And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with packed right low on 98.9 WXCO along with Ian Welsh.
I am Chad Holmes and this morning again, we are talking about some great activities going on here in North Central Wisconsin.
Yesterday we were talking about a theatrical performance of Romeo and Juliet and Steven's point coming up this weekend, but also this weekend and next weekend chamber music.
It is South Beach Up North 2025, the chamber music festival for
the 19th year with the productions both Saturday and Sunday, and then again next week on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
We'll get you the details on where and what is happening, but first need to introduce Michael Andrews back with us last year talking about it, and it's that time of year again, isn't it?
Yeah, it's crazy.
It seems like I just saw you, but it's been a whole year.
You know, I grew up in Wausau, and this week people are complaining they're so hot and humid, but they have no idea how bad it is in Miami, but it's really great to be here.
Jump right into that aspect for folks that may not be familiar with the, uh, with the organization, with the shows and the title, South Beach up North.
And you just mentioned Miami, South Beach.
Could you explain this?
Because
obviously South Beach up North.
What does it all mean?
I grew up here.
My parents lived, had a great house on Stark Street.
And as they were aging, I thought, what would I do?
Because I was living in Miami Beach at the time.
I had played in an orchestra in Venezuela and then actually came back here after Venezuela and taught at the Wausau Conservatory and then moved to Miami Beach.
So I've been there for maybe more than 30 years.
Anyway, so as I was up here in the summer trying to get out of the heat of Miami, I thought, what would I do up here?
I thought, well, I play concerts.
You know, I'm a cellist.
I got great training in Wausau.
growing up here, and then University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois.
So I was thinking about playing concerts, and my sister said, oh, do you know there's a community foundation downtown?
You should go talk to them.
And that was in 2006.
I applied to the Community Foundation in North Central Wisconsin.
I actually flew up for the grant panel meeting, and Rudy Shudi was there.
She said, oh, I love chamber music.
And then once we got an award, Jean Tihon, who is a great friend now still, she said, she always reminds me that I said,
Oh my gosh, now I have to do this.
And we've been doing it for 19 years.
And it's a pleasure to come up to Wausau and play music and play concerts.
And people love our music, whether it's with high school string quartet, or if it's a really sort of formal string quartet program, or if it's a piano trio concert at the Woodson Museum.
We just love doing this.
And that's one of the aspects that we're going to discuss is when you look at these shows and you have five different dates that you're going to be over the next two
and they're different shows.
This is not one show.
There's different performances, aren't there?
Right.
It's really jam-packed.
We, you know, we have two weeks of rehearsals, and it's really, we do two rehearsals a day, and it's a lot of work.
Yeah.
We're also working with kids.
We have Rochelle Pearson, who's faculty at Wausau Conservatory, and she identifies the students.
So she works with the students the whole summer, and then we work with them the last two weeks.
And so they play at the U-Church in our most out-of-the-move program.
And then we have a completely different program with string quartets that Sunday.
It's called From Spain and Cuba.
And we're doing Ariaga, who was really the Spanish Mozart.
He was a prodigy.
He died young, same time period as Mozart.
And then Julien Orbone, who wrote one string quartet.
And it's a really interesting quartet.
It was written in 1951.
The interesting thing is his son is the chair of our board now.
So it's sort of a family connection.
How much change is there as kind of you said you do you have students see it work with the other folks that you come up every summer that work with you as well Who's a vote in these
programs?
Well, we we've since we've been around so long.
We've had different people come right some get busy and can't make it But this year we have a new person.
She is Anna Cromwell and she is the professor of violin and viola at the University of Wisconsin Steven's point She usually teaches with Suzuki this summer, but she said, you know, I want to do some chamber music
So we've been doing rehearsals with her and she is a fabulous violinist.
So it'll be really a treat to hear her in the string quartet and also then the following week with the piano trios.
One of the things that I always enjoy is when you do see kids get opportunities in so many different areas and you said it, there are kids involved in this as well.
Yeah, well we've had over the years, we've had students who get really serious about music because of the experience they've had with us and they can see, oh, this is something I could do.
We had a violist a couple years ago and he said he went on to college in music because of his experience with South Beach up North.
So what we do here is important for kids and for the music community here.
For folks
that may not be familiar with chamber music, what's your pitch?
