Arts Briefs | Feb. 12 edition
Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 12, 2026
Galetine’s Dance
Galentine’s, a women-only dance party, will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, at Snapdragon. The festive evening of tarot, beats and a silent auction is a benefit for the local nonprofit community center, Women Hold the Key. Find out more and get advance tickets at womenholdthekey.com.
“A Guitar at the Opera”
Classical guitarist Davide Sciacca, an acclaimed musician who performs internationally and teaches in Italy, will play a free recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, in the atrium of Vashon Center for the Arts.
The recital, coinciding with Sciacca’s residency at Vashon Artist Residency, will offer a candlelight experience in VCA’s atrium space, with bistro tables as seating.
“A Guitar at the Opera” will explore the meeting point between opera and guitar. Centered around the music of Vincenzo Bellini — the great Sicilian opera composer from Catania — the program features lyrical transcriptions inspired by “Norma,” alongside works by Italian, Spanish and contemporary composers. Attend the concert and storytelling experience, where opera, guitar, and cultural roots will all meet in an intimate musical dialogue.
Find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Fairyoke
“Love Boat Fairyoke,” a karaoke event to benefit the Vashon High School theater program, will be hosted by the Washington State Fairies (Jennifer Potter and Tami Brockway Joyce) at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, at the Vashon Eagles clubhouse at 18134 Vashon Hwy SW. A membership drive for The Eagles is also underway. Find out more at vashoneagles3144.com.
“Right in the Eye”
“Right in the Eye,” an adventurous all-ages cinematic experience, will be presented at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at Open Space for Arts & Community.
A creation of Jean-Francois Alcolea, “Right in the Eye” features the silent films of pioneering filmmaker Georges Melies, accompanied by a live score performed by three virtuoso performers on a wide range of instruments. These include piano, percussion and guitar, along with other unexpected oddities including aquaphone, theremin and even plastic takeout lids.
The production showcases 12 films, blending live performance with visuals of the technical wizardry and boundless imagination of Melies at the dawn of cinema.
An all-ages workshop taking viewers behind the scenes of “Right in the Eye” will take place at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, at Open Space. Billed as a “journey where history meets wonder,” the workshop will include exploration of the instruments used by the musicians and a closer look at the groundbreaking special effects achieved by Melies.
Find out more and get tickets at openspacevashon.com.
Love Duets 7
A long-awaited continuation of six previous Love Duets showcases, presented by Vashon Events before COVID hit, will be presented at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at The Station, 17816 Vashon Hwy. SW. Hosts for the evening will be Richard Moore and Allison Jones.
The roster of performers includes Chris Anderson and Kim Thal; Danny and Matthew Rieger; Chuck Keller and Tony Mann; Maya Krah and Matt Wilson; Gregg Curry and Rhiannon Walther; Kenny and Indigo Alton; Marnie Wingett and Jacob Viramontes; Gillian and Nick Simmons; Martin and Melissa Feveyear; Allison Jones and Doug Pine; Guido and Bianca Perla; Jane Spakowsky and Paul Moomaw; Rusty Willoughby and Rachel Flotard; Jennifer Stills and Damon Gardyne; and Sarah Christine and Wesley Peterson.
In addition to musical performances, community members will also participate by reading short love poems — either an original piece or a favorite work that speaks to the heart — during transitions between acts.
Readers will include Tami Stone, Emily Burns, Jan Lofland, Tara Morgan, Dedra Whitt Dakota, Bart Diener, Jayne Norton, Jeff Hoyt, Cara Briskman, Chris Robinson and Amanda Knox, Dexter Wilks, Truman O’Brien and Diane Grob.
Proceeds from Love Duets will support the Vashon Events Music Instrument Library and the organization’s year-round community arts, culture, and charity events calendar.
Find out more at vashonevents.org.
Vashon Film Institute
Vashon Film Institute presents a regular series of independent and international films at Vashon Theatre.
The 2025 supernatural body horror film, “Together” — called “fiendishly fun” by RogerEbert.com — will be screened at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13.
The Film Institute will also partner with artist Natalie Woodlock to present a screening of Ang Lee’s 2005 queer love story, “Brokeback Mountain” at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15 at Vashon Theatre.
Over the last couple of years, Woodlock has organized screenings of the film, providing viewers with handkerchiefs and asking them to write down the scenes that made them cry — a project she is now continuing on Vashon. She is currently making a screen-printed artists’ book, illustrating the “Brokeback” scenes that brought audience members to tears.
Woodlock, based in Seattle, is an alumna of the Vashon Artist Residency.
