? Not
Hui: Not at the top of my head, but I just know it's going to be very exciting. I mean, for me personally, it's rare to be able to celebrate such a huge milestone in any organization.
Purdy: But you know, when we did the 50th anniversary, there were people who founded the orchestra were still alive. There were a number of them who were still alive. And I remember there was a man named George Hardesty, who was the very first conductor of the Columbus Symphony. And, I think I went to Westminster Thurber to interview him because he was in or a place like that. And he said, I can't believe they bought it five years ago. He was so thrilled even so many years after the fact that that was happening. So congratulations to the Columbus Symphony and the Vivo Music Festival. You mentioned you're commissioning new work. Yes. How does that happen? How does network.
Hui: It's ultimately decided by our co-artistic directors, but one of the things that we just started last year is our Vivo Next, which is a fellowship program for... Students who want to branch out and see what it's like to run an organization, how things are done. And this year we're having our first composition fellow. So he's one of the, yes, he's of the composers who's going to, we're going to premiere his work. And then we have another composer, Gregory... Uh, Gregory Rowland Evans, who's going to do a world premiere, uh, for three violas. Um, which is
Purdy: Did you say three violas? Yes. What a great idea.
Hui: Yes, so it's a world premiere for three violas and if you want to check it out, it's going to happen at the 9 p.m. Concert at Natalie's
Purdy: So is every concert program that you're doing different? Yes. Really? Yes. That's a lot of rehearsal. Yes, it is. That's lot of coordination.
Hui: Yes, it is. That's why I have to like block my entire week.
Purdy: And not everybody lives here, so people are coming in. So you're gonna maybe be rehearsing at three in the morning if somebody's, that's when somebody can do it.
Hui: Oh, I hope not. One of my favorite things, we are actually we do have we have a residency over at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber. So we do all of our rehearsals there and I didn't know that I was somebody that told me that just another one I was going to mention it Go ahead
Purdy: Go ahead talk about that relationship. Yeah
Hui: Yeah, so we've had this relationship with Ohio Living Westminster Thurber for a number of years now. And what's exciting for us is we get to see the residents over at Ohio Living, and they get to come and see our rehearsals.
Peeler: And all over the buildings. We have three or four different large spaces where they're rehearsing. And you, mind your manners, you just can walk in and out of rehearsals and as they talk about things, you can ask questions. And it's been a very wonderful, enlivening part of life at Westminster Thurber in the fall. Yeah.
Purdy: And another wonderful part in the fall is OWLs, Older, Wiser, Lifelong Learning, which is a collection of adult education courses. By the way, I probably shouldn't mention the cost, but it's really reasonable. What you get is really get reasonable.
Peeler: It's $35 a course and that includes snacks and we have fabulous presenters mostly from the area but some come from across the country for their experts in their fields. I want to also mention if we have time, another thing that.
Purdy: We're going to do that after the break, because I want you to be able to spend some time with that and we're riched out here. This is All Sides Weekend, I'm Christopher Purdy talking with Walker Evans of Columbus Underground who is producing the third annual Columbus Comedy Festival which opens at the Southern Theater I believe on August 27th with a gala with Nino West and is at news across the city for that long weekend with... I can't even, I stopped counting, a lot of very funny people being presented with Alicia Huey, who is the Director of Community Engagement and a violinist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. She is with Vivo Music Festival which starts up September 10th and Karen Peeley with Owls and we'll talk a little bit more when we come back, don't go away.
You're listening to All Sides Weekend on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Christopher Purdy. I am delighted to be talking with Walker Evans, who is with Columbus, he is Columbus Underground, and he is producing the third annual Columbus Comedy Festival. Karen Peeler is here, Professor Emerita of Music at The Ohio State University. She is representing the older, wiser, lifelong learning program at Westminster Thurber, which includes concerts. And courses you don't want to miss everything from world religions to AI to study of life here in central Ohio and Alicia Huey who is the director of community engagement for the Vivo music festival and is the violin the principal second violin of the 75 year old Columbus Symphony Orchestra. So Karen Peeley you were saying something off mic I was I'm going to ask you to repeat about living in this town now.
Peeler: Well, when I moved here in 91, everything seemed in the artistic world seemed to be struggling. It was all about sports and nothing much else. And I have been so delighted to see the growth and blossoming of all of the arts and just so many things to do. There is just so much going on. You should never be bored in this town. And it's really happened in the last 10 or 15 years, I think, but it was building and it's just a whole different place than it was 30 years ago.
