Make it Mozart for lunch
The complete Mozart quartets for flute and strings will be performed on period instruments by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival at 12 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, at Vashon United Methodist Church. Players include eight-keyed flutist Jeffrey Cohan, violinist Carrie Krause, violist Victor Gunn and cellist Caroline Nicolas. Admission is by a suggested donation of $15, $20 or $25, with youth ages 18 and younger admitted for free. For more information on this and upcoming concerts, visit salishseafestival.org/vashon.
Celebrate all things Celtic
“Celtic Spring,” a family-friendly Celtic music and storytelling festival, will take place from 2 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, at Vashon United Methodist Church. The festival will begin at 2 p.m. with a session leading attendees through the Celtic practice of walking a labyrinth while listening to soothing harp music. At 3 p.m. storytellers will take the stage, and from 4 to 5 p.m. six separate workshops will take place, offering up skills in Scottish fiddle, pipe, button accordion, harp, song and dance. A concert by The Beltane Boys, joined by all-Ireland button accordion champion John Whelan, will take place at 7 p.m. The festival will close with a community music-making and dance experience, from 8:30 to 9:15 p.m. Admission to all events is by donation. To sign up for workshops and to play in the closing session, email allmusicissacred@gmail.com.
Wine time at VCA
Mike Veseth, a political economist who has moonlighted as the author of four books on wine over the last decade, will give a talk, “Around the World in Eighty Wines,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, at Vashon Center for the Arts. Veseth’s talk, inspired by Jules Verne, will take attendees on a mad global dash, collecting wines and their stories. The lecture will be followed by a wine tasting hosted by Vashon wineries in VCA’s lobby. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door and $5 for youth. Visit vashoncenterforthearts.org for more information.
Book launch at Snapdragon
Islander Martin Koenig will present his new book, “Sound Portraits From Bulgaria: Journey to a Vanished World,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at Snapdragon. The 144-page book with two music CDs, recently published by Smithsonian Folkways, is a culmination of Koenig’s life work documenting the now fast-disappearing traditional music and dances of Bulgaria. At the book launch event, Koenig will tell stories and show his photos and films. The book will be for sale, as well, with payment by cash or check only.
Listen in the Kitchen
Listen in the Kitchen, a local music ensemble, will sing at the “Swingin’ in the Stacks” benefit presented by Vashon Friends of the Library, from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, at the Library. The concert will be one of many of the benefit’s activities — including mini-golf in the stacks — that evening. Members of the group, Erin Durrett, Mary Rose O’Reilley, Mary Litchfield Tuel and Lynn Carrigan, play music inspired by a love of bluegrass, gospel, Appalachian, Celtic and Americana music. “Swingin’ in the Stacks” will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7 and 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8 — with Friday night’s events for ages 21 and older only. Tickets are $5 general and $2 for children younger than 5 (Saturday only). Tickets are available at the door on the nights of the benefit only.
Seeing the Bard through a new lens of a life
“Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender,” featuring renowned Shakespearean actor Lisa Wolpe, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at Vashon Center for the Arts. In this one-person show, Wolpe — who has regularly played male characters of the Bard — offers up reflections into the history of her own troubled family, while weaving in glorious passages from “Hamlet,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “Twelfth Night,” “Richard III” and “Romeo and Juliet.” For more information on the show, visit vashoncenterfortheart.org.
Islander included in prestigious show
Teresa McFall, a local painter, had two works accepted in the annual juried exhibition of Collective Visions Gallery, in Bremerton. The show opened Jan. 19 and will run through Feb. 9. The show attracted submissions by 383 artists from 93 cities throughout Washington. The jurors selected 151 works for the show, and will also award more than $10,000 in cash prizes to 10 artists in multiple categories. To find out more about the exhibit and its ancillary events in Bremerton, visit collectivevisions.com.
Poet crosses pond
Local poet Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma will appear in two upcoming events in Seattle. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, Pruiksma will take part in “Lyric World: Conversations with Contemporary Poets,” a new series presented by Town Hall Seattle and KUOW, and curated by poet and former Town Hall artist-in-residence Shin Yu Pai. Find out more at townhallseattle.org/event/lyric-world. In February, Pruiksma will be included in a seminar at Seattle University on the theme of “Cascadia Zen.” His presentation, free and open to the public, will take place from 1 to 1:45 p.m. in the Wyckoff Auditorium. For more information on the entire series, visit thomaspruiksma.com.
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