Joanna Sternberg

Joanna Sternberg, a visual artist, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, will play a house concert on Vashon at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at a location to be announced to ticket-buyers.

Sternberg’s latest album, “I’ve Got Me,” tackles themes of isolation, loneliness, and self-care struggles with honesty and optimism. Over singsong melodies and stripped-back arrangements, Sternberg plays all the instruments on the album.

In a review, the online music publication, Pitchfork, rhapsodized, “Think of the album like an oblong version of Carole King’s landmark 1971 album “Tapestry” — Sternberg is presenting a new canon of inverted love songs, each one so sturdy and true that they could withstand being covered by the lowliest of bands and still sound like gifts.”

Sternberg, who grew up in Manhattan Plaza — a middle-income artists-only residence in New York City established in the 1970s — has a family legacy that provided a wealth of inspiration: their “Yiddish theater gods” grandmother Fraydele Oysher and great uncle Moishe Oysher, opera singer grandpa Harold Sternberg, their aunt comedian Marilyn Michaels, and, most of all, their father, painter, guitarist and songwriter Michael Sternberg.

Find out more about Sternberg’s concert, presented by islander Tyrel Stendahl, and get tickets here.

Early Music Concert

The vibrant “Telemann Paris Quartets” will be celebrated in the third program of the 2024 Salish Sea Early Music Festival, featuring acclaimed early music specialists violinist David Greenberg, harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright, viola da gambist Susie Napper and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan.

The concert will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, at 15420 Vashon Hwy SW. Admission is by a free will donation of $20 to $30, with those 18 and younger admitted free.

Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Paris Quartets” were written for and during his most significant journey away from home during his lifetime. Having been invited to visit Paris, Telemann composed and published the first set of the quartets in 1730, and left Hamburg for Paris seven years later, where all 12 of his new quartets were performed. The second set of quartets was published during this eight-month stay in Paris in 1738.

The program will consist of two quartets from his 1730 set entitled “Quadri a violino, flauto traversiere, viola da gamba o violoncello, e fondamento,” and two from the 1738 publication entitled “Nouveaux quatuors en six suites.”

Find out more about this and other upcoming concerts at salishseafestival.org/vashon.

Stephanie Anne Johnson

Tacoma vocal powerhouse Stephanie Anne Johnson will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Open Space for Arts & Community.

Johnson, who released a new album, “Jewels,” in 2023, has opened for Bernie Sanders, and artists such as Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan, Ani DiFranco, Joseph, Cedric Burnside, and Black Joe Lewis. She has performed frequently on Vashon to an enthusiastic island fan-base.

Purchase tickets and find out more at openspacevashon.org.

Karla Bonoff

Singer and songwriter Karla Bonoff will perform an intimate concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at Vashon Center for the Arts.

Bonoff has enjoyed critical acclaim, commercial success, enduring popularity, and the unwavering respect of her peers. Her songs include “Home,” covered by Bonnie Raitt, “Tell Me Why” by Wynonna Judd, and “Isn’t It Always Love,” by Lynn Anderson.

Linda Ronstadt recorded several Bonoff songs, including three on her 1976 album “Hasten Down the Wind” — “Someone To Lay Down Beside Me”, “Lose Again” and “If He’s Ever Near,” as well as “All My Life”, performed in a 1989 duet with Aaron Neville.

Billboard Magazine has called Bonoff part of “a breed of singer/songwriters whose earthly anthems of soul-searching heartache and joy touched souls in a way that few can muster today.”

Find out more at karlabonoff.com, and get tickets to the show at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Allessandra Rose

Allessandra Rose, a Bremerton-based chanteuse who frequently performs on Vashon, will appear with a full band at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 16, at Snapdragon Bakery & Café. Islander Debra Heesch is presenting the show.

Rose’s latest album, “Rodeomothh,” was recorded in Nashville. The title, said Rose, is an anagram of “Motherhood,” and each song details part of her journey of being a mother.

To find out more and listen to Rose’s music, vist alessandrarose.com. Tickets to her Snapdragon show, $10, are on sale at alessandrarosevashon.brownpapertickets.com.

Kissing the Joy

Vashon Repertory Theatre will present “Kissing the Joy as it Flies,” Mike and Gerry Feinstein’s collection of revered author Brian Doyle’s sometimes comical, often moving observations and stories that celebrate being human, even in dark times.

The production is an encore presentation of the show, first performed in 2019. It is directed by Charlotte Tiencken and features members of the original cast including Cate O’Cane, Jeanne Dougherty, David Mielke, and Paul Shapiro with musical interludes by Kat Eggleston.

The late Brian Doyle published more than 30 books of essays, fiction, and poetry and received many awards including the coveted Pushcart Prize before he died at the age of 60 in 2017. “Kissing the Joy as It Flies” is a celebration of his life and work.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 22; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 23; and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24. Find out more and get tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Choral Festival

Passes are now on sale for the Katherine L. White Invitational Choral Festival, set to take place at Vashon Center for the Arts April 23-27. Regular tickets will go on sale on March 1.

The new festival is named after the late Katherine “Kay” L. White, Vashon philanthropist and lover of choral music.

The Katherine L. White Invitational Choral Festival — or Kay White Choral Fest, for short — will showcase six of the Northwest’s finest and most diverse choral ensembles. These will include the Emerald Ensemble, performing on Tue. 4/23; STANCE (Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble), performing on 4/24; Acora Choir, performing on April 25; the African American Cultural Ensemble, performing on April 26; The Sound of the Northwest performing on April 27; and Vashon Island Chorale, performing on April 27 and 28.

Find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.