Purdy: Karen Peeler is with the Owls program. We'll talk a little bit more and I want to remind people about the Sondheim concert, but I really want to remind people of the Comedy Festival. And also ask Walker Evans if you want to give us a preview of anything else in the pipeline right now that you're working on or thinking about.
Evans: Yeah, well as soon as this event's over we have our coffee festival
Purdy: What's that?
Evans: It is a celebration of all things coffee. It takes place October 3rd and 4th. I believe the first
Purdy: Right after
Evans: Basically a month after yeah, so yeah, they say August or October. It's October 3rd and 4th But you with your ticket you come in you get a mug. We have a different design every year So it's kind of a collector's item that you get to keep and then you walk around and sample coffee from Around 45 different roasters from all over the Midwest. So a lot of local favorites that you might recognize but roasters Cleveland, Cincinnati, Michigan, Indianapolis, Pennsylvania, they come from all over. And everyone pours just a little. So you can try a little bit of everything without feeling like you're gonna have a heart attack.
Purdy: Some of the venues for the Comedy Festival, the Southern Theater, depending on the configurations, about 700 seats, some of them are are much more intimate. They're much more they're much clubbier. Yeah. When you just how is the decision made of who goes where?
Evans: That's really up to each of the individual like programmers in each of the spaces you know that they know what they do you know so like the Nest theater for example it's kind of a smaller more intimate space their year-round focus is more on like improv comedy and sketch comedy and so we rely on them to kind of do the heavy lifting because that's that's their wheelhouse for that sort of thing the funny bone out of Easton I think seats about 350 including their balcony and so they're the ones that are bringing in some of the bigger acts like I mentioned Greg Fitzsimmons Um, so yeah, you know, we, we try and find like appropriate spots for each of the shows and mad lab is a great venue downtown. That's kind of a black box theater style space so you can get really creative in there.
Purdy: Yeah, that's a great space.
Evans: Yeah, we have a sort of a live dating game style comedy show that's going to take place in there. How does that work? So two comedians, Jason Banks and Henry Allen, kind of host the whole thing. They find an eligible bachelor and bachelorettes or vice versa and ask them a series of questions. They make the whole things very funny and hopefully someone finds love at the end of that show. Well, you can find-
Purdy: Love and Comedy with the Columbus Comedy Festival. Have you sat there at one of the events and somebody is up there you really don't know, you may have just seen their tape or whatever and that person kills.
Evans: Oh yeah, yeah.
Purdy: And absolutely kills.
Evans: Some of them, yeah, in the first two years we've had comedians that, you know, they're like sort of rising stars. And I should say too, you now, each of these shows are a la carte. I think they range, there's a couple free shows, some of them are five, $10, some of the are 20, some are a little more. So you can kind of pick and choose what you wanna do over the weekend. But it's a really great opportunity for 20 bucks to see someone who might be like the next big star. Year one we had Damon Darling who has just exploded on social media and he's selling out shows at the Funny Bone now, but he did a small like 60 seater show. Last year Maddie Wiener did a show at Mad Lab and again, it seats about 80 to 100 in there And then like three weeks later, she was hired as a writer on Saturday Night Live So it's like these are people that are in the industry and they're they're on the way up So see them now for cheap at the Comedy Festival because when they come back at the Palace Theater or you know The Southern Theater it's gonna be a $60. It's gonna. Be a lot more
Purdy: It's gonna be a lot more, right, and you gotta pay to park too. We have Drew Dunn is hysterical, Drew Dunne is coming, Andrew Rudick is also another one.
Evans: I should mention too, Drew Dunn is going to be at the Attic Comedy Club and they are in Old Town East, but I don't know if you saw that their roof blew off during that first storm. They had sort of a flat rubber roof and it blew open and a lot of water came down into the venue. So they're closed for a few months, but it's the same ownership as a few other venues around town. So the Walrus, which is right down the street from the Southern Theater, they basically are doing a pop-up comedy club there. So they haven't had to cancel shows. The show must go on. So not just the comedy festival shows will be there, but for at least like the next month or two, they will have a lot of comedy shows in that.
Purdy: Not only is there a lot going on the town's getting very adaptable and making sure that nothing gets missed really
Evans: They pivoted quick they didn't have to cancel a single show because they had stuff lined up for that weekend after that storm
Purdy: How many events do you do a year?
