Don’t Forget to Vote

Gingerbread creations by islanders young and old are currently on display in the atrium of Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA), with many notably island-centric creations. Vote now through Dec. 20 for the best gingerbread houses in several categories. VCA will award $100 Vashon Thriftway gift cards to three lucky winners of the gingerbread contest.

Piano in the Kay

A Gilmore Young Artist and winner of Salon de Virtuosi, acclaimed pianist Janice Carissa will perform music by Liszt, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Medtner, and Schumann at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, in VCA’s Kay White Hall.

Carissa has “the multicolored highlights of a mature pianist” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “strong, sure hands” (Voice of America) that “convey a vivid story rather than a mere showpiece”(Chicago Classical Review).

Carissa has played in vaulted venues including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, United Nations, Kennedy Center, Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Louis Vuitton Foundation, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Find out more and get tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Solstice Concert

Vashon singer and songwriter Kat Eggleston, along with piper John Dally, will open for Keltoi, a Seattle band that plays Scottish and Irish dance music, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, at the Church of the Holy Spirit, at 15420 Vashon Hwy SW.

Keltoi is fronted by Rich Hill, known for his superb Gaelic singing. Teaching and singing in Scottish Gaelic since 1989, Hill is a founder of Slighe nan Gaidheal and Féis Seattle, and is also well-known in Seattle’s early music scene.

Other members of the band will bring fiddles, pipes, flutes, whistles, bodhrán, guitar and cittern to the lively mix of music.

Find out more about the band at keltoi.org. A $20 suggested donation can be made at the door on the night of the show.

Ultimate holiday classic

“It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring the great Jimmy Stewart, will have a free screening at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, at Vashon Theatre — continuing an annual tradition that has lasted for decades on Vashon.

A Christmas Carol

Veteran stage actor Allen Fitzpatrick will perform his solo adaptation of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” in a co-production of VCA and Vashon Repertory Theatre, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, at VCA.

The show follows in the footsteps of the author who, a few years after writing the novella, began public readings of the book until he died in 1870, at age 58.

Fitzpatrick has acted in every major Seattle theater; he was featured in 28 productions at the 5th Avenue Theatre. His career spans 48 years on Broadway and in professional theater, working with such notables as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Harold Prince, John Guare, and Marvin Hamlisch.

Purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Sharing the Stage

A reunion of all-star Sharing the Stage alumni, including notable islanders, will come together for “Home for the Holidays,” at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, at Madame Lou’s/Crocodile Cafe, in Seattle.

Sharing the Stage is a concert series that originated on Vashon in 2009, founded by islander Fred Strong as a way to nurture youth musicians on Vashon by staging concerts in which these youth opened for acts including Macklemore, Tacocat, Blue Scholars, Visqueen, Chastity Belt and many more. The series started adding Seattle shows in March 2015.

More than 150 musicians have participated in one or more Sharing the Stage shows when they were in high school, in 15 Vashon shows, 16 shows in Seattle, and two online shows during the pandemic.

Alumni from all those shows are out in the world now — many are still making music, and many will be home for the holidays. The show on Dec. 22 includes 11 acts, two bands, and nine soloists — with five of the acts from Vashon shows and six from Seattle shows. Noted Seattle musician and powerhouse vocalist Star Anna will also play a set.

Island musicians will include Kate Atwell, Iris Olympia, Dimitrius Brown, Maijah, and Falter the Moth (Wyatt Bates, Lillith Provo and Mickey Fontaine). Seattle musicians are the band Small Change, and and Nat Rezek, Josh Teicher, PARKER, Mia Christ, and Parker Schweickert.

Tickets, $20, are available at sharingthestage.com or at the door.

Janice Carissa will perform music by Liszt, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Medtner, and Schumann, on Dec. 20. Courtesy photo.

Allen Fitzpatrick will take the stage at VCA in “A Christmas Carol” on Dec. 22. Courtesy photo.