Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Story Archives

Friends Of WVPB Host 'Fire Shut Up In My Bones' Opera In W.Va.

Fire Shut Up In My Bones, the first performance of an opera by a Black composer on The Met’s stage, is being presented at movie theaters in West Virginia as part of The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Series this Saturday, Oct. 23, at 12:55 p.m. at Regal Nitro, Regal Morgantown, and Cinemark Huntington Mall in Barboursville.

Encore performances are available Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Nitro and Morgantown at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., as well as in Barboursville at 6:30 p.m.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series is presented in West Virginia with generous support from The Betty J. Herscher Fund for Cultural Programming and the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

In the opera, Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir. The first opera by a Black composer presented on The Met stage and featuring a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, the opera tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown, two of the creators of the recent production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, co-direct this new staging. Will Liverman portrays Charles; Angel Blue portrays Destiny/Loneliness/Greta; and Latonia Moore portrays Billie.

Advisory: This opera addresses adult themes and contains adult language.

The series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met Live in HD is supported by Rolex and by Toll Brothers, America’s Luxury home builder.

The complete 2021-2022 Season:

10/9/21 Boris Godunov 12:55 p.m.
10/23/21 Fire Shut Up in My Bones 12:55 p.m.
12/4/21 Eurydice 12:55 p.m.
1/1/21 Cinderella 12:55 p.m. Holiday presentation
1/29/22 Rigoletto 12:55 p.m.
3/12/22 Ariadne auf Naxos 12:55 p.m.
3/26/22 Don Carlos Noon
5/7/22 Turandot 12:55 p.m.
5/21/22 Lucia di Lammermoor 12:55 p.m.
6/4/22 Hamlet 12:55 p.m.

Nominations Open For FY 2023 Friends Of WVPB Board Of Directors

The nomination period for the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Board of Directors is open until 11:59 p.m. on April 15, 2022.

The WVPB Board of Directors represents all members (defined as someone who supports WVPB through a financial gift). Any member in good standing may serve on the Board of Directors. All members are entitled to vote for their representative on the Board of Directors.

Directors are elected to rotating terms annually as defined by the Friends of WVPB bylaws. Each director serves a three-year term, attends quarterly meetings, and acts as an ambassador on behalf of public broadcasting in their communities.

Director positions open for fiscal year 2022 are: Beckley (1), Buckhannon (1), Charleston (2), Huntington (2), Martinsburg (1), Morgantown (1), Parkersburg (1) and Wheeling (1).

Quarterly meetings are the second Wednesday in September, December, March and June. All meetings begin at 12:30 p.m., at 600 Capitol Street, Charleston, W.Va., (unless otherwise stated) and are open to the public.

The Friends of WVPB is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization that supports WVPB’s quality services in education, news and public affairs, emergency services and economic development by soliciting and managing membership donations on behalf of WVPB.

Fill out my Wufoo form!

Nominations Open For Friends of WVPB Board of Directors

The nomination period for the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Board of Directors is open until 11:59 p.m. on April 17, 2020.

Every individual contribution gives supporters membership in the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Inc., and entitles them to vote for members of its Board of Directors.

Our Friends Board of Directors serve as WVPB ambassadors to their communities and are elected to rotating terms annually to represent the communities of WVPB’s radio and television locations. Each director serves a three-year term, attends quarterly meetings, and acts as an ambassador on behalf of public broadcasting in their communities.

Director positions open include Beckley (1), Buckhannon (1), Charleston (2), Huntington (1), Martinsburg (1), Morgantown (2), Parkersburg (1) and Wheeling (1).

The board is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization that supports WVPB’s quality services in education, news and public affairs, emergency services and economic development. Board members solicit and manage membership donations on behalf of WVPB.

Learn more about the Friends Board of Directors here.

Fill out the online nomination form here.

For questions, e-mail Development Director Marilyn DiVita.

