Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It is time down for our community connection right here on K one, the.
One you trust.
And we have Mary Lynn Mim from ok M and you brought friends.
I did, Hi, Tom, good morning, how are.
You You know?
It's a week away for the kids and two weeks away for the Big Shebang or this.
This is starting to get really exciting.
It is getting very exciting. And to your point, I did bring one of our summer interns, Madeline childs Hell, all the way from Arizona is her home base and her school base at the university is Arizona, so she likes very fluctuating temperatures cold and then really hot. Oh my, so welcome to Oklahoma.
Yeah you can get all that one day.
Yeah.
No, we are gearing up. Oh my gosh. We kick off next Friday. I cannot believe it. A week from tomorrow. We have it our keyboard orchestra at First Press. So if people haven't gotten on yet to see the kids programming, we have a few spots that are still open for a few of our things. But I are a few of our events, but I encourage people to get on there and get your spot reserved because they are many of them almost I think over half of them are sold out, and so we do have a waiting list.
So if you still want to go to something, call rows, go online see what you really want to go to. Call the office at nine one eight three three six nine nine zero zero and get your spot in. But we have the tea time on Saturday. We have still our Dancing Eagles that night out at SunFest. We have five story times on Monday and Tuesday. We have three puppet shows on Tuesday night in Tulsa, and then three more sets of puppet shows on Wednesday. Those are all
at Amber Hall. Those are amazing, They're fun. We had those at Octoberfest and the dads even like them. In fact, Caleb Potter told me was like Mainland. The only complaint I have about october Fest is that you had the beer Stein holding competition at the same time you had the puppet show. He was like, don't do that again. I need to do both, and I said, okay, Caleb,
you got it. And then Thursday we have our really fun Oh let me go back to Tuesday night we have our Twinkle Big Stars performance with dlnn Everts Kids they're going to come perform and sing for us. That's going to be really fun. And then we have two art immersions that are going to be great. We actually opened up another session on Sunday, so people can go check that out see if there's still some space available. But then on Thursday we have another art immersion, we
have a ukulele and violin session. And then we have our grand finale for the kids, which is a troll Jam party out at Unity Square, and so we have the DJs coming. They're always crazy. We're gonna have dancing and bubbles and games and fun and I think, I don't know matter and madel and I just ordered I think like seven different kinds of ice cream bars and popsicles, So I think it's going to be really good. And
adults can have it too. That's free. Everything is free to the public and to the kids, except for the tea. You do have to pay for that, but unfortunately it's sold out, so if you want to go, get on the wait list. We are super excited. And then of course after that our main festival kicks off. That's on Friday, June sixth. We have wool Rock that night and I think it's going to be amazing. The weather's going to
be good. I'm just confident. I probably shouldn't say that out loud anyway, But we have Grady Nichols opening for us with Manhattan Chamber Players here. No, but he's fantastic and so sweet. And this is actually the year of okay A Music and Grady. He is coming to a lot of our things. He's going to be performing at the festival, He's going to be performing at Octoberfest. He is bringing another musician with him and I think it's
going to be very fun. So he's going to do some jazz polka, and then he's going to be performing at Hashtag Giving Tuesday, and I think that's going to be really fun. And he's going to do his I think he's a Christmas album and so he's going to be performing that for us and we're really excited. Yeah, So it is the Year of Grady Nichols at okay and Music. Saturday Night on June seventh, we'll be in Tulsa at Cashall Hall. The Tulsa Honors Baroque Orchestra is
coming back. Those young students mixed in with probably about ten adults who are professional musicians will be performing and they are amazing, amazingly talented. They do a great job. And then that night the main act is Natasha Perimski and she is a beautiful pianist who we are very excited to have and I'm super excited to meet her. This will be her first time at Okay and Music
of course Manhattan Chamber of Players. This is their third year to perform for us, so our second year, so sorry, second year, third year for Esher, who is our finale to perform with us, and so we're excited. We always love having artists back, and I think it's a really good testament to Bartlesville and hopefully to Okay and Music that you know, we get calls after these festivals are over and agents are like, hey, our guys would really
like to come back. They have an amazing time, and so you know, it's a way for us to sort of get that old, rekindled relationship with the artists that we used to have when OKAM first started. And so it's nice to have these guys back because people get to know them. They see them at the restaurants, they see them around town at Bowling Alley's obscure places, and you know, they get to know them, and so that
makes it even more special. Not only wonderful music, but hey, I know that guy he's playing and you know I met him. He's super nice. And then on Sunday, June eighth, we have our finale at the Refinery and we have Lisa Steele's students who will be performing for us. They're amazingly talented. I think a couple of them may go on to be concert pianists. So we highly encourage folks to come out and hear them and clap for them,
support them. And then at seven o'clock is our beloved Quartet, who is just one of the world's best quartets and right here in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. So we're very excited for that. But now to talk about the really good stuff, Tom, because I think it includes you. We have you about the good stuff. We have so many showcase events for
folks to come to and those are all free. Those are typically during the day, and we kick off with those on Friday, June six we have the Bartlesville Ringers Bell Ringers at ten am, followed by the Trinity Recorder Consort at eleven am, and then Wade Daniels, who everyone loves and will be playing a amazing ensemble of He's playing all kinds of different music and so I think
people will really enjoy that. Come out. That's at first pres Again, that's all free, but we do ask that you please reserve your spot just so we make sure we have enough room for everybody. On Saturday, June seventh, we have part of Manhattan Chamber Players. Four of them will be performing in a coretet for us at eleven am at Ambler Hall, and then the one and only Tom Davis yourself, who featuring the Sons of Beaches, will be coming. And we just got the inside scoop that
Tom was rehearsing last night. He's up really late, but it all went good. He's here this morning. And then on Sunday we conclude our showcase with a two pm okay, another youth board, keyboard orchestra, and so please come out and hear these kids.
