Four noted musicians from the Governor’s Chamber Music Series will perform a tribute to the City of Light in “Americans in Paris,” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, at Vashon Center for the Arts.

The Governor’s Chamber Music Series has been presenting chamber music concerts in Washington state for the past two decades at the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, as well as at other venues in Seattle and Eastern Washington.

Co-founder and artistic director of the series, pianist Judith Cohen, will lead the evening of chamber works by American composers inspired by their time in Paris.

As performed by Cohen, Seattle Symphony violinist Brittany Breeden, cellist Kevin Krentz and American jazz vocalist Stephanie Porter, the program will be filled with treasured works by George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Cole Porter.

Also included will be music by the South American composer Astor Piazzolla, who spent his formative years studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.

In an email, Cohen shared fascinating insights into the lives of these composers and their fruitful artistic endeavors in Paris.

Boulanger, Cohen said, encouraged Piazzolla to return to his home in Argentina and focus on his true musical love — tango music. His famous work, “The Four Seasons,” showcases many of his remarkable tango compositions.

Copland also studied with Boulanger in Paris, and he, like Cole Porter, enjoyed all the musical and cultural inspirations that Paris had to offer, Cohen added.

“Gershwin went to Paris initially to see if he could study with Maurice Ravel,” Cohen said. “But Ravel told him to follow his own path — jazz — and not to try to imitate the French Impressionist composers of the time.”

Find out more and get tickets — free for those 18 and younger — at vashoncenterforthearts.org.