© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Florida's Water Quality, A Play 'Inspired by WLRN News' & Miami Lighthouse Blind Musicians

Blind and visually impaired musicians use headphones to receive audio cues from the music director.

How much do you know about your drinking water? Last week, WLRN reporters Danny Rivero and Caitie Switalski reported that Florida may not be testing drinking water correctly.In a conversation with Sundial, they discuss new developments in the story and the questions it raised about how local and state officials are testing our water.

According to a study from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Florida ranks second in the number of people impacted by violations of the Safe drinking Water Act. Recently, state officials sent out a memo reminding water districts about the guidelines for testing the water.

Also, director Zack Myers, playwright Anna Victoria and artistic director John Watts joined Sundial to talk about their event, “Inspired byWLRN News," a project with four local playwrights using WLRN news stories as inspiration for a new fictional radio play. Inspired by WLRN News with be May 19 at Florida International University’s The Wolfsonian starting at 7 p.m. 

Oman Pedreira is the music instructor and John Nichols is the music manager of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. Together Pedreira and Nicholas are coordinating an orchestra of blind and visually impaired musicians to perform a new musical score to an iconic silent movie, “The Great Train Robbery.” It's part of Miami Lighthouse’s annual fundraiser event, Music Under the Stars, which supports the Heiken Florida Children’s Vision Program, a statewide initiative that provides free eye care and prescription glasses to underserved students throughout Florida.

Pedreira and Nicholas join Sundial to talk about the process of training blind and visually paired musicians to perform, the challenges of composing the musical score and what to expect from the performance. The performance of “The Great Train Robbery” by the Miami Lighthouse musicians will take place on Wednesday, May 16, beginning at 6:30 p.m.