Evans: The bigger ones, I mean, there's kind of like bigger quarterly events, but since this is our 25th anniversary year with Columbus Underground, we've been doing a lot of smaller pop-up things throughout the year. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We have one coming up. We haven't fully announced it yet, so this could be an exclusive if you want me to announce it on here. We're doing a show in the upfront performance space at Shadowbox, that sort of front room there that seats about 100. We're doing a 25 year retrospective. So looking back at how Columbus has changed, as you kind of mentioned from like the 90s. Yeah, so looking back how the city has changed. Our reporter Brent Warren is gonna moderate a discussion and we have the two Michaels on the panel, Michael Wilkos with United Way of Central Ohio, who is a walking encyclopedia of Columbus history and former mayor Michael Coleman, the other Michael that will be on the panels. So it'll be a great, great kind of casual conversation. We'll talk about how neighborhoods have changed, how the arts and culture has changed how transportation has changed. We'll pack as much as we can into that one-hour conversation. What is that? October 8th, I believe. We're going to announce it, I think, on Monday. Well, okay. You gave me five minutes.
Purdy: Well, okay, you gave us the exclusive, but that sounds like something a lot of people don't want to miss. Yeah, it'll be fun. We'll make sure that we get that word out as well. Yeah, once it's official that you're doing that here. The Columbus Comedy Festival opens the 27th of August. Everything you need to know about that is linked on our website wosu.org slash All Sides older wiser lifelong Scholars at Westminster, but how many years has that because I've done a couple of them and a while ago So how many do you do? This will be our 32nd season now Do you still have cookies because when I used to do them they had cookies they were great. Well, we have snacks I have but I had a woman say to them, but they they'd say to you don't get three you get two And she's right in my face. So, you know
Peeler: Thank you.
Purdy: There is a limit to snacks. Yes. So two cookies only just so you know and Tell me a little bit about Stephen Anderson's music theater program because he's been a guest here and Stephen has been a big part of the arts in this town for a long time with Kappa and the Phoenix Theater and everything else.
Peeler: Well, he's very excited about it. His idea is not, you can't tell everything there is, but he really wants to say to people, not only this is what I like and why, and this is why I didn't like so much and why. But things to consider when you are looking at it, when you are thinking about music theater, what you like, what appeals to you and why? And of course, there will be a retrospective over the eight hours of classes It's about. Of the American musical and how it began going and what the hits are. But it's also going to be a takeaway about how to think about music theater and make your own judgments going forward. And if I may say, I wanna really brag on our administration at Westminster Thurber because they're doing something in October at the Columbus Museum of Art called Stories to Song. And it is a completely unique idea, I think. They've had 11 residents write poems about their life experience of some sort or a theme in their life. And these songs have been, these poems have been set to music by 11 area composers. And those are gonna be presented in concert and they're gonna make a CD. And as again, it's to highlight the aging experience and the wonder of it and the wisdom of it. And this will be a big fundraiser at the Columbus Museum of Art, October 16th. So we're very much looking forward to Stories to Song and it has a website too, so.
Purdy: Stories, the song, sponsored by the folks at the Westminster. How many people live there now?
Peeler: You know, there are over 353 apartments in addition to the assisted living facility. So I would say there are about 350 people or more who live there because I was told the other day that they were all filled and are spoken for and that there were 140 people on the waiting list. So I guess it's doing the, of course geriatrics and older, the older demographic is a growing business these days.
Purdy: Now for each owl's course, is it two four-hour sessions for each subject? Is that how it's done?
Peeler: On each day there'll be a 10 to 12 and then a 1 to 3 with a break for lunch and there's a little pause in between and that will be out there usually on two successive days or maybe two Mondays or Monday Thursday it depends we have a whole we carry on the whole month of October.
Purdy: And let's review so make sure people understand about the Sondheim concert.
Peeler: Okay, Sondheim concert will be September 25th and 27th, the same concert, but you do need to sign up for one or the other because there is limited seating. You can do that on the same website, which when you go to your website and find, it's CourseStorm, it'll say Al's. But you can sign up there, it's $25 a ticket, and we will be doing everything from, as I said, we'll be opening with Comedy Tonight, and we'll be going through. Things from Follies, Into the Woods, Company, I'm trying to think, Little Night Music, so many of the things that, Sunday in the Park with George, that Sondheim became known for, and then we'll be ending up, it's about a two hour concert with a break.
Purdy: All of this at Westminster Thurber Community on Neal Avenue.
