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This episode features the Bakersfield Youth Symphony Orchestra (BYSO), from a concert recorded June 11, 2022 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fresno, and also pays homage to trumpeter Daniel Edwards, a former member of the BYSO and a past performer on Young Artists Spotlight, who died tragically from COVID in March 2021. We’ll hear Daniel Edwards’ appearance on YAS from March 2009. A centerpiece of the BYSO performance is the world premier of a work commissioned in honor of Daniel Edwards, composed by retired CSUB professor Doug Davis.

In this episode, we hear from a young string quartet named Free26. This performance was recorded March 17, 2022, at a concert in Fresno.

This week, we feature more string soloists from the Fresno/Clovis area.

This episode features more string soloists from the Simba School of Music in Fresno. We’ll be treated to a wide range of selections from the Romantic repertoire.

Our season opener features string soloists from the Simba School of Music in Fresno. They range in age from elementary school through high school.

Taft was described in 1912 as “perhaps the liveliest town in the state,” a frontier community of the sort that movie fans once expected Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable to brawl in. Of course, it’s changed tremendously since its early frontier years, but one thing remains the same: it’s still an oil town through and through and the people who live here want it to stay that way. In this episode, we meet some of oil’s biggest supporters. And a high school culinary teacher helps students understand each other through local recipes: Native American, Samoan, Oaxacan.

In this week’s episode, host Alice Daniel talks to writer and journalist Mark Arax about what it means to grapple with trying to truly understand the place where he was born and still calls home, the San Joaquin Valley. Mark has been called a 21st Century John Steinbeck for his books that pry into the soul of California. His most recent work, "The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California," is a national bestseller and has been hailed by critics as one of the most important books ever written about the West.

Kids in small towns don’t always have enough to do after school but a free boxing gym in Avenal is a place of dreams for many youth including two fourth graders who are training hard to win tournaments. In this episode, we meet Jaylene and Jordan, sparring partners whose love for the sport is infectious. A few old timers in Avenal walk us through the town’s history and a young city manager explains why he returned to improve his hometown after attending a prestigious university.

All mayors of small towns need a day job. In Huron, Mayor Rey León, a community organizer since college, runs a non-profit that focuses on making the lives of farm workers better. This episode features his most recent projects including an innovative ride-sharing program called the Green Raiteros. The nationally recognized program uses electric vehicles and primarily benefits elderly farm workers who need to travel to nearby cities for medical care. And an 85-year-old retired school teacher tells us she’s still trying to get a high school in Huron. Right now, students have to take a bus to Coalinga 20 miles away.

People come to work in the San Joaquin Valley for many reasons: as refugees, as migrants and as immigrants. And as you’ll see in this episode, they don’t all come to work the land. At the beginning of The Other California podcast, Host Alice Daniel told you about why and how she came to the San Joaquin Valley, specifically Fresno. A lot of listeners related to it and told her their own stories of how they got here. The KVPR news team is emblematic of so many of those histories, plus as you’ll see, they’re great storytellers. So, get comfortable. Sit back, and take a listen. You’ve heard or will hear their reporting on the podcast. Now hear the personal stories of Soreath Hok, Madi Bolanos, Kathleen Schock and Kerry Klein.