What is it maybe
that grabbed you as somebody that loves music?
Why chamber music and maybe for folks who may not be as familiar with
it?
Yeah, for me chamber music is really it's one-on-one.
The string quartet, it's two violins, a viola and a cello.
And when we're playing, it's not a whole section.
Like in an orchestra, there may be eight to 10 cello players.
In a string quartet, you are, you're on your own.
So there's more intimacy.
There's more dialogue back and forth.
You can see.
Sort of in the string quartet the first violin is the leader so you always look to the the violin as a cue and in performing It's all not only is it oral, but it's also visual looking at people's their expressions on their face or their body movement It really is intimate and it's great to go to a U2 concert with 80,000 people, but it's a different experience It's more one-on-one.
We had a one of our people that came to our concert once wrote
a beautiful thank you and saying he brought his mother there and he said you could see the the players expressions and you could see their bow movement and their fingers on the on the fingerboard it was up close and personal and it really is a great engaging experience completely different from a big orchestra concert or a concert on the square which are great but it's a different experience and it's I think it's more a touch of humanity up close.
We will talk more with Michael Andrews and learn more about this outstanding event, South Beach Up North 2025, 19th annual WASA's Chamber Music Festival.
Again, starts on Saturday at 6 p.m.
First UU Church, Mozart on the Move, featuring a student string quartet, and then on Sunday at 2 p.m.
WASA Conservatory of Music from Spain and Cuba.
And we'll learn more about those shows and a whole bunch more with Michael Andrews.
Pat Crichtlow.
Mornings with Pat Crichtlow coming up here on 98.9 WXCO.
It is the WXO warning report on 98.9 WXO.
I am Chad Holmes along Ian Welsh, continuing our conversation with Michael Andrews.
He is...
the man behind South Beach up North 2025, Wausau's 19th annual Chamber Music Festival.
Gets underway on Saturday and Sunday, and then has more programs next Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.
And to, I guess, continue, what are the shows coming up this weekend?
Sure.
So Saturday, we're doing most of the move at the UU Church at six o'clock, and that's with a high school string quartet.
We...
play with them in the second half of the group.
So we're doing some really wonderful things, actually some new things we've never done.
So in the first half, we're doing Henry Mancini's Pink Panther.
We're doing some flower type songs.
So we're doing, there's actually the only string quartet that Puccini wrote with was called Chrysanthemum.
And then we're doing a flower song from Carmen from...
And then with the kids, we're going to start with Vivaldi and we're doing actually Miley Cyrus wrote flowers.
So we're
doing her
flower song.
And then we're doing some tangos and some Sambas.
And one of the students wanted to do Star Wars.
So we're ending with Star Wars.
That's interesting because I'm looking at your lineup.
How much time goes into your thinking about, you know, how do you want to.
put it together.
I imagine there's a lot of work that goes into it to set this all up.
Yeah, it's a lot of thinking.
And I asked Rochelle Pearson from the conservatory, I said, what would your students like to do this year?
And one of them was Star Wars.
So
that's part of it.
And then I think we actually did a collaboration with Dance Now in Miami Beach, and they wanted to do a lot of songs about flowers.
So that's why we're doing a lot of flower songs this year.
So that's the first production Saturday at 6 p.m.
at the first UU church.
And then Sunday,
at 2 p.m.
you'll be at the Wassa Conservatory of Music.
Right.
That is our more formal quartet program.
We're doing adiagas, as I said, Spanish composer.
It's very sort of classical.
It's sort of like Mozart.
But just really charming and beautiful music.
And then Julian Orbone was a Cuban composer.
Aaron Koblin said that he was Cuba's most gifted composer of a new generation.
He combines Spanish and Cuban styles and African music styles, and his music is influenced by Manuel de Faya.
So it's not like easy listening music.
It really is, can be intense, can be beautiful.
There's one, the second movement is really wild in six, eight, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
So.
It's really an interesting piece, and we're hoping that his son will come up from Miami, so
to
introduce the piece.
It hasn't been confirmed yet, but we hope he'll be
here this weekend.
That's one of the interesting aspects, both talking to you last year and now you mentioned this year.
You have some people that really want to be involved, that come a long way to be involved, don't they?
Yeah, including
our
violist, Angela Cratchberg.
She's originally from Iowa.
