Life on Orcas Island with Edee Kulper

Winning the 2026 Telluride National Bluegrass Band Contest in Colorado was a dream come true for The Litch Brothers. Kaj and Tashi Litch estimate they've played about 500 shows around the country since they were children. They have been dropping jaws with their bluegrass skills for over a decade, which is phenomenal for being in their early 20s!
After learning how to play the violin/fiddle from their mother, they branched out to other instruments and began performing as the Crow Valley String Band (mother Rachel on fiddle and father Jim on bass), then became a duo called Brother for Sale, renamed to Brograss, and they now play as The Litch Brothers: Tashi (mandolin), Kaj (guitar), Evan Snoey (fiddle) and Ben Lewis (bass).
Not only do Tashi and Kaj excel in music, but in just about everything they pursue. Tashi attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he studied music through the Conservatory and earned a Bachelor of Musical Arts. He went on to East Tennessee State University, studying Appalachian/roots music in the very places it was developed. Kaj just finished his degree at Yale in Global Affairs and Human Rights and will be continuing his education at Oxford, peppering in 15 upcoming shows through October in Washington, Tennessee, and Maryland with the band.
Tashi and local American roots musicians Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms co-founded and continue to organize OrcasFest, one of our newer annual festivals here on the island, which entails a weekend of performances, workshops, dances, and concerts at venues all around Eastsound from musicians who have traveled sometimes far and wide to be here. For more information about it, go to www.orcasfest.com.
You can get tickets at Darvill’s or on litchbrothers.com to see The Litch Brothers here at The Grange on Thursday night before they head off-island again (hurry, as they’re selling out!). You will not regret it. They also happen to be some of the most genuine, polite young men you could ever meet. For more information about them, go to www.litchbrothers.com.

What is prayer, favorite aspects of other religions, and other topics are discussed in this third interview with Father Berto.
Make sure to listen to the previous two:
Topics in the first interview: What is God, what is Jesus, the beauty in other religions, the language that separates Christians, the symbolic and the diabolic, hell, resisting simplifying and resting in complexity, and more.
Topics in the second interview: what is the Bible, being a Roman Catholic priest and then an Episcopal priest, interpreting and discerning the Bible, silent retreat, and more.
The Reverend José Roberto (Berto) Gándara-Perea began his ministry at Emmanuel Episcopal in 2014. Berto is a native of Puerto Rico. He has been a priest for 34 years and has served in the Dominican Republic, Belgium, Spain, Puerto Rico, and in New York City. Berto has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Master in Theology. He obtained four other post-master’s degrees from universities in Belgium, Spain, and New York. Berto is passionate about parish ministry, Christian mysticism, contemplative spirituality, photography, and inter-religious dialogue. He shares his life with his spouse, the Reverend Hugh McPhail Grant, who is also an Episcopal priest and works primarily on the island as a psychotherapist, but assists at Emmanuel preaching and with pastoral care.

A former art therapist with two degrees – a BFA from University of Texas, Austin (1971), an MFA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX (1976) and post-graduate work from Pratt Institute of Art, New York City (1987) – Susan not only paints beautiful scenes of (sometimes fleeting) snippets of life here but also uses art as her own therapy to navigate sorrows and frustrations brought about by the political climate of our country.

What is the Bible?, being a Roman Catholic priest and then an Episcopal priest, interpreting and discerning the Bible, silent retreat, and more.
Father Berto Gándara has been a priest for 34 years, first a Roman Catholic priest and then an Episcopal priest. He has been at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Eastsound for 12 years. A native of Puerto Rico, the ever-joyful Father Berto speaks Spanish, English, and French, and has served in the Dominican Republic, Belgium, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Harlem. He has a BA in Philosophy, a Master's in Theology, and four other post-master's degrees in Belgium, Spain, and New York. Berto is passionate about parish ministry, contemplative spirituality, photography, drumming, Native American flute playing, interreligious dialogue, and outreach, especially to the LGBT and Latino community. He has shared his life for the past 20 years with his spouse, the Reverend Hugh McPhail Grant, from Atlanta, Georgia, who is also an Episcopal priest. Hugh served as an associate priest at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in New York City, and is a licensed clinical social worker, a wilderness spirituality guide, and a stewardship consultant.

Cofounder of Hands Across the Water connecting Orcas and Salt Spring Islands, Ross Newport volunteers his time and resources to transport people across the sea for various causes and experiences. Ross spent his career as a printer - from first job to retirement - and learned to navigate the seas once he retired here on Orcas Island. He recently transported volunteer performers from the New Old Time Chautauqua Circus (https://chautauqua.org/) to several of the Northern Gulf Islands in Canada to entertain the islanders and participate in service projects to help them do much-needed work. All "Aqua Chautauqua" members volunteered on service projects, then volunteered as circus performers. Ross also partnered the Yacht Club with the Orcas Island Garden Club this summer in organizing volunteer boat captains to transport locals to Yellow Island, a Nature Conservancy preserve, to view the wildflowers. His aim is to continue finding ways that local boaters can volunteer for various helpful or exploratory pursuits, in much the same way as local pilots do Mercy Flights.

Making jingles for commercials for Nike and a multitude of other companies was Jim's bread and butter. He went from a broke musician to a man with wealth, and decided early on to keep a portion and give the rest away. He built the Funhouse here on Orcas Island, and you may have seen him in the Magical Mystery Tour production at Orcas Center last year. Listen to his stories about the first time he met his long-time friend, Martin Lund, and the first time he laid eyes on the photograph of a woman who later became his wife.

Sally channels the Dalai Lama in this episode, answering questions and sharing a brief history of Tibet. She is the founder of My Inner Lighthouse and explains online that she is "one part chaplain, one part therapist, one part medium, and all parts presence." Read more about her on www.myinnerlighthouse.com.

A Buddhist Chaplain focused on prison ministry, Susan has facilitated transformational programs at San Quentin State Prison. Her ministry has included the renown Guiding Rage Into Power Program (GRIP), the Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG), Houses of Healing, Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out, and many other programs she started. Susan also served as the Buddhist Chaplain to the mainline population and on Death Row, where her sangha (community) grew quickly from one to 65 men.
Susan founded Buddhist Prison Ministry, which currently serves incarcerated people in every state of the US. She also teaches for various organizations, including Sukhasiddhi.org, The Chaplaincy Institute, Prison Yoga Project, SBMG, provides spiritual counseling, and supervises Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) for chaplain students.

A composer, arranger, and musician working in Los Angeles studios, Martin moved fluidly among classical music, rock, jazz, and Broadway. He is adept at clarinet, saxophone, flute, piano, and the accordion, and has recorded many albums, playing with Larry Carlton, Alex Acuña, Nathan East, Abe Laboriel, Carlos Vega, Michael Landau, and many more.
Martin is responsible for Orcas Island Jazz Fest, which happens every year during the Labor Day weekend, and no musical event is complete without his tremendous abilities and blatant joy!
Some of the most talented musicians who grew up on the island learned under Martin’s instruction.

Pilot Gil Blinn has flown around 1,100 Mercy Flights, and pilot and Port Commissioner Allan Tone is the President of the Orcas Aviation Association (OAA), which is the organization that operates the Mercy Flights program.
For almost 25 years, Mercy Flights pilots have been transporting Orcas Island residents who need to get to the mainland for non-emergency medical needs like radiation and chemotherapy. Pilots also transport family members of people who have been medically transported.
Patients and family members are not charged for the flights, and pilots are volunteers who provide their own aircraft and time. It is quite a thing!