News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 155
Sisters Folk Festival will bring renowned singer-songwriter Josh Ritter to the stage on Tuesday evening, January 23, in the opener of the annual Winter Concert Series. Showtime is at 7 p.m. at the Sisters High School auditorium. Josh Ritter is an American singer-songwriter hailing originally from Idaho. From an early age, he was a music lover and was influenced by listening to music that his parents played around the house, including Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. In high school,... Full story
Doug and Mollie LeFezre, who have been vacationing in Sisters since 1982, donated their second-hand Steinway piano to the Sisters High School choral program. Mollie LeFezre is a retired music teacher; she taught public-school music for 25 years in both Huntington Beach and Roseburg, where they are from. They currently spend the winters in Arizona. LeFezre grew up practicing on upright piano throughout her childhood. When she graduated from high school her parents bought her a... Full story
The East Pointers returned to play the Sisters Folk Festival this year as the encore performer, after their lively performances at the 2016 festival. Jake Charron, Koady Chaisson, Tim Chaisson and their sound engineer Donny Richard returned to Sisters for the Americana Song Academy at Caldera and the weekend folk festival. "The festival is an instant highlight of the summer, we have so much fun playing it as well as teaching at camp, it's something very special to us," said... Full story
Americana singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz will be playing as a headliner at this year's Sisters Folk Festival, bringing with her a very eclectic music background and influence. "I come from a bluegrass background, but today, I more describe my music as folk and Americana. I tend to shy away from genre names because I feel influenced by so many different genres. They all find their way into my music," Jarosz told The Nugget. Jarosz has been involved in music pretty much her... Full story
Justin Townes Earle is an American songwriter originally from South Nashville, Tennessee. He is the son of alternative country artist Steve Earle, and his middle name honors after his father's mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Earle describes his music as "country-soul with a lot of elements of old-style blues." He has been playing for over 20 years, after dropping out of school to tour and play music with other musicians in Tennessee. He played in two bands, The Distributors and... Full story
A team of four Hampshire Fire and Rescue firefighters visited Sisters for two weeks as part of a U.S./UK exchange program with the Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD. A few members of the fire department go to Hampshire's station to learn urban firefighting, while the Hampshire team learns wildland firefighting. Station Managers David Hodge and Dean Hodges, Watch Manager Martyn Elliott and firefighter Daniel Maidment - all from Hampshire in southern England - spent two weeks with the... Full story
Old-style honky tonk band Halden Wofford and the Hi Beams are returning to play the Sisters Folk Festival Summer Concert Series. Wofford and the band have been playing music together for 14 years with all the same people touring, playing old-school country music. Wofford calls it "Rocky Mountain Honky Tonk Music." Wofford started playing music in college on the side as a hobby. "I was actually in art school at the time, I wanted to become a painter," said Wofford. "I just got... Full story
Joan Soriano is set to play on Thursday in the first of the three-part series of free Sisters Folk Festival Summer Concerts. Joan Soriano is from a small town in the Dominican Republic near Santo Domingo and currently tours as the leader of his own band. Joan plays Bachata-style music. The word is directly translated to be "an informal gathering or party where friends join to play music on guitars and drums." Or, Afro-style rhythm. "I like to stick with the traditional style o... Full story
Lauren Wattenburg is an avid ballerina. She's been dancing since she was two years old. She graduated this year from Sisters High School as one of the three valedictorians in the senior class. Wattenburg has been commuting back and forth to Portland for ballet classes for five years, from her eighth grade year through the end of her senior year. She danced with the Northwest Dance Theater in Portland under the direction of June Taylor-Dickson. Every Friday Lauren would miss he... Full story
Sisters High School alumnus Madison Slicker recently signed a music publishing deal in Nashville, Tennessee. Slicker was an active member of Sisters Folk Festival's Americana Project music education outreach program throughout middle school and high school, and then took Americana in her senior year at Summit High School in Bend. Slicker credits a lot of her success to the Americana Project and the teachers who helped her get so far. "I never wanted to do anything else. I'm... Full story
Last week students who are part of the Woods 2 class at Sisters High School presented their completed guitars and ukuleles to the public. The showcase was held at Sisters High School and was presented in partnership with Sisters Folk Festival. The Woods 2 class is taught by Tony Cosby, alongside volunteers from the community who come in and help students build their guitars and ukuleles. Marcy Edwards, Cory Stengel and David Perkins are a few of the many volunteers with the... Full story
In 2008, Samra Spear, an English teacher at Sisters High School, started a literary magazine. The literary magazine is called Verbatim (student-titled in its first year). The last published issue was in 2011 and one hadn't been created due to lack of student interest. This year, senior Johanna Geisen decided to take on the task of reviving the publication. "I needed a first period and had already taken creative writing once so I decided [on] advanced creative writing as an... Full story