“To me, Brokeback Mountain is a perfect film,” she said. “This project is about the connective power of film, and of the transformative ability of tearjerkers to create ritual spaces for catharsis and release.”
Find out more and get tickets at vashonfilminstitute.com/vfipresents.
Love Stories with a twist
Seattle cellist Michelle Dodson and local storyteller Merna Ann Hecht will present “Love Stories with a Twist” at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at Wine Shop Vashon, at 17206 Vashon Hwy SW.
The program, in honor of Valentine’s Day, includes thematic musical interludes and storytelling with surprise twists in each tale. The evening will include a tale of unrequited love of a mythic kind, a story that touches on a deep love for the natural world and a beguiling, all-ages fairy tale wrapped in imaginative imagery.
Dodson is an accomplished cellist, composer and music educator who performs widely in the Puget Sound area. She has accompanied Hecht for several years in different venues including a program in 2019 at the Black Cat Café titled “Singing Hope in A Dark Time.”
Hecht is a nationally known storyteller, poet, teaching artist and activist. Her repertoire of stories is collected from many cultures, and she considers each one “a wisdom tale asking listeners to suspend their disbelief and allow their imaginations to follow the transformations of the mythic and storied world.”
Salish Sea Early Music Festival
Salish Sea Early Music Festival will present Ukrainian harpsichordist Olena Zhukova, Canadian viola da gambist Susie Napper, Canadian pardessus de viole player Mélisande Corriveau and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan in concert at 12 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16, at Vashon’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, at 15420 Vashon Hwy SW.
The concert “France & Italy: Pardessus, Gamba, Flute & Harpsichord,” will feature an unusually sonorous ensemble of instruments that were last commonplace during the early decades of the 18th century in France. It will include music by Louis-Antoine Dornel, Louis and Francoise Couperin, Archangelo Corelli and Andre Cherona.
Find out more about about the concert and other upcoming programs in the series at salishseafestival.org. There is suggested donation of $20-$30 dollars for the concert, with those 18 and younger admitted free.
“The Lost Salmon” screening
The Lost Salmon, a poignant and inspiring film that captures the ways that scientists, conservationists, and communities are coming together to protect salmon, will be shown at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Vashon Theatre. Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust is presenting the film.
“This film is for anyone interested in the future of salmon and the role we can play in their recovery,” Adam Pimey, a staff member of the land trust, said.
The evening will include a brief introduction to the Land Trust’s work in restorating Vashon Island creeks, followed by a Q&A with Land Trust staff members and other local ecology experts.
This event is free and open to the public, but donations to the Land Trust will be gratefully accepted.
Galvin Cello Quartet
The award-winning Galvin Cello Quartet will present music ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Debussy, Gershwin and beyond, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, at Vashon Center for the Arts. With members hailing from Brazil, South Korea and the United States, this international ensemble has been hailed as one of the most exciting young groups in classical music.
Get tickets (free for youth with reservations, but adults must accompany children 12 and younger) and find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Masters of Irish Music
Vashon’s Masters of Irish music concert series will kick off its 2026 season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Vashon Havurah, located at 15401 Westside Highway SW.
That evening, master fiddler and composer Randal Bays will join forces with fiddler and vocalist Susan Waters and guitarist and vocalist Clint Dye.
Bays is an acclaimed American fiddler who’s been deep into Irish traditional music for many years and is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. He has a special love for the fiddle traditions of counties Clare and Galway, where he’s spent many a night playing tunes with the masters of that intricate music.
He has recorded and toured in the U.S. and internationally with such musicians as Martin Hayes, James Kelly, Daithí Sproule, James Keane, and many more. In 2021, he received the Irish Artist in America Achievement Award from O’Flaherty Irish Music. Bays lives in the Seattle area and is the artistic director of Cascadia Irish Music Week.
Waters, a native of Vermont, grew up in the midst of a musical family, and as a teenager, traveled widely in Europe with various singing and dancing ensembles. Shetook up the fiddle in her 20s and soon developed a strong, rhythmic style perfectly suited to the music of western Ireland. Susan met Randal in the late 1990s and they’ve been playing tunes together ever since, finding time along the way to get married and raise two sons, who are also both fine musicians.
Dye, who now plays with Irish button accordion master John Whelan in his new band, Taisce Baile, has a wealth of experience playing at festivals and events on the East Coast.
The concert has a requested donation of $25 at the door. Contact Jan Strolle at 206-228-0730 or janstrolle@comcast.net to make a reservation. Stick around after the show for an Irish music session — musicians and non-musicians are all welcome.
