PORT TOWNSEND — Centrum is bringing a packed season of festivals, conferences and concerts back to Fort Worden State Park this summer: beloved bluesman Taj Mahal, the Seattle Symphony’s second-to-last performance with conductor Gerard Schwarz, free shows for kids.
Tickets to the events are on sale now at www.Centrum.org and by phoning 800-746-1982.
It all begins at 7 p.m. Friday, June 17, in the 1,200-seat McCurdy Pavilion with the Seattle Symphony presenting world premieres by composers Samuel Jones and Philip Glass plus Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” with Schwarz conducting.
He’ll do just one more concert the next night in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, before retiring after 26 years with the orchestra.
It’s been eight years since the Seattle Symphony gave a concert here, Centrum Executive Director John MacElwee said, adding, “This is really a historic event for the Olympic Peninsula.”
Mahal, a two-time Grammy winner, will make his first appearance on the Peninsula in more than a decade as part of the July 31-Aug. 7 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival.
His trio’s 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, concert in McCurdy Pavilion is one in a full week of blues artists including boogie-woogie pianist Ann Rabson, guitar-piano prodigy Jerron Paxton and Otis Taylor, who blends Appalachian country with moody, psychedelic blues.
Summer highlights
Other highlights of Centrum’s summer:
■ “Vocal Roots and Honky-Tonkin’,” a daylong concert to start at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 2, at McCurdy Pavilion and Littlefield Green, features bluegrass icon Alice Gerrard, vocalist Jenny Lester, traditional Balkan melodies from Seattle singer Mary Sherhart, old-time country duets from Northwesterners Cliff Perry and Laurel Bliss and the World Harmony Chorus, composed of Centrum’s Voice Works workshop participants.
Then at 5 p.m., the show goes outdoors for dancing with the Lisa Mann Blues Band of Portland, Ore., New Orleans jazz and swing from vocalist Meschiya Lake, and Seattle’s Blue 4 Trio and others.
■ The 35th annual Festival of American Fiddle Tunes runs July 3 through 10, with the all-day “Fourth at the Fort” on Monday, July 4.
The afternoon concert, “Old Time Glory,” includes old-time fiddle champion Hank Bradley, another performance by Gerrard with resonator-banjo player Rick Good, Cajun master Michael Doucet and Trio Chicontepec from near the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
The evening concert, “Fiddles and Fireworks,” begins at 7 p.m. in McCurdy Pavilion, with old-time Kentucky masters Paul David Smith and Jimmy McCown and others; fireworks follow the music at around 10 p.m.
The “Country Cajun Stomp” starts at 6 p.m. Friday, July 8, with a concert and dance on Littlefield Green featuring the Savoy Family plus Balfa family member Courtney Granger and country roots band Marley’s Ghost.
Fiddle Tunes culminates in “The Master Hands Project: NEA National Heritage Award Winners” in a McCurdy Pavilion performance at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9.
Performers include National Endowment for the Arts honoree and guitarist Wayne Henderson, dance caller Dudley Laufman, Cajun accordionist Marc Savoy and All-Ireland fiddle champion Liz Carroll.
■ The Port Townsend Writers’ Conference runs July 17 through 24 with free, public talks and readings in the Wheeler Theater.
Visiting writers include author Pam Houston, who on Saturday, July 23, will give a talk titled “Maybe They Are All Unreliable: Narrative Stance and the Slow Delicious Reveal of Understory.”
■ Jazz Port Townsend runs July 24 through 31 and brings vocalists Dee Daniels and Charenée Wade, the Jeff Hamilton Trio, the Gerald Clayton Trio and Sunny Wilkinson with her band.
A Saturday, July 23, matinee concert showcases the Centrum Faculty All-Star Big Band led by Bill Holman and John Clayton, the world premiere of a new work by Holman and nine-time Grammy winning clarinetist-saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.
Jazz Port Townsend’s Saturday-night show July 30 in McCurdy Pavilion stars vibraphonist Stefon Harris, joined by the Gerald Clayton Trio, and the eclectic JPT eight-piece sextet with D’Rivera on clarinet and sax, trumpeter Terell Stafford and pianist Benny Green.
Ticket prices
Tickets to Centrum’s festival concerts range from $15 to $35, while all-festival passes start at $75.
Some prices have been lowered, MacElwee noted, for the Fiddle Tunes, Jazz Port Townsend and Acoustic Blues Festival shows.
“For example, the least expensive ticket to the Acoustic Blues matinee show in 2009 was $25; in 2011 it’s $18. We still offer those under 18 a chance to attend for free,” he said.
Centrum’s $2.2 million annual budget packs a wallop in the local economy, MacElwee added.
Citing an Americans for the Arts survey, he noted that workshop and concert attendees spend more than $1 million on goods and services here, while the organization generates 145 jobs, equaling $3.9 million in labor income.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
