The Music of Verdigris
Dr. Charles Nichols is a composer, violinist, computer music researcher, and Associate Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the School of Performing Arts and a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, at Virginia Tech University. He composed the musical themes for the Verdigris Project using as his premise a harmonica recording from Project Director Clark Grant’s late father Eric Grant.
The music was arranged for string quartet and performed by the Great Falls Symphony’s Cascade Quartet on April 10th, 2021 at the Carpenters Union Hall as part of celebrations marking the completion of the Verdigris Project.
Butte, America’s Story is a 4-6 minute daily podcast hosted by Dick Gibson and focusing on Butte history. Gibson touches on architectural, cultural and political history of Butte throughout the town’s existence, from the early mining camp days of the 1860s to today.
Mining City Reflections is a 12-20 minute podcast hosted by Marian Jensen and focusing on women’s and immigrant’s stories in Butte’s historical landscape. Author of the Mining City Mystery Series, Marian weaves together the narratives of women’s lives in mid-century Butte utilizing archival oral history recordings digitized at the Butte Archives.
Life Underground is a one-hour program that illuminates the process of historic underground mining in Butte, one of the greatest industrial feats of the 20th century. The program draws from archival oral histories as well as those conducted as part of Verdigris to tell the story of working underground on the Butte hill.