She got her doctorate in Miami, and she comes to Iowa in the summer to see her family.
but she also plays in Northern Minnesota in an opera company.
And so she comes here on the way back and after our concerts this week, she'll go
back
to Iowa and then she'll drive back to Miami.
This is more than just the music for you, isn't it?
Because, I mean, we talked, you mentioned earlier about your history in this area.
You moved away, but you always come back.
Why is it important for you to bring this music back to Central Wisconsin?
Well, first of all, I love Wausau.
I grew up here.
It's not bad to be here in Wisconsin in the summer.
No, it's not.
Even though it may be sort of a hot and humid for you here.
But, you know, Wausau's a special place.
They have the...
performing arts foundation and the grand theater and the concerts on the square.
I have the concerts in Rim Mountain, but there's no chamber music.
And I think...
I love chamber music.
And for me, it's very special.
And I just want to share it all the time.
How special is it to see the students?
Because you say it.
You just said it.
It's important for you to continue to have to expose folks to chamber music.
I imagine seeing those students who embrace it must be really important to
you.
Yeah.
Well, I think music teaching is very important, especially nowadays where arts funding is being cut nationally, statewide.
I grew up here.
I went to
horseman school with David Regi.
David Regi was an amazing orchestra teacher and then after that David Lee took over and David Lee and his wife Darlene are big supporters of of our music.
It's interesting when we work with the students they get a whole new experience from their orchestra experience because chamber music is special.
I know there's a lot of people that are helping with this and sponsors.
And I want to make sure that you have an opportunity to thank the people that without support, this can't happen.
The first and foremost
is the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin.
They provide funds every year along with the BA and Esther Greenhack Foundation.
And then we also get support every year from the Dudley Foundation.
And we have new support in Monacoa this year from Ellison Realty of the North.
Gowee Abstract Entitled Company, Marshfield Area Community Foundation, 98.9 WXCO, thank you very much.
Redmond Realty Group, Monacoa, Greg and Sally Reinflish Performing Arts Foundation in in Marshfield, the St.
Matthias Episcopal Church, Sternweiss and Sons in Marshfield, Bailey Strasford with First Weber in Monacoa, UMR.
the Wausau Conservatory of Music.
We couldn't do this without them.
Wisconsin Public Radio and the Woodson Art Museum.
And of course, next week you go up to Monaco, a week from Friday for production, and then March Field, a week from Sunday.
We'll talk, you're coming back next week and we'll talk about those.
But again, just to finish it up, Saturday and Sunday, Saturday, 6 p.m.
at the First UU Church in Wausau, Mozart on the Move, featuring a student string quartet, and then Sunday at 2 p.m.
Wausau Conservatory.
of music from Spain and Cuba.
And I'm gonna let you again use the names.
My Spanish is a little bit off your Arriaga.
Arriaga.
Arriaga.
And Orbon.
Orbon.
A string quartet.
What do people need to know in terms of tickets?
Anything that they should know.
Everything is
free.
How about that?
Everything is free.
We do love having support at the door.
If you want to give us a donation, we're always happy for that.
You know, the arts always need
support.
Oh, yes, they do.
Yes, but it's still wonderful for folks.
They don't have to worry about...
the money aspect.
Exactly.
They just come on by, be exposed to some wonderful chamber music both on Saturday and Sunday and we'll look forward to having you come back next week and talk about three more productions.
That would be great.
Thanks Chad.
Again, Michael Andrews, South Beach Up North, WASA's 19th annual Chamber Music Festival.
So go out on Saturday and Sunday and really, really enjoy.
The time is 7.59.
We have an information update coming up, and then another hour of mornings with packed pregnant women here on 98.9 WXCO.
Good morning and welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app.
The time is 8 23 right now mostly cloudy skies here in downtown Wasa live from our studios at the corner of Washington Street and North 3rd Street 68 degrees is the temperature I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh again Thanks earlier in the program in the first hour to Michael Andrews for joining us talking about South Beach up north and again 98.9 WXCO proud to support this terrific chamber music festival with the shows
Saturday and Sunday of this week in Wausau and then there are three more shows coming up next week.
One will be held at the Woodson Art Museum here in Wausau next Thursday and then on August 8th there will be a show up in Minakwa and then on August the 10th a production in Marshfield and these are all different
Productions, different shows, different performers involved in this Chamber Music Festival.
