Renee Branson considered herself a resilient person. She suffered a sexual assault in her late teens but soldiered on. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University and a master’s in counseling psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. She built an outwardly happy home life and went into business helping others overcome their […]
When the schedule for this year’s 50th-anniversary season of the Charlottesville Symphony hits the desk of Elizabeth Roberts, the orchestra’s principal bassoonist eyes the first piece in the first show. It’s Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and she’s played it many, many times. For professional players like Roberts, seeing Beethoven 5 on the setlist is like […]
Charlottesville area homes are selling at higher prices on average this year than they were in 2023, but they’re sitting on the market longer, and total sales are down. That roughly matches what’s happening nationwide, but there’s a key difference, according to local realtor Paul McArtor. “Charlottesville is so tied to the university, government, and […]
What’s 80 years to a library? The Rotunda itself served as the University of Virginia’s main volumes venue for more than 100 years, after all. But by 2018, eight decades after a new library took the Rotunda’s place and shepherded in an era of research-driven scholarship, change was necessary. UVA administrators decided they would take […]
The HeartPine Company made its name crafting custom products from stuff a lot of people would throw away. It’s that commitment to finding beauty that has allowed the firm to thrive for 25 years. “I think there are two or three things that make it different,” says Debra Kirschnick, who directs the company’s sales and […]
Donuts have been on a certain trajectory for the last two decades: bigger, more toppings, more creativity—an arms race of candy, cookies, and fried pork. After several years working with semi-traditionalists Jason Becton and Patrick Evans at MarieBette Café & Bakery, Melissa Sbrocco is going in a different direction. When she opens her namesake donut […]
Local high school student Vidya Ambati has potentially saved pharmaceutical researchers several years and billions of dollars in the fight against arthritis, and the breakthrough comes with at least one major side effect: a $50,000 college scholarship. Ambati, along with 19 other gifted high school students nationwide, was named a 2024 Davidson Fellow in late […]
Blues rocker Samantha Fish says she “didn’t know what [she] was doing” when she made Girls With Guitars alongside Cassie Taylor and Dani Wilde in 2011. The same might be said of the albums’ producers, who probably should’ve known better by then. When Wynonna Judd released her hit song of the same name in 1994, […]
A few years ago, Abhishek Kulkarni was just a guy getting a business degree who dabbled in comedy. Now, he’s a local open mic mainstay who’s learned to work a crowd. “Initially, I was writing a lot of new content for the U.S. audience, so I would go like three weeks of telling the same […]
Ty Cooper defies categorization. As a marketing professional, he’s worked with all manner of companies and in myriad media. As a visual artist, he’s made his mark as an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and designer. Perhaps that’s why Cooper is drawn to short films. “If a person is interested in being a filmmaker, shorts are an […]