Arts Briefs | July 10, 2025
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 9, 2025
PianoFête
A beloved Vashon Center for the Art festival, PianoFête, began on Wednesday and will continue nightly through Saturday, July 12, in VCA’s Kay White Hall.
The event features renowned concert pianists Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Rexa Han, Konstantin Soukhovetski and Daria Kiseleva.
Performances at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9 (after press time) and Thursday, July 10, will feature all four pianists. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 11, Gryaznov and Han will join forces for an evening billed as “Pianos Dancing Cheek to Cheek.”
PianoFête’s finale, set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 12, is billed as a “Cinematic Farewell” and again will feature all four pianists, this time playing their own arrangements of acclaimed film scores, from “Titanic,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Schindler’s List,” and a medley of scores from James Bond films.
That evening, the pianists will also be joined by Vashon-Maury Chamber orchestra and G-Phil to play Alexander Tsfasman’s “Jazz Suite,” as arranged by Gryaznov.
Get tickets, which are free for youth, and find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Studio Ghibli Festival
Friends of Mukai’s popular annual Studio Ghibli Festival continues, with 7 p.m. screenings on Tuesday evenings at Vashon Theatre.
This year, the slate of films includes works by beloved Studio Ghibli co-founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
Pre-show karaoke — a popular offering in last year’s festival — will be on tap again this year, so show up early at the theater to grab the mic — and also to avoid long lines at the concession counter.
Tickets to the event cost $6 each, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
“Kiki’s Delivery Service,” made in 1989, will be shown on July 15, and “Ponyo,” Miyazaki’s 2009 classic, will light up the screen on July 22. The series will wrap on July 29 with “The Tale of Princess Kaguya,” a 2013 film directed by Takahata.
Visit mukaifarmandgarden.org for additional information and to donate to support the series.
A night of comic theater
“Cowbaret,” billed as a “cultish game show-style ruminant revue” will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at Open Space for Arts & Community, at 18770 103rd Ave SW.
The show, conceived and performed by award-winning fringe festival veterans Amica Hunter and Bruce Ryan Costella is “a Monty Python-esque tribute to all things cow,” according The Orlando Sentinel.
“Cowbaret,” running 60 minutes with adult language and themes as well as audience interaction, will bow at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at Open Space.
Get tickets and find out more at openspacevashon.com.
Harpsichord and flute
Attend a concert of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival at 12 p.m. Monday, July 14, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, at 15420 Vashon Highway SW.
Renowned Spanish harpsichordist Irene Roldàn and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan will play a program of music by Bach and Scarlatti.
Cohan, also the director of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival, said that Roldàn’s performance at the Urbino Early Music Festival in Italy was “the most moving exciting solo harpsichord recital” he has ever heard.
Roldàn, currently living in Basel, Switzerland, won the prestigious Bach Prize at the XXXIII International Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and has performed as soloist at major early music festivals in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and around Europe. Her performances with Cohan will be her first in the United States.
The concert has a suggested donation of $20 to $30, with those 18 and younger admitted free. Find out more at salishseafestival.org/vashon.
First Nations Stories
Vashon Island Unitarian Universalists’ Social and Environmental Justice Committee will present a summer series of three free films focused on First Nations voices.
Films will be shown at 10 a.m. Sundays, July 13, July 27, and Aug. 10, at Lewis Hall, located on the hill behind Burton Community Church.
Films will include “Dawnland,” on July 13, a story of stolen children and cultural survival; “”Bring Them Home,” on July 27, chronicling a decades-long initiative to bring wild buffalo back to the Blackfoot Reservation; and “Promised Land,” on Aug. 20, a documentary that follows Duwamish and Chinook tribal members as they fight for the restoration of treaty rights they have long been denied.
Find out more at vashonislanduu.org.
Finding Unity
Revered island author and mythologist Michael Meade will present a free online event, “Finding Unity in a Divided World,” from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17. Register and find out more at tinyurl.com/ye9j7td9.
Strawberry Festival Mainstage
Vashon Chamber of Commerce has announced a packed lineup for its main stage music performers for this year’s Strawberry Festival, coming up Friday-Sunday, July 18-20, in Ober Park. The Chamber’s Beverage Garden will be close to the stage to serve libations to those 21 and older.
Friday’s lineup starts at 4 p.m. with Rumor Has It, a Vashon band that plays a blend of bluegrass, country, rock, Afro-Celtic, and blues. At 5:30 p.m., The Reptile Man, a repeat visitor to Strawberry Festival, will return to show off his menagerie of slithering and amphibious friends. At 7 p.m., Little Creatures — Vashon’s only Talking Heads tribute band — will perform.
And at 9 p.m. Friday, Bowie Rex & His Boogie Army will storm the stage, offering up megahits from David Bowie, Marc Bolan & T-Rex, Roxy Music, The Cars, The Kinks, Talking Heads, Joy Division, Blondie, Prince, Sex Pistols, Lou Reed and more. The band is a supergroup of some of the regions’ finest musicians, including Dave Dederer, Tim Dijulio, Michael Musburger, Billy Stover and Jeremy Lightfoot, rounded out by front-man Martin Feveyear and backing singers “The Suffragette Sisters — Rhiannon Walther, Melissa Feveyear and Sarah Howard.
On Saturday, the fun starts at 11:30 a.m. with The Dusty 45s, a legendary Seattle band fronted by its dynamic founding member, singer-songwriter Billy Joe Huels. At 1:30 p.m., Kimmi Bitter — dubbed as “the future of classic country,” will take the stage with her hard-driving band. At 3:15 p.m. Ron Artist II and his band will play original music that has energized audiences across the globe. At 5:30 p.m. Jealous Dogs will passionately bring the music of The Pretenders to life.
Another beloved tradition — a street dance with Portage Fill — will take place at 6 p.m. in town, in front of Sporty’s. Don’t miss falling under the band’s timeless big band and swing-era spell. And when that’s over, head back to Ober Park for The Power Players, an 11-member band with a full horn section that specializes in the music of Chicago, Toto, Doobie Brothers, Wings, Boz Scaggs, Earth Wind & Fire, Joe Jackson, Steely Dan and more.
Close out Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. with Vashon’s very own Publish the Quest, fronted by Jacob Bain. Publish the Quest features bold horns with a cracking snare, melodic guitar, and bass going heavy on the funk. If you like Afrobeat and organic hip-hop, you’ll find yourself swaying in the moonlight to the band’s irresistible beats.
Sunday, get up and get back on your feet at 12 p.m., when The Panda Conspiracy, a six-piece, genre-bending band will fuse reggae and funk grooves with riff rock. At 2 p.m., rock out with Hell’s Belles, an all-female AC/DC cover band. And at 3:45 p.m., a festival tradition will continue, when beloved local band Loose Change wraps up the main stage offerings.
Mean Girls, Jr.
Vashon Youth Theatre will present performances of “Mean Girls, Jr.,” at 7 p.m. Friday, July 25, and 2 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at Vashon Center for the Arts. The show is the culmination of a VCA summer musical theater camp for ages 12-18.
The show is adapted from the hit movie written by Tina Fey and starring Lindsay Lohan. It tells the story of Cady Heron, a girl who is a recent transplant to life in a suburban Illinois town.
How will this naive newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on “The Plastics,” a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a queen bee without getting stung.
Get tickets and find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