So if you have an opportunity, Saturday at the first UU Church, Mozart on the Move at 6 p.m.
and then on Sunday at the Wasser Conservatory of Music, the show featuring from Spain and Cuba as well.
And as we mentioned, it is free.
So again, just a wonderful opportunity to be part of an intimate setting with the Chamber Music Festival and we'll have more with Michael Andrews.
coming up next week on those shows coming up next week as well.
If you go to our social media, you can get the information on it and be able to be part of it this coming weekend.
And there's lots of things going on.
This weekend, isn't there?
I mean, there's so much.
That's one of the things about this time of year is that you have so many different choices here indoor Central Wisconsin makes this area a terrific place to live and work.
And of course, the Wisconsin Valley Fair is continuing at Marathon Park.
We had spoken earlier in the week about the Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater in Stevens Point and their production of Romeo and Juliet that gets underway.
Tonight in fact at 6 p.m.
So if you're looking for a wonderful Shakespearean experience you can go down to a Schmeakley reserve and it's outdoors to see Romeo and Juliet down in Stevens Point and then we have up north 2025 South Beach up north 2025 and one of the things that I always enjoy is when somebody that
doesn't have to do something, does it?
And Michael Andrews lives down in Florida most of the year, comes up here for a couple of months to get away from the heat and humidity of Miami.
But every summer, not only puts together a pretty massive undertaking.
these five productions in different venues with the different shows, different musical numbers, but does it because he said it.
He loves this area.
He grew up in this area.
He's giving back and the idea that...
he does all this work and he did everything he needed to do to get the funding for it.
And again, thanks to the funding for the Community Foundation, the Green Tech Foundation, others that do so much in terms of allowing wonderful ideas like this to come to bear fruit.
Absolutely.
And I hope to see one of the productions this weekend with the South Beach Up North.
And hopefully you'll be able to take an opportunity as well.
Something else I wanted to mention is that
If you go to a Facebook and go to the wasa school district page on Facebook, I saw this earlier this week There is a a go fund me that's been put together because a member of the wasa school district team Laura Morris passed away back in 2024 last year she had a
Battle with cancer and she is somebody that went to school in the wasa school district then went on to work in the wasa school district and was somebody that was well known well liked and Had this no terrible disease that came and took her life well one of the teachers physical education teachers and coach at Wasa East High School Ken Smith decided to
put together a GoFundMe in order to create a scholarship in Laura's name.
The scholarship will go towards Wausau East High School students who have been or are being affected by cancer.
And it's been just going on for less than a week.
They've been able to raise nearly $10,000 already for this scholarship.
Good for them and it's really something that's special So I would encourage you to go to the wasa school district Facebook page go down to posting from a couple of days ago on Monday and There's a link to go to the GoFundMe and you can make a donation and also I'm very excited that we will have coming up on
Tuesday of next week.
Actually, we're going to record on Monday, but we're going to have it air on Tuesday next week.
Ken Smith will be with us and to talk about Laura and to talk about
you know, why he's decided to do this and what the hopes are behind the scholarship.
So we will have Ken Smith join us here on this program.
It'll be on a Tuesday mornings program.
And I'm looking forward to that as well.
It's just one of those wonderful aspects again, where somebody
goes beyond the call.
And I think Ken Smith, who is the the boy soccer coach at Hwasa Eason, also a PE teacher, decided to honor his colleague in this way.
So we're looking forward to hearing more about that.
But before that, before we have that conversation next week, I again, I would encourage you to go to Facebook.com, search Hwasa School District.
And then there is a posting with the link involved.
And so many people in our community have already given.
And right now it's 9000
$1,571 has been raised for this wonderful, wonderful idea of a scholarship in honor of Laura Morris.
Very, very good.
The time is 8.29, 68 degrees.
Overcast, guys, here in downtown Wausau.
We will have an information update coming up, and then it's back to Pat Critello.
More of Mornings with Pat Critello here on 98.9 WXCO.
and the show he came before.
Welcome
back.
The time is 8.52, 67 degrees under overcast skies in downtown Wassof.
It is the WXCO morning report.
Part of mornings with Pat Crite Low on 98.9 WXCO.
I am Chad Holmes with Ian Welch.
