Studio Virginia

Studio Virginia airs Thursdays at 7:30 pm

DECEMBER

12.27.03 - On this week's show, hosted by Cara Modisett, Gene Marrano covers and exhibit of photography by Roanoke native and immigrant teenagers. Cara Modisett interviews African musician Mamadou Diabate; plus artists' New Year's resolutions. Click here for Center in the Square website.

12.20.03 - "The Christmas Cup" returns to Mill Mountain Theatre for a third time. We'll talk to author Nancy Ruth Patterson about that and her new novel for children, "A Simple Gift." Plus, great jazz CDs from local artists as Christmas gifts, and the movie "War" gets a screening at the Sundance Film Festival.

12.6.03 - Radford University and Roanoke's City Ballet team up for the Nutcracker--and it's not the only Nutcracker in town this holiday season. Dan Smith also weighs in with the year's best books just in case you still need to get a gift or two or do some more reading yourself.

NOVEMBER

11.29.03 - This week's show features a sneak preview of the O. Winston Link museum opening in Roanoke next January. It features some of the most famous photographs ever taken of the steam-era locomotives - and most were shot in southwest Virginia. Plus confessions of a first time novelist, as WVTF commentator Janis Jaquith tries her hand at writing a 50,000 word masterpiece.

11.22.03 - Studio Virginia co-producer Cara Modisett visits a new gallery in London, the Toilet Gallery, and talks with its founder and first exhibiting artist. Celtic music in SW Virginia and a Christmas in Wales.

11.15.03 - The fine art of choosing a wine and a look at Virginia’s growing wine industries; a physician who cut her teeth at the infamous Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan comes to Charlottesville to share her recent book of essays on her chosen profession; and the well-regarded Enso string quartet comes to southwestern Virginia as guests of Blackburg’s Musica Viva!

11.8.03 - City Magazine in southwestern Virginia makes an impact on the arts and culture scene; and a book of pictures taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway by a husband and wife team from Staunton underscores the fragile beauty of that unique national park.

11.1.03 - Folk music legend Joan Baez makes a stop in Roanoke and spends time with our very own Cara Modisett….an experiment in theater at Mill Mountain promises “No Shame” for participants…and southern Jewish life revealed through arts at culture at a Roanoke College event.

OCTOBER

10.25.03 - A Halloween bash to benefit the Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Film Office welcomes back a favorite from last spring’s Film festival; and the Complete History of America at Mill Mountain Theatre turns social studies on its ear.

10.11.03 - Other-worldly musician and singer Vyktoria Pratt Keating from Charlottesville releases a new CD made with the help of some big name friends; the Audubon chamber music quartet from Blacksburg gets ready to play an outdoor gig in a most unlikely setting; musical highlights at the Lyric theatre in Blacksburg and book that can guide you to some great mountain music in the Blue Ridge.

10.4.03 - The second full season of performances at the Jefferson center in Roanoke proves that there is no sophomore jinx ­ and a quilt exhibit in Lynchburg is a reminder of September 11th.

SEPTEMBER

9.27.03 - Studio Virginia co-producer Cara Modisett interviews Judith Cline, soprano and head of the music department at Hollins University. Cline will be performing a recital at Hollins on September 29th, 2003.

9.20.03 - A look at the Henry Street Heritage Festival in Roanoke and Bedford’s Center Fest.

9.13.03 - Mill Mountain's upcoming season with artistic director Jere Hodgin; a memorial to 9-11 made from twisted steel that came from the World Trade Center; Dan Smith's commentary on state funding for the arts; recording legend Maria Muldaur and a "human race machine" on exhibit at Radford University.

9.6.03 - A sneak peek at the Taste of the Blue Ridge Blues and Jazz Festival; plus changes at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

AUGUST

8.30.03 - A veteran educator at Mill Mountain Theatre looks back before he leaves town; Roanoke Symphony Orchestra tryouts; and changes at cultural institutions in southwest Virginia. Co-producer Cara Modisett hosts.

8.23.03 - Charlottesville musician Michael Mulvaney is "The Balloon Man," the veteran rocker talks about his career and the artists he's been influenced by. Plus the Civil War sketches of a union private become watercolor art in Roanoke and the sounds of Floyd Fest.

8.16.03 - Studio Virginia co-producer Cara Modisett interviews poet Adrian Blevins about her new book, "The Brass Girl Brouhaha," which will be published by Ausable Press in early September. Blevins, who teaches at Roanoke College, received a $10,000 grant from the Rona Jaffe Foundation in 2002 as one of six emerging writers receiving their Writer's Awards.

8.9.03 - A high school student from Blacksburg talks about becoming the U.S. national Scottish fiddle champion. And a Lynchburg musician scores her first film for a Roanoke filmmaker.

8.2.03 - A Fiddlefest wrap-up from Roanoke's new celebration of mountain music. And southwest Virginia author Sharyn McCrumb explores her roots further with a new Civil War-era novel "Ghost Riders."

