World music at Open Space
The Asheville, North Carolina-based world instrumental ensemble, Toubab Krewe, will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 24, at Open Space for Arts & Community.
Open Space describes the group’s music as “a sonic Pangaea that lustily swirls together rock, African traditions, jam sensibilities, international folk strains and more.”
The Boston Herald has called Toubaba Krewe’s music “…expertly meshed surf guitar with Malian rhythmic patterns, a Dick Dale moves-to-Timbuktu experiment in Afro-California fusion.”
Reserve tickets, priced on a sliding scale, at openspacevashon.com, with free admission for those 17 and younger. Find out more about the group at toubabkrewe.com.
Jazz in the Atrium
Jazz legend Chick Corea’s compositions will be the focus of the next Jam In The Atrium, to take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
Jazzmen Francesco Crosara and Alexey Nikolaev will join host/bassist Bruce Phares, who will improvise and converse with the group, discussing Corea’s stylings and individual songs as well.
Crosara, a jazz pianist, composer and educator, was Corea’s friend as well as his student and devotee. Originally from Milan, Crosara blends into his performances an impressive mix of jazz improvisation, along with a romantic classical vein, mixed with Latin influences. He has performed with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Hargrove, Richie Cole, Bobby Shew, Ira Sullivan, Bruce Forman, and more.
Saxophonist Alexey Nikolaev, originally from Moscow, has made extensive festival appearances on prestigious stages around the world. He, too, has performed with many jazz greats.
Jazz in the Atrium is free, with donations to the performers accepted.
Acclaimed pair teach, perform
Innovative musicians with quirky neo-trad souls, Oakland, California-based Evie Ladin and Keith Terry will perform a local concert of original folk songs and deep interpretations of old songs.
The show will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at Open Space for Arts & Community, with a workshop for all ages led by the acclaimed pair at Open Space at 4 p.m. also on Sunday, preceding the concert.
The workshop will focus on body percussion and body drumming — the oldest music on the planet — teaching participants how to use their bodies to stomp, clap, sing, snap and vocalize their musical ideas.
Ladin and Terry are performers whose music has been lauded by major music writers.
“Ladin sings and plays infectious clawhammer banjo, while Terry is a master percussionist,” said Nashville’s “Music City Roots. “It [is}Appalachian string band music pared to the absolute minimum of accompaniment but packed with an orchestra’s worth of rhythm.”
Find out more, get tickets, and sign up for the workshop at openspacevashon.com.
Early music concert
“Obbligato Harpsichord and Flute,” a concert performed at 12 p.m. Monday, March 27, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, will feature renowned Chicago harpsichordist David Schrader, with flutist Jeffrey Cohan, playing 18th-century music.
Schrader has performed as a featured soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, and Erich Leinsdorf, and with many other orchestras throughout the world.
The concert will include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Georg Benda. In addition, Schrader will perform works for solo harpsichord by Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach.
The concert is part of a series presented by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival. Admission is by suggested donation of $20 or $25, with youth 18 and younger admitted free. For more information, visit salishseafestival.org/vashon.
Open house at arts center
Stop by Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 26, to see what goes on in and around the VCA campus.
Go backstage, up and over the catwalk and down into the orchestra pit in The Kay performance hall. Visit the historic Blue Heron Education Center and learn about the wide range of artistic opportunities offered there on a typical day. Listen to pianist Randal Collen as you take in the gallery art, catch VCA’s latest youth musical theater production warming up on stage, watch student dancers rehearse in the Blue Heron studios, and lace up a pair of tap shoes to get in a few shuffles with Miles Wingett, VCA’s tap instructor for beginners.
Meet the staff and board, learn about volunteer opportunities, explore the Heron Meadow, participate in family-friendly art activities or pick up a VCA Passport and go on a campus-wide adventure to collect all the stamps — you just might win a fabulous door prize.
All are welcome to this free event — find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Comedy night
Vashon Theatre will present a night of comedy at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1, featuring three former Seattle International Comedy Contest alumni — host Tyrone Hawkins, headliner Mike Baldwin and successful female comedian Bahsyyeh Mudd.
Find out more and purchase tickets at vashontheatre.com.
Talk about an epic ride
“Bruce and Bob Ride the Divide,” a talk and art exhibit by islanders Bruce Morser and Bob Horsley, about their 71-day trek, last year, along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
The trip took them from Canada to Mexico, for an epic experience of wildness cycle, plein-air painting, and an unexpected ending along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the world’s longest, off-road bicycle route. Along the way, the pair encountered stark deserts, 12,000-foot mountain passes, endless dark green forests, remote prairie expanses, wild animals, and, oh yeah…. grizzly bears. They also connected to the lives of remarkable people, including “King Harald” — a key part of their story — who will be video-linked to the talk from his home in Norway.
Get tickets to the event at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
