Greta Lee Ryan
Services Pending
Greta Lee Ryan, 70, a lifetime Sitka resident, passed away at her home on Tuesday.
A full obituary will be published in the Sentinel later this week.
A REVIEW:
Tales of Teens Well Told
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock: ‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town.’’ Published by Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2021. 208 pages, $17.99 (hardback).
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, former Sitkan, made a splash and won praise at the national level for her 2016 book, ‘‘The Smell of Other People’s Houses.’’ This year, with ‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town,’’ a collection of linked short stories about children and teenagers, she proves that she’s no one-hit wonder.
“There are secrets in life that people have a hard time even telling themselves,” states one of the characters. Here teenagers and their loved ones, as in real life, hide the trauma that stems from experiences ranging from bitter disappointments to sexual abuse. Across the stories, those secrets build the tension, sending the protagonists across the great landscapes and small towns of the American West. Learning a new job, starting or ending a romantic relationship, losing loved ones, and moving to a new state would be hard for anyone, and we often forget how often teenagers do all those things for the same time, almost all at once. These teens are camp counselors in Alaska, refugees from a wildfire in the Rockies, or in love with someone who they do not truly know. None of this is easy, but their love and loyalty to each other sustain them even across great distances.
Writing for and about teenagers is particularly challenging, and here Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock has hit the mark. She brings her characters to life in their full awkward, earnest, bungling humanity in a way that will age well because it isn’t anchored in a particular moment in time. Their joys and plights will be easy to relate to whether your experience of childhood and teen years involves muscle cars or Snapchat.
The stories themselves are interlinked in a delightful way: in each story a former background character comes out to the forefront and helps flesh out a previously quaint, now deeply human detail. The overall effect is that of a perfectly choreographed contra dance: every participant gets a chance to spin out front as the others recede temporarily. With sure footed grammar and solid narrative balance, the author navigates notorious writing pitfalls (past perfect, inner dialogue, flashbacks) and makes it all look easy.
‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town’’ is a straightforward read, but not simple in either style or content. The result is one of those rare books that are recommended reading for both teenagers and adults.
–Paul Norwood
Longtime Visitor Greeters
Mark 55th Anniversary
By Sentinel Staff
Sitka’s unofficial greeters, Kathleen and Fred Everest, are celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary this week.
‘‘We’ll have a quiet anniversary celebration with our family,’’ they said.
Their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter – Julie, Claude and Hannah McEwen – live across the street from them.
For many of their 23 years in Sitka, the two have greeted downtown visitors with a ‘‘Welcome to Sitka!’’ as they walk hand-in-hand along the Sea Walk.
‘‘We almost always stroll the Sea Walk when we are out, but do also enjoy walking out at Silver Bay,’’ Fred said.
Visitors aren’t the only recipients of the Everests’ positivity and good wishes.
They don’t have any pets of their own, ‘‘but we feed everyone else’s dogs when we are walking.’’
The two met at the University of Idaho in June 1965. They were married June 11, 1966, in Redding, California, and have lived in Grants Pass and Corvallis, Oregon, Juneau for eight years and then to Sitka. Kathleen is originally from Spokane, Washington, and Fred from Redding.
They have lived in Sitka since moving here in 1998.
Fred worked for 30 years as a federal research scientist. After retirement he was professor at UAS-Sitka Campus, then worked for Doland Built Homes.
Kathleen was a technical writer/editor. Before retirement she worked in Sitka at NSRAA, the Legislative Information Office, and as administrative assistant to former State Rep. Peggy Wilson.
Fred’s current hobby is making fine wines from local products like raspberries and rhubarb.
The Everests have raspberry and rhubarb patches, which produce between 60 and 100 pounds of fruit and stems each year.
‘‘I think my raspberry canes are starts from Shelikof’s original planting at Three Saints Bay in 1784,’’ Fred said. ‘‘Starts from those canes on Kodiak Island have been passed around Alaska for more than 200 years.’’
Fred, 80, Kathleen, 77, are planning to resume their seasonal walks this week to greet visitors and residents alike. ‘‘If you meet them on the Sea Walk, say hello and wish them a happy anniversary,’’ a friend suggested.