Do You Love West Virginia Public Broadcasting And Want To Serve On Our Friends Board?

Do you know someone who loves West Virginia Public Broadcasting and wants to help tell West Virginia’s story?

We are currently accepting nominations for the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Board of Directors. Directors serve a three-year term and attend quarterly meetings the second Wednesday in September, December, March and June. Most importantly, directors serve as ambassadors for public broadcasting in their communities.

Tickets for Live in HD in-cinema opera performances on sale

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountain State opera lovers can purchase tickets now for The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD movie theater transmissions for the 2019-20 season.

Three West Virginia cinemas will show the productions live including Regal Nitro Theatre, Nitro, Cinemark Huntington Mall, Barboursville, and Regal Morgantown Theatre, Morgantown.

The Live in HD lineup includes all five of this season’s new productions alongside five thrilling revivals. The season kicks off this month and continues through May 2020. All shows begin at 12:55 p.m. and run times vary.

_{Puccini’s Turandot: October 12, 2019}
_{Massenet’s Manon: October 26, 2019}
_{Puccini’s Madama Butterfly: November 9, 2019}
_{Glass’s Akhnaten: November 23, 2019}
_{Berg’s Wozzeck: January 11, 2020}
_{Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: February 1, 2020}
_{Handel’s Agrippina: February 29, 2020}
_{Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander: March 14, 2020}
_{Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda: May 9, 2020}

Local playbills are made possible by the Betty J. Herscher Fund for Cultural Programming and are distributed by the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. WVPB television also airs opera productions on various Sundays at noon. For specifics, go to wvpublic.org/tvschedule.

The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series is made possible by a grant from its founding sponsor The Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The HD broadcasts are supported by Toll Brothers, America’s Luxury Home Builders, and the HD Live series is supported by Rolex.

For more information, visit www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas.

Telling West Virginia's Story, Despite a Reduction in State Funding

West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) is willing to do its part to help solve the West Virginia budget crisis. In the upcoming budget, state funding for WVPB will be reduced by almost $1 million, or 22% of our state appropriation.

This is not the first state budget cut for our station. Between 2009 and 2017, WVPB experienced another $1.2 million in state budget reductions. That’s a total $2 million reduction per year in state funding for WVPB, compared to a decade ago.

WVPB tightened its belt while it increased private fundraising and worked to become more technologically efficient. Despite the reduction in state funding, the station added two new TV channels and an online education service for teachers. Mountain Stage is more popular than ever, now carried on more than 200 radio stations nationwide (up from 120 stations in 2013) and it serves a large and growing audience online.

This is in no small part due to the hard work and creativity of the West Virginia Public Broadcasting staff. They deserve our thanks.

Over the next six months, there will be an in-depth review of our entire station. West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to hire a national consulting firm to work with the station in several areas, including potential governance options.

Through good management and with help from our friends, WVPB will continue to tell West Virginia’s story, despite these cuts. The station’s leadership is still determining how to best protect the high quality of services and programming you’ve come to expect from West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

They may have to cut back on some of our most expensive local productions, such as our Emmy Award-nominated children’s show “Abracadabra,” and may need to turn off TV translators in some rural areas. There may be a need to layoff an estimated 5 or 6 of our employees.

Fortunately, we’ve had a surge of support from our members, and that’s helped fill in part of the gap. We’ve seen a 15-percent increase in the number of members in the last six months, with a corresponding increase in donations.

We are in the final two weeks of our Protect WVPB membership campaign, and reaching our $500,000 goal will help alleviate some of these cuts.

We ask that all those who support our news, education and Mountain Stage to become a member, renew their membership or make an additional contribution today. Thanks to two of our Studio Society members, those donations will be matched dollar for dollar (up to $40,000) until the end of this month.

Thanks again to our supporters and staff for the outstanding work you’ve done to protect our station.

Susan Hogan of Wheeling is chairwoman of the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, an independent 501c3 organization that supports West Virginia Public Broadcasting.