Peeler: Is that correct? All right. At Heritage Point in our big event room.
Purdy: And let's go back and talk a little bit more with Alicia Huey about the Vivo Music Festival. Let's review as we're winding down here that people understand. Do you think you're thinking you'll 12 12th year, maybe
Hui: Yeah, I think 12th year, yeah.
Purdy: Now I know you live in Columbus and some of the performers do not everybody does why it's a wonder if I'm I'm not complaining I'm just wondering why it rooted in Columbus I mean it's great but
Hui: Well, our co-artistic directors are originally from Columbus and they wanted and they created this festival in order to give something back to Columbus.
Purdy: How is it different from what Chamber Music Columbus presents or the Columbus Chamber Music Connection?
Hui: Well, for one thing is we're only functioning one week out of the year, so that's the big difference. And then we get artists, as was said before, from all over. We have an artist from Minnesota Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra. We have other people from Colorado, New York. These are some people that both Siu and Jack know personally, and Jack is coming all the way from Paris, France. And then not only that, but we have local musicians, including myself. So we have actually a few members from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra performing with us. Rudy Albach, principal bassist, Pean Chow, cellist, and Lydia Roth, the second flutist, and even Jesse Schwartz, who's a bassoonist from OSU.
Purdy: That's fantastic. And I've been to some of the concerts and they are crowded. Yes. The audience is crowded and you've said a couple of Natalie shows go clean.
Hui: Yes, there are most popular events.
Purdy: Those are very, very popular, the ones that Natalie's into. One day you're doing two in one.
Hui: Yes that's the Natalie's. Yes okay 6 and 9 p.m. Yes I do want to say going back to the making chamber music accessible for all our September 10th concert our first concert is pay what you wish at the door so you can pay whatever you want.
Purdy: That's the one at Ohio State. Yes.
Hui: Yes, that's the one at Timah Sheverside.
Purdy: On college road right here yes that's a very good idea too yes a lot of people are adapting that model and it seems to be working very well yes yeah so that's great the columbus comedy festival is august 27th opening night is at the southern theater with nina west and there's a company nina nina's got people with her is that right
Evans: Yeah, it'll it'll be kind of a variety show with a lot of different comedic performers of different varieties
Purdy: And you are all over the city, you are in the short north, you're everywhere with that.
Evans: Easton, downtown. Something new we're doing this year to kind of get people to kind of stir around the city is a passport, a comedy passport. And so no matter where you start your adventure, they will have passports available and you go around and get them stamped at each venue and you turn them in at the end to get stickers, prizes, you can win tickets to other shows in the future. We're getting some pint glasses printed. So really kind of give people another reason to sort of gamify it and check out venues they might not have been to before.
Purdy: Great idea, and Karen Piedla, let me ask you in terms of the course offerings for Owls, how is this decision made as to what is offered?
Peeler: We have a board that, that's my job this year, I'm president of that board, but a board of 20 people, some from the community as well as residents at Westminster Thurber, and that's our job. Every January we start, we have seven different areas that we function in, and then within those areas we pick out a theme, or they bring several themes forward and we choose one, and we have an administrative coordinator, Helen Reichen. Who gets busy to find just the right presenter and put the schedule together. And she does a fabulous job. We have the most amazing people doing these courses. Stephen McGee, who is going to do the one on writing your own memoir, has offered to do writing groups following up from the courses if people want to continue on working on their writing skills. These people just go their extra mile and it's a great experience. And of course you network and meet lots of your neighbors and friends. And two cookies only not three. Well, listen, sometimes you can maybe squeeze in a third.
Purdy: That's it Karen Peeler. Thank you so much in it. We look forward to the Sondheim concert and to owls Walker Evans Thank you So much for all that you do with Columbus underground which everybody should read Columbus underground calm The Comedy Festival begins August 27th at the Southern Theater and then you're all over town And not at it's not it's a lot. It's not a big radius. It says they're pretty close. Yeah by generally speaking And Alicia Hui with the Vivo Music Festival, first night is at September 10th at the School of Music at The Ohio State University. You can get links and information on all of these programs at wosu.org slash All Sides. I'm Christopher Purdy, I thank you all for listening. I thank Alicia, I thank Walker, I thank Karen, I thank Chris Johnson who makes radio for us. Thanks Marcus Charleston our producer, and I thank you all for listening This is 89.7 NPR News. I'm Christopher Purdy. Good afternoon.