Sitka Music Festival
Festival Notes
By Susan Wingrove-Reed
Wow. What an emotional, joyous opening weekend for the 50th anniversary Sitka Music Festival. In-person music with a live audience. Beautiful Rachmaninoff – violinist Kurt and cellist Zuill played soulfully – and pianist Yuliya maneuvered zillions of notes with such artistry and passion! The grand opening of the stunning Miner Music Center at Stevenson Hall was an historic event, a tribute to all who volunteered and donated to make it happen, made even more memorable by the presence of beloved SMF founder, violinist Paul Rosenthal. Sunday’s family concert from the Stevenson Hall porch was amazing – Sitka blessed us with good weather and a large crowd enjoyed all the musical (and ice cream) treats. (Thanks, Sea Mart!) And now there’s much more to come - including a free lawn concert every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. through June.
As classical music organizations emerge from COVID silence, there is a new awareness of the importance to continue to present the beloved composers of the past but also invite to the buffet the music of silenced voices – especially those of women and People of Color. The programming on the next three weekends gives us an opportunity to hear masterpieces but also experience stunning music by less familiar but incredible talents. And played by fantastic artists – including the dynamic string quartet from the New World Symphony (Alex, Natsuko, Stephanie and Ian).
Friday night’s concert at Harrigan Centennial Hall (5:30 and 7:30 p.m. options) will open with a selection of solo piano pieces by Manos Hadjidakis – the greatest of the modern Greek classical composers. Hadjidakis wrote four piano collections; pianist Maria Asteriadou will announce her choices from the stage; an homage to the anniversary of the Greek/Turkish War. Turkish composer Fazil Say (born in 1970) has a unique voice – his scores tell stories using folk melodies and dance rhythms. His music is exciting to hear AND to play. Violin Sonata No. 1 is spicy with jazz rhythms and is an example of world music in the very best sense of the term.
Highlights include a lively scherzo that Say shared “evokes jazz that ids played at an Ottoman palace” and an improvisatory, slow 4th movement based on the folk song “My Room is White Washed” and includes “prepared piano” effects. Next, a profoundly beautiful string quartet (1936) by American Samuel Barber. The emotional centerpiece is the 2nd movement, a transcendent, extraordinary melding of anguish and hope that was arranged in 1938 as “Adagio for Strings.”
Reviewer Johanna Keller once quoted violinist Ida Kafavian saying, “You have to be a rock in the middle of nowhere not to have your gut wrenched out by this music.” Finally, Florence Price is a pianist/composer I have grown to love. Hers was the first symphony by an African-American woman to be played by a major orchestra. I highly recommend the new biography about her life, “The Heart of a Woman,” by Dr. Rae Linda Brown. “In a world that worked so hard to dehumanize her and lessen her as a woman and Person of Color, she was determined…. She had an unstoppable musical imagination.” We are going to be treated to two of her brilliant five Folksongs in Counterpoint – Shortnin’ Bread and Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
Saturday night begins with Jessie Montgomery’s wildly colorful, joyful string quartet “Strum.”
“I imagine that music is a meeting place at which all people can converse about their unique differences and common stories,” she said. This gifted young African-American composer described “Strum” as “a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out….and transforms into an ecstatic celebration.” Jessie was here with the Catalyst Quartet in 2014 and Sitkans LOVED this piece!
Next, Ernest Chausson’s (1855-1899) unusual Concerto is a work “more like a friendly competition between a solo violin, a string quartet and a piano.” Favorite sections include a lovely Sicilienne described by Vincent D’Indy as “leading us towards the garden where bloom the charming fancies…” and the animated finale’s main theme that becomes a dizzying waltz. Chausson’s life ended at 44 in a tragic bicycle accident. When he was 20, he wrote, “I have the premonition that my life will be short. I’m far from complaining about it, but I should not want to die before having done something.” Experiencing this piece is proof he did a LOT.
See you this weekend! Check on the SMF website for a recorded mini-preconcert chat/artist interviews to be posted on Tuesdays – this week’s guests are Kurt and Maria!
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Susan Wingrove-Reed is a pianist and music educator from Anchorage. She writes program notes for the Sitka Summer Music Festival.
Paddle Board
Safety Class Set
The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association will offer a paddle board safety class 8 a.m.-noon June 26 at N.S.R.A.A., 1308 Sawmill Creek Road.
The fee is $30, including sales tax. Paddle boarders may register online at www.amsea.org or call 747-3287.
The class will cover board types, paddles, gear and wetsuits; trip planning, weather and risk assessment; charts, tides and currents; personal flotation devices, cold-water survival skills; distress signals and mayday calls; ‘‘Seven Steps to Survival,’’ survival kits, and more.
The class is an introduction for stand-up paddle board enthusiasts to gain necessary skills for safe paddling in Southeast Alaska waters, AMSEA said.