We will have our number for the day quiz coming up in a few minutes, but I have to mention, last night the Wassofx board.
According to WSAW, voted to end its investigation into a complaint about Mayor Doug Denney's actions when he took a ballot drop box last year.
The interesting aspect of this, and again the the actions of the mayor occurred in mid to late September of last year, and the ethics board
had ordered a dozen possible witnesses to produce their accounts and records of what happened in that timeframe between September 19th and 20 and September 29th of 2024.
Seven of the 12 responded.
Five did not provide any response.
Okay.
Was a police deputy chief, Todd Baton, city finance director, Mary Ann Grote.
Public Works facilities manager Leo Gao IT director Gerard Klein and a contractor The fire chief and deputy chief noted they did not have any relevant information But the thing that jumps out to me According to the board chair Calvin Dexter He said during the meeting last night that two of the seven Provide quote nearly identical responses
Apparently with the advice of legal counsel, at least as my assumption, saying they were not comfortable responding to the request, which was described as overly generalized, vague and ambiguous, but stating they would be happy or willing to answer specific questions in writing or in person.
The thing that kind of jumps out to me for folks who are not cooperating fully,
in this is these are public servants.
They shouldn't be looking to kind of skirt answering questions.
Well, this question isn't specific enough or this is too vague or whatever it may be.
I can't say I'm surprised at this point.
I can't say that I have expected any kind of, I would say progress.
No, you have to be held responsible for your actions.
Accountability.
Accountability.
And I have not had any, I've not been confident we're going to see any accountability when it comes to this case.
I don't think so either.
So the board ends the investigation.
It doesn't mean that the board won't have a vote or anything.
There's still other things that could happen here, but The Wisconsin Department of Justice will continue their investigation.
I'm not holding my breath on anything occurring.
I just find again this whole process to have been in a lot of ways comical because again
It is like again.
It's a robbery in broad daylight We know what happened.
I I I Do we need to have a multi
in the middle of the night
a multi-year investigation to figure out whether or not something was done Wrong or whether or not he had the right to do it.
I I just find this ridiculous.
It's the Department of Justice make up your mind Okay, this is
This investigation should not take multiple years.
I mean, it's ridiculous in my mind, and it's really annoying in my mind.
So that's where we stand with that.
So the part of the investigation is coming to an end with the WASA ethics board ending this investigation into a complaint about
Doug Denny's actions when he took the ballot drop box last year.
Hey, did you see the end of the Brewers game last night?
I did not.
I know they won nine to three.
They won and now they're ahead of the Cubs by two games.
Yep.
They are, well, they won 15 of 18 games now.
Man.
I mean, it's just been incredibly red hot.
Way to go, Brewers.
I mean, they have just been incredible.
No, I just don't think anybody expected them to be this good.
It's been pretty amazing.
So,
a nice surprise.
They'll try to complete the sweep against Chicago coming up later today.
Oh, yeah.
And let's wrap things up with our number for the day quiz.
Yeah, I got some work to do.
Yep.
You are old for two this week.
So you got to get going here.
You got two out of five to have a passing grade, three out of five in order to have a winning week.
But today, July the 30th is the birthday of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
And the man has had an incredible life in terms of becoming
famous or at the top of his profession in numerous ways.
He started as a champion bodybuilder.
Then he became a superstar actor with the Terminator and other movies.
Then he became a politician and became the governor of California.
So I mean, the man is at an incredible life.
Today is his birthday.
The number for the day is, how old is Arnold Schwarzenegger?
So how old is the Terminator himself?
Your choices are 73 years old, 78 years old, 83 years old,
73, 78 or 83.
Okay, I really need to focus on this one because I've been
I'm gonna have a pattern this week.
Yeah, where
you know figure it out
number It ends up being a different number
figure this baby out and come up with the right one today 73 78 or 83 Okay
I'm just gonna go with my gut here and Hopefully I don't feel bad about this, but I'm going to say He is
73.
I'm gonna say 73 is my final answer.
I'm gonna say 73.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Turns 78 years old today It's unusual Sometimes it comes sometimes it goes well Well now the pressure is on for the next two days and you've proven the ability to come from behind and win it So we'll see if you can do it tomorrow.
Yep.
Have a good rest of your day
You too, Chad.
Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Matt and Aaron are next on WXCO.
