(bright music) (camera whirring) (bright music continues) (upbeat music) - "InFocus on The Arts," I'm Fred Martino.

Coming up, we'll talk with the author of a new murder mystery that's also a behind the scenes look at local television news.

But first, Julie Staley brings us an Illinois story that highlights how peace is being shared through music.

- Music can move people in powerful ways.

One Illinois musician shows us how it's being used for social change, awareness, and remembrance.

(melancholic music playing) This is how Yona Stamatis speaks for a past that cannot be forgotten.

- So many Jewish musicians had their instruments taken away from them before and during the war.

Some never, you know, most, of course, never got them back again.

Some were smashed and broken, others, who knows what happened to them.

- [Julie] Yona is a third-generation Holocaust survivor.

She is dedicated to advocating cultural awareness.

She peacefully tells family history through music.

(melancholic music playing) - My grandfather on my mother's side, Arno Khan, he was born in (German) Cologne, Germany in 1915.

One day my grandfather's parents attended an auction and there was a violin up for auction.

And they thought, "Well, why don't we bid on this violin and maybe we can, we'll win it for our son, Arno, and he could take violin lessons."

And they did.

And so he began taking violin lessons.

- [Julie] But with the rise of Nazism and World War II, opportunities for Arno Kahn were taken away.

His parents secured visas for him and his siblings to leave Germany in 1937.

Arno Kahn left for New York City on this ship with no possessions, no English, and no idea what horrific events were ahead.

- You know, shortly thereafter, he learned that his parents had been killed in Auschwitz.

Before they were deported to Auschwitz, they had gone to Holland, and had decided to, as many other Jews did at the time, bury some of their possessions in the family garden in the hopes of protecting them, and maybe after the war, of returning to find them again.

And so amongst those meager possessions was my grandfather's violin.

- [Julie] Several years later, still in New York, Arno Khan received a box at his home.

It included photographs, letters, and his violin.

- He opened the violin and he played, you know, "Hatikva," the Israeli national anthem, and he played a little bit of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

And then I think it just sort of caved in and fell apart.

And, you know, from the moisture, having been buried in a garden, and not played for a few years.

- [Julie] The Arno Khan violin has been among dozens that are touring the world as part of the "Violins of Hope" exhibits and performances, already part of two Illinois events in Chicago and Springfield.

The project begins another way to share music and stories that were silenced in World War II.

- These violins were restored by two Israelis.

Survived the Holocaust in one way or another.

Some were hidden, and were brought to Israel afterwards, some were just donated.

- Each one has a story that brings the Holocaust to life.

It takes it out of the textbook and puts it into a face, into a family, into a generation that we can't do as second gen, third gen, or even my family was able to escape.

But that's a message we have trouble doing, but the music of the violins seems to bring people together.

- This "Violin of Hope" exhibit one of the violins had been played by a musician in a concentration camp orchestra.

Orchestras were created in camps, you know, often by the command of those running the camp.

You know, they wanted entertainment or musical accompaniment for whatever horrors were taking place.

But at the same time, you're starving, and you're suffering from disease, and you're cold, and your family has been killed, and you are being asked to make music for hours and hours every day.

And you don't know when you might be picked out of the orchestra and sent to the gas chamber.

And I think it left so many of those few survivors from these orchestras with such trauma.

Many never wanted to play again.

- It's a story that is so difficult, but by telling it through music and having it be a story of survival, we see it and feel it.

(classical music) - [Julie] As a master of violin and the Greek bouzouki, Yona doesn't just share her family history through the "Violins of Hope," but every day as a musician with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and an ethnomusicologist at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Yona's heritage as part of a Jewish and a Greek family combines different worlds, one song at a time.

- I think I began to see it a little bit academically, and I became fascinated by this rift between cultures and also by finding the moments in which they really intersect and align.

- [Julie] Yona's sister played their grandfather's violin as a child.

Yona's personal violin is also a violin of hope.

Irwin Fuss was a friend of their family.

Like Arno Kahn, he also traveled from Cologne to New York in the 1930s, and his dream to play was silenced by the war.

In his nineties, Irwin Fuss told Yona he wanted his violin to be heard again.

- I think there is something very, very unbelievably moving about playing an instrument that was played by someone who either didn't survive the war or survived, but had gone to experience such trauma that they couldn't bear to play their instrument again.