This past Friday Sisters turned out for the annual My Own Two Hands parade and art stroll. The event, started 17 years ago and then called "Painted Strings," has developed into a two-day event/fundraiser for the Americana Project and arts programs in the schools and other outreach programs of Sisters Folk Festival The parade and art stroll kick off the weekend through town. Art- and music-lovers strolled through town to the various art galleries and viewed some of the art... Full story
Sisters High School chemistry classes launched a weather balloon last week in what has become an annual experiment. Two classes of chemistry students, teachers and volunteers came out to the Sisters Airport Wednesday morning to launch the weather balloon. They started by attaching their payloads and blowing up the balloon. Students put together a "payload" (attached to the bottom of the balloon with a parachute) with various experiments and items on it - things such as moldy... Full story
Singer-songwriter Caitlin Canty returns to Sisters for her third time for the last installment of the Winter Concert Series. Rose Cousins will also be performing on Thursday, March 23 at Sisters High School. Canty is an Americana/blues/folk artist from small-town Vermont. She now lives in East Nashville, Tennesee. This is Canty's third visit to Sisters. She came for the Winter Concert Series alongside Darlingside last year, and participated in the Sisters Folk Festival's Ameri... Full story
Students from Redmond, Bend, Sisters, California and Colorado all came out to The Belfry to attend the Americana Song Academy for Youth last weekend. The academy, now in its 10th year, gave the young musicians the opportunity to learn from instructors to better their songwriting craft. Throughout the weekend classes addressed various aspects of singing, songwriting, guitar-playing, writer's block, relaxation techniques, learning how to better collaborate and more. Instructors... Full story
The Americana Song Academy for Youth is a weekend where students learn from professional musicians and instructors about anything and everything to do with songwriting. The annual event, produced by Sisters Folk Festival with sponsorship support from Cris Converse and The Roundhouse Foundation, was held at The Belfry in Sisters last weekend. Laura Curtis and Slater Smith both were a part of the early days of the Americana Project at Sisters High School. Curtis has recorded her... Full story
Sisters High School student Laura Waltosz received a $150 scholarship from Outlaws Photography for designing and painting this year's SHS yearbook cover. The yearbook staff approached Waltosz, a senior art student, early in the year to design a cover for the yearbook that captures SHS and the beauty that surrounds us. Waltosz has been in ceramics classes and advanced art classes since her freshman year. Laura plans to attend community college and pursue ceramics as a career.... Full story
Sisters High School health students staged a health fair for seventh- and eighth-graders on February 2 and 3 at the high school. Students from Heather Johnson's Health 2 class, EMS, and Sports Medicine classes put together various booths for students to check out. There were 23 booths covering subjects including: taking vital signs; stress reduction; mental health; nutrition; drug and alcohol information; rescue moves; wilderness survival; and more. The fair was attended by... Full story
The Sisters High School music theater class is serving up a musical medley of many of the songs from the Broadway musical "Big River," written by William Hauptman for the stage. All the music from the show was written by Roger Miller, a very popular musical theater composer and country music singer-songwriter. The show is based on the story, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and follows Huck and Jim on their journey down the Mississippi River. The class is not doing the... Full story
Some 24 Sisters High School (SHS) students and 79 other students from Bend, Redmond, Prineville and Culver headed to Redmond early Friday morning, October 14, to participate in a simulated plane-crash. The event served as training for EMTs and paramedics. All the high school students were "victims" of the crash, and upon arrival were assigned an injury they were instructed to act out. Once assigned their injury, each student got "moulaged" - made up to create an "injury" that... Full story
Sisters High School student Logan Miller was involved in a serious auto accident on icy roads on January 6. Miller was in the hospital for six weeks, with a severe head injury requiring life-saving surgery. Logan was able to go home on February 22. Logan has had endless amounts of support throughout his remarkable recovery. Bracelets reading "Stay Strong for Logan Miller" were made and sold by close friends. That phrase came from the Facebook page put up by family and friends... Full story
Aspiring songwriters from across the country gathered in Sisters last weekend for the Americana Song Academy For Youth, held in several venues around town. The song academy, started by Brad Tisdel in 2007, brings artists together in a non-competitive environment where they learn the art of songwriting and performing. The three-day academy brought students from Colorado, California, and Oregon together to learn from musicians who come to town to teach. This year, artists such... Full story
Hannah Tenneson, a senior at Sisters High School (SHS), designed and drew the 2015-2016 yearbook cover. An avid artist, Tenneson created a cover that is unique and perfectly describes Sisters and SHS. The cover art features a herd of horses running in front of the Three Sisters. The yearbook staff asked her to draw the cover because they wanted the cover art to be designed and drawn out by a student, so that the yearbook will be more unique and special to the students. "The... Full story
John Siegel Boettner, teacher, avid mountain biker, and filmmaker visited two English classes at Sisters High School last week. He graced the classrooms with his stories of an interesting childhood, and stories of how he is giving back. Boettner started a program at Santa Barbara Middle School called Teen Press, where 6th- and 7th-graders learn how to conduct an interview. They learn all the fundamentals of how to talk to adults as well as how to research properly for an inter... Full story