They are once in a lifetime thing we need.
They are fantastic because they are our opening group. We have one of the age groups and then the older age group is playing on that Sunday and people are going to be blown away because it's like having a full orchestra but on keyboards, and the sound is amazing. These kids are amazingly talented at it, and they really
just have a really good time. We have a again wide variety of music styles that they will be performing to really show off those keyboards that are extremely expensive and very fancy, as my dad would call them, and
so we really really these kids are amazing. We had our Christmas concert I mentioned I think last time I was on here and we had over three hundred and fifty people at that and it was fantastic, and so, you know, it's just something that we are the only ones in northeast Oklahoma, actually the whole state of Oklahoma that has a full year round program. We are pretty confident that we are the only ones in the United States that have a youth keyboard orchestra that is year round.
We haven't found another one, and so I think, you know, I think, you know, it's pretty pretty darn exciting. But Lisa Stiehill does an amazing job, along with a lot of other adults that help. And then our last performance, one that is is a fan favorite is Brent Gooddens. He will be performing as Elvis and so there you go at four o'clock on Sunday and again free. So nine one eight three three six nine nine zero zero is the office number. You can come by and see Madeline.
She'll sell you a ticket. You can call Rose, she'll sell you a ticket. Or you can go online okaymusic dot org and see where the festival. It kind of scrolls by, or you can go to events. You can go to the calendar, you can go to the drop down menu that says festival and you just click on and buy your tickets. Super easy.
My gosh it is.
You know, I don't know how you do this with your your website, but every year it just keeps getting better and better and easier and easier.
They have Even an.
Old guy like me can get on there and say, hey, that was pretty easy.
We are trying, you know. It always it's WordPress is a fun, fun app. It always has a lot of intricate details. So we have a lot of people. Jasell who has been on here many times, one of our other summer a really full time interns. She is amazing with it. And we have a lot of help from other folks too that have to come in and help us do some coding. But you know, it's one of those things that, yeah, it's it is what it is,
and we hope that it's user friendly for people. I buy tickets for people all the time on my phone when I'm out and about, and so yeah, it's you can do it on your phone, you can do it on your iPad, your computer. Coming and see us coming and see Madeline, tell her hi, meet her. Madelin helps run our sugar Plum shop too. She and Katie work
hard on that. In fact, her project this week is and we just got the news square, I guess reader, and I don't know all the fancy stuff that goes with having scanners and bells and whistles and so all that. So it'll make it faster for our customers when they're checking out. Okay, so we're having fun setting that up.
How do you like it so far? How's your internship going?
I really like it.
It's great, isn't it everything that was promised? Yeah? Pretty fast paced, isn't it.
Yeah?
I like it my goodness sake. So well, you know, come back if you know.
This is one of the festivals that you just won't find anywhere else. It's rather unique and it's right here in our hometown. We're so proud of it. We're so proud of you for being here.
And choosing it. No, it's fun, and the interns worked very hard. We couldn't do this festival without the interns. They are amazing. In fact, we have three more coming. They'll start on Tuesday, after Memorial Day, and so we're exited. One of them is our very own Luke Olsen. So great a young man. He's just going to be a graduate this Friday. I think that's graduation for Bartlesville High School. And I think Luke just cleaned up at the Senior Awards simply. He got an award from Okay on music.
He got the mim Scholarship. He did not know that he was getting that. He came in the other day to talk about the internship and we're just going a little bit over about you know, what to expect and all that good stuff. And I had to sort of play dom like, oh, Luke, what instrument do you play? And where are you going to school? Because I knew he was getting the award. He didn't know that I knew that, and so I hope he was surprised. And I can't wait to give them a hard time about
it when he comes in. But what an amazing kid. I mean, all of our interns are so amazingly talented. Madelin is a business major, so that's kind of fun for me because normally we have mostly music majors. I think Luke's going on to do music education or music performance. Just Sell of course is doing music, and so many of our other ones, so they usually know a lot of things I don't know. But Madeline is business and I feel like I know a little bit more maybe
about that than I always do music. But it's it's awesome. She's been helping me do financials and she's been learning about sort of how we do the backside on the operations side. So it's kind of fun for me to get to have an intern that I can share my knowledge with. Since I don't play musical instruments and don't sing, and I can't you could share that, you could, I could, but nobody would want to listen to I don't have
some fun. Okay, you know, I can sing in the car quite nicely, but I'm not sure anyone else would really want to hear that.