You know, our instrument is our voice.

When we're playing, our mouths are closed, but we're speaking.

And so playing these instruments, were really bringing back the voices of those who suffered and who are no longer able to play for whatever reason.

So it's incredibly deeply moving, especially when you become attached to one of those instruments yourself and it it becomes your own voice.

(melancholic music) - The "Violins of Hope" events continue to tour around the world.

For more information on where they're going next, you can visit their website.

For "InFocus," I'm Julie Staley.

- Thanks, Julie.

"InFocus on the Arts" continues with a new murder mystery that's also a behind-the-scenes look at local television news.

"Off the Air" by Christina Estes tells the story of a Phoenix talk show host who is murdered at work.

The police don't solve this crime, a local television reporter cracks the case and it provides a fascinating look at the world of television news.

The author knows that world very well, a longtime reporter in commercial television.

She moved to public radio in Phoenix, and is now a published author.

Full disclosure, Christina Estes and I worked together in commercial television news many years ago.

Christina, it is so great to see you again.

- I am thrilled to be here with you, Fred.

Thank you so much.

I don't know about the emphasis on many years ago, but yeah, it was a few years ago we worked together.

- (laughing) It was a long time, as you know, and you can imagine my first question.

In the 1990s when we were working together at a commercial television station in the Midwest, I never would've guessed both of us would be working in public media and I would be interviewing you about your first novel.

How did this happen?

- Life is strange, isn't it?

- Yes.

- Truth is strange than fiction, they like to say.

- Yeah.

- I, you know what?

I never thought I would write a mystery novel.

But now that I have and I look back, there were definitely clues when I was a kid because remember when you were really young and some annoying adult would be like, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

And you're like, "I'm just a kid, I don't know."

Well, I actually would say "Author," but I never knew any authors and I never knew anybody who took that career path.

And because I love to read and love to write, I think that's what led me to the path of journalism because I could see people who were on TV or I could hear them on the radio, or I could see their names in magazines and newspapers.

So I think that's what set me down the path of journalism, but I've always loved to read, and especially mystery, so it never went away.

- How about that?

So tell me about the decision to write a novel rather than nonfiction, as you pointed out, something that you know very well working as a reporter for decades.

- A couple of reasons that I chose fiction over nonfiction, and one is because I get enough nonfiction in my life.

(both laughing) - I relate.

- I read to escape.

- [Fred] Yes.

- I read to, just for entertainment, really.

I mean, some people are into movies and I'm into reading mysteries, and crime fiction, and not true crime fiction, but made up stuff.

- [Fred] Yeah.

- So that's one reason.

And again, I've just always loved mysteries and sort of the who done it and ever since reading "Encyclopedia Brown" as a kid- - [Fred] Yes.

- It's just been my thing.

- Yeah.

So the victim in your book, Larry Lemon, is a talk show host who talks about a hot button issue in Phoenix and really around the country, that's immigration.

There is speculation in the book that the rhetoric he uses might be related to his demise.

I won't give anything away, don't worry.

Tell me about the decision to make Larry Lemon another media-related area of your book.

Make him your victim.

- Well, as you mentioned, you and I worked together in commercial local TV news.

- [Fred] We did.

- So I've done commercial TV, commercial radio, and public TV and public radio.

And so between the, all of the TV and radio, the idea of just combining a TV reporter investigating the suspicious death of a controversy radio talk show host came about.

And here in Arizona, if you're gonna do a controversy radio talk show host, really your options are definitely like on one side of the political spectrum, there's not a really popular progressive talk show host in the Phoenix area, but there are more conservative.

And so that's where that idea came about.

And certainly, anybody who has strong opinions and has a media platform, means there's really no shortage of suspects.

- Yeah, yeah.

So the hero, if we can call it that in your book, is reporter Jolene Garcia.

She faces threats doing her work, phone calls, notes at home.

And, you know, it's not a threat, but certainly feels scary.

A flash drive is sent to her at work.

It brought back memories for me of how mail has been scanned for anthrax and other dangers over the years in newsrooms and in offices on Capitol Hill.

Tell me about setting the scene for those threats and how much that you drew on real life experience in doing that.

- My main character, Jolene Garcia, is a 29-year-old TV reporter here in Phoenix.