JULY

7.26.03 - Roanoke artist Bill Kohler's water color memories are known around the world. Now he's showing them off in a new exhibit. Plus a smash hit revue featuring the best pop music of yesteryear comes to "Smokey Joe's Cafe" at Mill Mountain Theatre.

7.19.03 - Author Adriana Trigiani takes a break from her series on life in Big Stone Gap with a new novel called "Lucia Lucia." Also, ex-Roanoker Rene Marie's new jazz album takes the industry by storm, and a Fiddlefest preview.

7.12.03 - Shenandoah Valley songwriter and performer David Marion Young and his wife Teresa (co-owners of Sycamore Publishing) talk about their brand of folk music...plus the latest from ex-Roanoke jazz singer Rene Marie.

7.5.03 - This week's guest is journalist and budding screenwriter Rex Bowman. Not only was he an embedded reporter in Iraq during the recent war, the Richmond Times-Dispatch writer also won a screenwriting competition in Virginia. Plus, the state of the film business in Virginia and Harry Potter mania revisited.

JUNE

6.28.03 - Free lance journalist and documentary film maker David Tate of Roanoke talks about where he finds "the real stories" and his adventures in Iraq and Central America.

6.21.03 - Susan Striker is the author of the best-selling Anti-Coloring Book series, designed to stimulate creativity and encourage problem solving and critical thinking in children. Plus, the Garth Newel Music Center celebrates 30 years of chamber music, and memories of Gregory Peck at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon.

6.14.03 - This week's program features a preview of the Broadway musical, 42nd Street, playing soon at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke. And, a long-time Virginia-based folk musician keeps traditional sounds alive.

6.7.03 - Alex Kurshaw, author of the Bedford Boys, an account of soldiers that landed on the beaches of France on D-Day; plus a poem on that subject from Bob Slaughter, the man most-closely associated with the D-Day Memorial.

MAY

5.31.03 - On this week's program - The life and times of Southwest Virginia NASCAR pioneer Curtis Turner. He's the subject of a new documentary filmed on location. We'll talk to the film's producers and U.S. Sen. John Warner, who served as narrator. Plus, Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington celebrates its 20th season.

5.24.03 - This week's program features a conversation with Virginia Tech professor and poet Nikki Giovanni, who talks about her new book, "Quilting the Black Eyed Pea," and about racism, George W. Bush, a mission to Mars and Frank Beamer.

5.17.03 - David and Teresa Ehrlich talk about the Renaissance Music Academy in Blacksburg; Local Colors is back in Roanoke and the South American group Solazo is a headliner.

5.10.03 - A Welsh folk group makes their debut in Virginia; another cameo from the recent Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Film Festival; a competitive marching band like the ones spotlighted in the recent film Drumline includes one right here in Virginia - at Norfolk State University; plus WVTF commentator Dan Smith with a bone to pick.

5.4.03 - More of the 16 Hands pottery tour in Floyd; interviews from the Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Film Festival; and Fiddle Fest gets ready to make its debut.

APRIL

4.26.03 - Roanoke's Downtown Music Lab helps budding musicians in grades 7-12. The music they produce just might surprise you. Plus the Pulitzer-prize winning play "Proof" comes to town, and Part One of a look at the 16 Hands pottery tour in Floyd.

4.19.03 - A Roanoke man talks about his first feature film production, and the Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Film Festival makes its debut.

4.5.03 - We'll be "looking over the president's shoulder" with an actor portraying a man who served four presidents at the White House. Plus a 9-11 memorial sculpture in Salem and big plans for Lynchburg cultural institutions.

MARCH

3.8.03 - A play about the great Jackie Robinson comes to Mill Mountain Theatre, and a discussion of "Gods and Generals," the book recently written by James "Bud" Robertson and illustrated by artist Mort Kunstler.

3.1.03 - A husband-wife team collaborates on a novel that picks up where "Braveheart" left off, and a well-regarded screenwriter and movie director comes home to Lynchburg.

2.15.03 - WVTF's Anna Wentworth takes a look at the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's Painted Violins fundraiser.

2.8.03 - This week's guests are folk-singer singer John McCutcheon and Judy Garland impersonator Tommy Femia.

JANUARY

1.25.03 - A partner program with The Roanoker magazine, taking a look at the state of arts in the area. Gene Marrano interviews Susan Jennings, executive director of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. Cara Modisett tours the Norfolk & Western passenger station under renovation, to house a museum of O. Winston Link photography in the fall, and takes a look at a new music series in Roanoke, St. John's Episcopal's Music on the Square.

1.18.03 - No show because of live Metropolitan Opera broadcast.

1.11.03 - A look at new art spaces opening in downtown Roanoke, including Studios on the Square (now off the square on Campbell) and new galleries in Studios' old space. Cara Modisett talks with painter Eric Fitzpatrick. Also, Luke Church previews the Lewis & Clark Centennial Celebration in Charlottesville.

1.4.03 - Jefferson Center Programming Director Dylan Locke talks about the first 18 months of the Center & Shaftman Performance Hall. Plus, the "new grass" group Candlewyck and the art of engraving with Amherst County resident Raimund Kreuziger.