And I hate it when the singer on the radio changes the words.
Well, the words and the keys. You know, you just can't stay. I mean it's like really hard to sing with Seline Dion. I cannot hit those notes that might be a good thing. Tom No, But I think you know again, we're so grateful to the interns, Grateful to Rose she has worked so hard on the children's programming. Thankful to we call him Papa at the office. But to John M. He has been out. If he doesn't ask you for money, he asks if he can put a poster up. And if he doesn't ask for that,
he asks you to come. And I think when people see him coming, they're like, well, John, why are you here today? And he says, well, nice that you ask. But you know, we invite everyone to come because that's how you continue the legacy. It's not just about making donations. It's not just about you know, a nonprofit, but it is about getting involved. It's about making the community enriched with the arts. Arts are important. They bring education, they
bring soul. Music is universal. It's a universal language. It appeals to everyone. It brings businesses together, communities together, and such as the radio. We love partnering with our business community partners.
You know's something.
Every time I'm out at Sunbeast, I see John and it's like, dude, do you ever sleep?
He is a million places you know.
Actually, yes, he goes to bed every night pretty early, likes to do his prayers, and then he reads I don't know, five hundred different newspaper periodicals and then he's just me to sleep by I would say, ten, ten thirty, and then gets up every morning at four am again does morning prayers and more reading, and he is ready to go. I'm sure he's out right now making calls to patrons, are out again seeing businesses, saying are you going to come? Don't you want to come? Don't you
want to volunteer? Exactly? He's very persuasive. Everyone loves him. He is truly an asset. Rose is truly an asset. And Katie, also our new staff member, is doing a fantastic job. She is help writing our safety manuals right now for training, and so I think she's having all kinds of fun. So yeah, no, we do a little bit of everything at Okay Music. Also encourage people to come by and see all of our summer line of things at the Sugar Plumb shop. That's hard and yes,
visit Madeline. She'll give you a tour, show you all the good, tasty things that you want to buy. Are the pretty things you want to put in your house. And again, all proceeds from the Sugar Pump Shop. Help. OKAY Music children's programming.
Very good in the Calarie Free Now tell everybody where we can find the OKM office, because we were talking about it.
That is true. We are located downtown in the heart of Bartlesville. We are at four fifteen South Dewey. We are across the street from Gateway Bank, Caddy corner from RBS Bank, and right next door to Roger State University.
Can't miss it.
You can't miss it. If I go out the door, I look down to the right to see Price Tower, I look down to the left and you can see the rest of downtown, the baseball stadium, So you cannot miss us.
Best in town.
It is a very good view. Everyone is very friendly. We have an amazing staff. So yeah, come by and see us. We'll give you a cup of coffee.
Now, if we want to get tickets, just go to the website, folks, and remember with the showcase, you need to get your RSVP right there at the site and when you go there, it gives you. It's like three choices, you know, kids, the Festivall and the showcase. Just follow the directions. The prompts are pretty easy. You're not going to get lost, You're not going to say, oh my gosh, what have I done. It'll get you right where you
want to go. And if you're not too sure about it, just call in your grandkid.
No, it's super easy. And we do have patrons that light to come in and just say hi to Rose and see and so that part's nice. You know. Again, want to give a shout out all of children. Programming is free all children attending the main stage concert the festival. Children eighteen and under are free. So there's no reason not to bring your kids. Introduce them to classical music,
Introduce them to going to concerts and having fun. We will have children's games and whatnot out at wool Rock, so it's a really nice time for families to come out there. We have food trucks, amazing food trucks, so please come out and support those guys. You just can't go wrong.
I have a question for you.
This is someone who had ask me to shorty sure, how soon can they start signing up for the kids programs for next year.
We will probably not release that now. There will be programming for Tiberfest and Chris Kendall. No. I usually we start the kids stuff early. We started in March. We try to start it before spring break so that people can start thinking about it and plan. We know that, you know, it takes a lot of planning for parents who work to get their kids to these things, so
we do try to start that early. So I would say, you know, in the last three years, if I average it out, it's been the last part of February, first part of March. Very good, thank you. That's that's a nice question. A problem to have.
It's a great problem, it's true.
So once again we start with the kids, and we've got the big FESTI we're coming up and everybody has Friday, and then we get ready for October Fast and Chris Kendle Market and start the whole thing.
All over a we do. We have a year's packed worth of events. We will at the end of the day give over thousands of books away to children, other educational items, instruments. I mean, you name it, we do it. But come by the office four fifteen South Dewey. Call Rose nine one eight three three six nine nine zero zero. Come see Madeline or go on the website and see what a great dog Distelle has done building that website and it's okmmusic dot org.
Very good, lady, thanks for being with us today.
Thank you.
Alrighty, you've been watching and listening to our community connection