And I was at one time a 29-year-old TV reporter in Phoenix.

That was many years ago.

But I remember how I felt then, and I really drew upon some of my personal experiences to create that character.

So Jolene is from the Midwest, I'm from the Midwest.

She very much feels like a fish out of water here.

I very much felt like a fish out of water when I moved here.

And Fred, you may remember, I moved here from South Bend, Indiana, where you and I were working together.

I can still remember driving down state Route 51 and seeing here in Phoenix, and seeing my very first sign that said "Interstate 10 to Los Angeles" and nearly lost it because I'd never been outside the Midwest.

And it was a completely different environment from, you know, the mountains and the desert, to the people.

There were people from Southern California here, and they were just like the coolest people in the world, even if they were wearing like jeans and flip flops, you know, they were just completely opposite of anything I had experienced.

So all of those insecurities, I was, I can draw upon and put into my character, and she is out to prove herself because she feels insecure for one, she's seeking recognition, and so she's trying to find that recognition through breaking stories and figuring out who the killer is in this specific case.

But she's also seeking recognition for what's lacking in her childhood experiences.

And I drew again upon my personal experiences as a former foster parent to create Jolene's backstory.

So she either doesn't realize it yet, or she's choosing not to accept that part of that drive and her ambition, which can really rub some people the wrong way, is because she is seeking that sense of acknowledgement, that sense of belonging, somebody to say, "Hey, good job.

You are important and we see you."

- And I imagine as a reporter, there have been times when you felt some threats from people who didn't like your questions, or maybe even were more overtly threatening at times?

- Oh, sure, and you know, anytime you're... - [Fred] Yeah.

- Anytime you're doing your job as a reporter, usually somebody's not happy about it.

If you are trying to uncover things that somebody wants to keep hidden, or even in this political environment, you know, you could go to a political rally and somebody doesn't want you there because the media as a whole does not necessarily have the greatest reputation anymore.

I mean, some surveys will show that, you know, used car salespeople are maybe held in higher regard than us, or Congress.

I think there was a survey where we were like tied with Congress, which was a little devastating for some of us.

But it is what it is.

And as a reporter, I mean, you've got to do your job, you've got to ask the questions, and try to find the information.

You have to do it as respectfully as you can.

But absolutely there are people who don't want to talk to you, and they don't always have to unless they are public figures and that information should be public information and we need to let the public know what's going on.

- Yeah.

You know, this is a difficult question to ask you, but there are, as I said, there are threats in the book against the reporter.

I know working in television now for decades myself, there, fortunately, for me, there's only been one time in a previous job where I really felt a serious threat, and it was not that long ago, and a lot of people are talking about this, that since 2016, since the election of 2016, and the fact that the press was really, has been really demonized by many in the media and also by the former occupant of the White House, it seems that there have been more experiences like this in the press.

Do you feel that?

Have you noticed that?

- I have felt it covering some, as I mentioned, some political rallies.

You know, a few years ago I was at one and just using my phone to show the crowd, to show the long lines.

And I had somebody try to grab my phone and, you know, and then you hear, you know, constant comments about not nice words directed, I guess, to you.

But I mean, that in comparison to what some journalists in some countries go through is nothing.

And not to diminish it, because I certainly have had experiences where I did not necessarily feel safe where I was, you know, and sometimes I think people want to try to intimidate you to make you feel uncomfortable so that you will leave.

So that's definitely there.

But like I said, I haven't feared from my life, I guess, in the way that, you know, we see other journalists in other countries who are really in the trenches trying to provide a massive public service and facing really awful conditions.

- Well, I'm glad to hear that.

I wasn't sure, to be honest with you, when I read your book, 'cause I wondered how much you drew on real life experience with the threats in particular, because I know that you would ask tough questions.

You were someone I always enjoyed working with because you were an out, you still are an outstanding reporter (laughing) and really, really help people to account as necessary in the work that we do.

I wanna ask you another question.

In your opinion, is the local television news world in your book "Off the Air," just about as strange as the real-life world of local television news?

- (chuckling) "Strange," why'd you use that word?

- That's a nice word.

Yes, it's a nice word.

- I'll tell you what.

I am, as you mentioned, I work for public radio here in Phoenix, and I probably would've stayed in local TV news had they let me cover what I wanted to cover, which was local news.

