April 6, 2023 — Dr. Timothy Smith — Communication Among Musicians and the Value of Live Events

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Sherrie Simmonds

Dr. Timothy Smith, Professor of Piano at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), will speak at Alaska Professional Communicators meeting April 6, 2023. Join us in-person with lunch or by Zoom.

Dr. Smith described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “A pianist who interlaces grace with bursts of power and color” will speak about the special forms of communication that occurs among musicians and how that is transmitted to an audience in live concerts and the value of live events. Since the world has experienced the trauma of COVID and resulting isolation, can the genuineness, immediacy, and excitement of live classical music be replaced?

Dr. Smith has won major prizes in international competitions. He has given master classes in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and North and South America. He has performed in over 50 concerts in Asia and Japan. In the U.S., his students have received honors and recognition in local, state, regional, and national competitions. Timothy Smith is a Steinway Concert Artist and is Associate Dean of Programs and Compliance at the College of Arts and Sciences at UAA.

During the months of COVID, Smith and his wife Rumi produced videos for their YouTube channel. These can be found via a Google search or accessible via this link.

In-Person Luncheon (Doors open at 11:30) or Zoom (your choice)
Program begins at noon

Inlet Tower Hotel and Suites, Fireside Room
1020 W 12^th Ave. (12^th & L and 13th & L)
Free Parking

Make lunch reservations by noon, Tuesday, April 4,2023.

RSVP via any of these three ways:

1. Click here to Register and Pay

2. Email, akprocom@gmail.com

3. Call 907-274-4723 and leave a message, including a phone number where you can be reached. When calling or sending an email, please include how many people are coming and their names.

Members:
$28 for in-person lunch
$5 for Zoom link
Click here to Register and Pay

Guests:
$32 for in-person lunch
$8 for Zoom link
Click here to Register and Pay

March 2, 2023 — Bonnye Matthews — Author Serendipities

Posted on February 3, 2023 by Sherrie Simmonds

After decades of work as a public and homeschool teacher, and working in business and federal government sectors, Alaskan author, Bonnye Matthews, experienced a life-changing event in 1988. No longer able to work; instead, she was expected to die. Knowing she had work to do, Matthews decided to write with an aim to prevent or reduce the hazards that changed her life. Her books on chemical poisoning let her hear from nine readers, each of whom told her the book prevented their plans to commit suicide.

In 2005, she moved to Alaska. She took an Alaska History class. Her fascination with who were the first Americans grew. Matthews continued to research while she wrote the Winds of Change five-volume novel series followed by a three-volume novella series and a tiny non-fiction booklet with a focus on her paradigm. All of her prehistoric novels and novellas were published between 2012 and 2018. Each of those is an award-winner at state or national levels. Needing a change of pace, Matthews shifted to write Arctic Dinosaurs which has already received an award and is entered in other contests. The first draft of Sanctuary: In His Pocket is just finished and has moved to the beta reader phase. She says, “It’s the hardest job I ever had.”

Feb. 2, 2023 — Rolfe Buzzell — Editor of two memoirs from the Turnagain Arm Gold Rush of the late 1890s.

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Sherrie Simmonds

Rolfe Buzzell has been a resident of Alaska for 45 years. He earned a Master of Arts degree and a Ph.D., both in History, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was employed for two years as a historian for the National Park Service in Alaska and 29 years as a historian for the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources. He worked as a field historian documenting historic and prehistoric sites on public construction projects and he participated in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cleanup monitoring the protection of cultural sites. Dr. Buzzell authored 60 interpretive signs posted along Alaska’s highways celebrating the Gold Rush Centennial, wrote approximately 100 professional reports including a history of bridges in Alaska, and worked as an expert witness for the State on litigation regarding the use of navigable waters and rights-of-ways for historic trails and roads across public lands. He mapped and documented the ruins of the gold rush town of Sunrise and is an expert on the Turnagain Arm Gold Rush of 1896-1898. He edited two books by people who lived in Sunrise and nearby mining camps in the 1890s. His article, “Women of the Sunrise Mining Camps, 1895-1901,” was recently published in Alaska History journal. He is currently writing a history of the town of Chitina in Alaska’s Copper River Valley.

Summary of Presentation: Historian Rolfe Buzzell will discuss two books he edited on the Turnagain Arm Gold Rush of 1895-1901. The first is the memoirs of Albert “Jack” Morgan, entitled Memories of Old Sunrise, Gold Mining on Alaska’s Turnagain Arm (1994 and 2013),in which Morgan writes about his experiences as a miner in the Sunrise area. The second book is Gold Rush Wife, The Adventures of Nellie Frost on Turnagain Arm, 1895-1901 (2016, 2020) which provides rare insights into the role of women in one of southcentral Alaska’s earliest mining camps. Dr. Buzzell will talk about the Turnagain Arm Gold Rush, which began 20 years before the founding of Anchorage, and how he came to edit the two manuscripts. He will also provide highlights of these two books, which provide markedly different perspectives on life in a remote mining camp. The books are available from Alaska’s “Ember Press.”

Jan. 5, 2023 — Tom Kizzia — Ghost Town Dreams

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Sherrie Simmonds

Kizzia traveled widely in rural Alaska during a 25-year career as a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. Kizzia was named 2022 Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society for Cold Mountain Path, his latest book. He also penned the bestseller Pilgrim’s Wilderness, chosen by the New York Times as the best true crime book set in Alaska. And, The Wake of the Unseen Object, was re-issued in an Alaska classics series by the University of Alaska Press. Learn more from Kizzia as he speaks to us from his home in Homer, Alaska.