Jonathan Turner
Jonathan Turner has three decades of varied Quad Cities journalism experience, and currently does freelance writing for not only WVIK, but QuadCities.com, River Cities Reader and Visit Quad Cities. He loves writing about music and the arts, as well as a multitude of other topics including features on interesting people, places, and organizations. A longtime piano player (who has been accompanist at Davenport's Zion Lutheran Church since 1999) with degrees in music from Oberlin College and Indiana University, he has a passion for accompanying musicals, singers, choirs, and instrumentalists. He even wrote his own musical ("Hard to Believe") based on The Book of Job, which premiered at Playcrafters in 2010. He wrote a 175-page book about downtown Davenport ("A Brief History of Bucktown"), which was published by The History Press in 2016, and a QC travel guide in 2022 ("100 Things To Do in the Quad Cities Before You Die"), published by Reedy Press. Turner was honored in 2009 to be among 24 arts journalists nationwide to take part in a 10-day fellowship offered by the National Endowment for the Arts in New York City on classical music and opera, based at Columbia University’s journalism school.
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As temperatures drop dangerously low this weekend, the city of Rock Island is partnering with Project NOW to open an emergency overnight shelter at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 630 9th St., Rock Island. -
The old Lodge hotel in Bettendorf was torn down in 2016, but a new Lodge has opened inside the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. -
When the newly expanded Lincoln-Irving Elementary School in Moline opens in 2027, consolidated with Willard School, it will be called Robert Ontiveros Elementary School -- honoring the life and legacy of the influential founder of Group O, nationally respected business leader, and lifelong advocate for the Floreciente neighborhood where he grew up. -
Tapestry Farms is celebrating the season of giving with the launch of its expanded product line, featuring handmade baklava, fresh flower arrangements, and locally grown vegetables. -
Terry Hanson and his father Charles loved jazz music, and that passion has resulted in donations of their family’s piano, large CD collection, electric keyboard, many books of sheet music and Terry’s drum kit to Black Hawk College’s Art, Design and Performing Arts department. -
The 1908 mansion, which sits in a residential neighborhood (45 minutes from the QC) at 1314 Mulberry Ave., Muscatine, combines two of my favorite things – glorious historic architecture and a varied, spectacular collection of first-class art. -
Sue Ramsett-Kretz and her husband, Chris, love old homes and own four of them in the Davenport Hilltop area. -
The proud Mexican-American couple – who founded the bilingual newspaper Hola America News 25 years ago in the Quad Cities, recently won top awards for their new magazine at a national convention, among many honors. -
A new partnership among Tapestry Farms, River Bend Food Bank and Extension programs of University of Illinois and Iowa State is meeting urgent hunger needs in the Quad Cities area. -
This is the third National Adoption Day celebration held in Rock Island, where the county averages about 40 child adoptions a year.