I very much wanted to cover the Phoenix City Council, and I couldn't find at that time a TV station in town that was interested in me covering that.

So I went into public radio where yeah, they appreciate, and our listeners, our audience actually appreciates hearing how our local tax dollars are spent when it comes to police, and fire, and libraries, and streets, and all of that stuff.

I mean, it impacts us on such a personal level every day.

So I'm so grateful to be able to do that.

Having said that- - Great answer.

- I absolutely feel for anybody who's in local TV news because it is a strange, as you said, situation in terms of the environment.

Not just like a safety, or respect, or lack of respect for the media, but also the business environment.

You know, you and I are in public broadcasting, and so our members, our viewers, our listeners, know what they're going to get from us, that they're gonna get serious news, they're gonna get news that matters really to them, to their friends, to their family.

And we don't have shareholders that we have to answer to, like local TV stations do.

And that's a whole nother beast, is they're trying to figure out how to stay relevant when fewer eyeballs are tuning in at certain times.

And then you have such fragmentation because of social media, right?

Everybody is going a zillion places to find whatever it is that they wanna find.

- Yeah, and let me ask you about that, because that is one of the aspects, just one, of local television news and television news in general that you address in the book, social media.

What has that done to news, especially commercial news, and to society having that?

- Wow, when did...

I became a sociologist all of a sudden, Fred.

- Oh, well that would be a half hour or an hour long show.

So you have to answer like you're being interviewed on commercial TV for this one.

- 10 seconds- - We got three minutes left.

- You know what?

I mean, social media, like anything right?

Has it's good and it's bad.

- Yeah.

- I got to tell you, when Twitter was good, Twitter was good for me as a public radio reporter covering Phoenix City Council, I would live-tweet meetings and people loved that.

Oh my god, I thought I was totally providing a public service.

It was great.

Well, Twitter changed a lot, as we know, in the last year and a half or so.

But it is challenging for sure in local TV news because I know of some places where the reporters and anchors are encouraged to post a lot of non-news-related stuff.

And if you look at some feeds, you're like, sometimes, you know, 'cause we're older, so we're thinking like old people we're like, "What is this?

This has nothing to do with news," right?

- Right.

- And they're encouraged, though, to post multiple times a day.

Not really sure how that translates into attracting news viewers or news audience, but that's what they're being told to do.

- Yeah, it's tough.

And, you know, and it relates, social media, it also relates to something when we were in South Bend we weren't dealing with, which is the internet, period, right?

I mean, the fact that there is no, the news is 24/7.

And that's the other aspect that you really feel in your book.

And people will understand the pressure, particularly in local television news much more after reading this, in addition to getting a murder mystery and moments that are really interesting reading the book.

So after completing this book, Christina, tell me what is next for you as an author?

- Well, I am working on the sequel.

So my goal has always been to have a mystery featuring a local reporter.

And so I am working on the second book now.

So book one ends...

The way book one ends is the way book two will pick up.

- Very interesting.

And do you see yourself also writing other story, other fictional stories, or maybe trying nonfiction in terms of long-form work?

- Well, I'm still reporting full-time here in Phoenix, so my goal- - Just a little busy.

- Is to really make a successful series featuring the local reporter, Jolene Garcia.

I have so many ideas for her on a personal as well as a professional level, and I certainly have no shortage of professional experiences to draw upon.

I actually included a couple of them in "Off the Air," so I have plenty more, Fred.

- I had a feeling.

I had a feeling that that was the case.

Working in the media, you have many experiences that can inspire fictional stories, the difference is that as time goes on, it seems like the fictional is less strange than the real.

(Fred laughing) - Oh my gosh, you are so spot on.

I was trying to think of like, outrageous things that, you know, the news managers might tell them to do.

And I'm like, "Oh, this is ridiculous.

This will be great."

And then it turns out I'm like, "Somebody's doing it."

I'm like, "No, it's supposed to be outrageous, not real."

- Not real.

Christina Estes all through of the book "Off the air."

Christina, what a delight to talk with you and catch up after, sorry, so many years.

- Thank you so much, Fred, it's been my pleasure.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you.

That is "InFocus."

I'm Fred Martino for all of us at WSIU.

Have a great week.

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