Meet conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg at P.O. Winery’s next sip-and-shop event

By Reader Staff

The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint has hosted international and guest conductors since 2012 as part of its annual Music Matters! Summer Academy Youth Orchestra and Music Without Borders initiative. This year may be just a taste of things to come, as guest conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg will pass the baton, following her week in Sandpoint, to her new role as assistant conductor of the Spokane Symphony later this month.

A graduate of Julliard and a believer in music’s power to connect and heal, Samuels-Shragg co-founded the Plano Symphony Youth Orchestra Camp and helped design and play piano in the concert “Dialogue in Three

Movements: An Artistic Journey of Israel/Palestine in celebration of International Day of Peace.”

During her regional conducting season with the Spokane Symphony this fall, Samuels-Shragg will continue to maintain her current post with the Plano Symphony Orchestra.

“We are delighted to welcome Shira and introduce this up-and-coming conductor to our region,” said MCS Director Karin Wedemeyer.

As part of her introduction, and to help raise funds for the conservatory’s Music Matters! outreach, a sip-and-shop event will be hosted at the Pend d’Oreille Winery, on the corner of Third Avenue and Cedar Street, on Thursday, Aug. 10, from 4 to 8 p.m. Fans of the symphony and those wishing to support the next generation of budding musicians are invited to attend.

Samuels-Shragg will be on hand for a portion of the evening to mingle with guests and experience downtown Sandpoint in the summertime.

Giving — as well as taking in good food and wine — is encouraged, as the winery will donate a portion of sales to MCS, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, serving Sandpoint’s youth with quality and accessible performing arts education.

For more information on Music Matters! or the sip-and-shop event, contact the MCS office at 208-265-4444. Contributions can be mailed to: MCS, 110 Main St., Sandpoint, ID 83864, or shared online at sandpointconservatory. org/giving.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

Phil Hamilton and guests, The Hive, Aug. 11

Sandpoint is about to get a taste of Texas country and Southern rock with a multi-talented show at The Hive headlined by Phil Hamilton, featuring Erica Perry Hamilton and supported by opener Kyle Mont Cunningham, who’s a local country sensation in his own right.

Boasting rich vocals and affecting songwriting, Phil Hamilton takes listeners on a sonic voyage through the American heartland — made even more compelling by the harmonies he weaves with Erica Perry Hamilton.

Cunningham’s powerful, heartfelt sound will open the night, and if you’re new to his performances, it’s about time to get acquainted. Though based in Texas, Hamilton is no stranger to Sandpoint, and Aug. 11 will also mark the debut of his new single, Rock Bottom Whiskey, which he wrote here last winter.

— Zach Hagadone

Doors at 7 p.m.; Kyle Mont Cunningham, 8-9 p.m.; Phil Hamilton feat. Erica Perry Hamilton, 9:30 p.m.; FREE; 21+. The Hive, 207 N. First Ave., 208-920-9039, livefromthehive.com. More info at facebook.com/philhamiltonmusic and kmc.country.

B-Side Players, Farmin Park, Aug. 10

All the way from San Diego, the nine-piece horn-driven, polyrhythmic B-Side Players will fill Farmin Park on Thursday, Aug. 10 with their multifaceted grooves, mixing the sounds of Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico and Brazil with funk, rock, jazz and hip-hop.

Part of the Sandpoint Summer Music Series, hosted by Mattox Farm Productions and sponsored by the Pend Oreille Arts Council, The B-Side Players will get the family-friendly crowd moving to the Colombian rhythms of cumbia; Latin American salsa; gritty street samba;

Suspicious PKG, Connie’s, Aug. 13

the Cuban “mountain sound” of son montuno; jarocho, from Veracruz, Mexico; and the Afro-American fusion of boogaloo.

Mandala Pizza and Opa Food Truck will be offering food while 7B Origin will be serving up cold non-alcoholic beverages and Eichardt’s will be slinging adult drinks.

— Zach Hagadone

Gates at 5 p.m., music at 6 p.m.; FREE. Farmin Park, Third Avenue and Main Street in Sandpoint, mattoxfarm. com/summermusicseries.

Don’t be alarmed by this Suspicious PKG — the Bonners Ferry musical trio of the same name is bringing good vibes with a mix of original music and classic covers.

“It’s easy listening with a little bite,” said lead guitarist Ken LaBarbera, who represents the “K” in “PKG.”

The other members of the acronym are Paul Bonnell on rhythm guitar and djembe and Gary Lawrence on bass. Together, they “cover everything from Bob Dylan to Bob Marley,” Bonnell told Reader, but their personal favorite is John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness.”

— Soncirey Mitchell

7-9 p.m., FREE. Connie’s Cafe, 323 Cedar St, 208-2552227, conniescafe.com.

Science-fiction by nature is weird, but few sci-fi books I’ve read have been weirder in a human sense than Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 Hugo-winning novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which I’m embarrassed to say I only recently read. Quick synopsis: A human is born, then orphaned, then raised on Mars by Martians. Equipped with his Martian knowledge and sensibilities, he is brought to Earth where he becomes the unwitting — then witting — tool of tremendous politico-religious and social-sexual powers. It’s also a sweeping rumination on art, love, freedom, family, the cosmos and all that. Whew. Check it out at the library. I’m done with it.

Read Listen

Alex Ebert is an interesting cat. His songs — especially on the 2011 solo album Alexander — are so earwormy and wistful that even without knowing it, I kept hitting repeat whenever one of them streamed past me on Pandora or YouTube.

“Bad Bad Love,” in particular, is an indie-rock banger. What’s more, according to a 2022 profile in The New York Times, Ebert is also a neo-hippie/spiritualist guru, which you’ll find to be on brand if/when you listen to his sound, which you should.

Watch

Even after two viewings of auteur director Wes Anderson’s new film Asteroid City, I must confess to a sense of twee fatigue. Plot particulars aside — which revolve around an alien visitation to a kids’ camp for scientific geniuses, who, along with their oddball parents, are sequestered in a tiny desert town and all the hijinks that implies — feels like Anderson is playing with his favorite action figures in a play-within-a-play. It’s visually sumptuous and pithy, perforce his style, but so self-conscious and referential that it fails to inspire much honest emotion. Streaming on Amazon.

Back Of The Book

‘Over-organized, overpriced and over-proud’

There’s a new New Sandpoint coming — hold onto your butts

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

From Northern Idaho News, Aug. 3, 1915