Tickets are now on sale for the 2011 summer season at Centrum. Comprised of artists and guests from five festivals and conferences celebrating singing, fiddle traditions, jazz, writing, and acoustic blues, as well as special performances from the Seattle Symphony and blues icon Taj Mahal, the Centrum summer season features more than 60 events that include a diverse lineup of concerts, club performances, dances and readings. Tickets are available through www.centrum.org, or by phone at 800.746.1982.
Mainstage performances take place at McCurdy Pavilion, a WWI-era dirigible hangar converted into a concert hall, which can be opened for afternoon concerts to allow seating on the wide lawn of Littlefield Green. The grounds open to the public for picnicking one-hour prior to show time, and feature artist merchandise and recordings, as well as a beer garden for patrons 21 and older. Smaller concerts, as well as readings from the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, take place in the 280-seat Joseph F. Wheeler Theater as well as at intimate club venues in downtown Port Townsend. Dances are located at various venues around Fort Worden State Park.
The Seattle Symphony, under the baton of Music Director Gerard Schwarz, opens the 2011 season on Friday, June 17 at 7 PM with a performance at McCurdy Pavilion. The concert marks the second-to-last concert with Maestro Schwarz, who is stepping down after an illustrious 26-year career, and features a program that includes Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and world premieres from composers Samuel Jones and Philip Glass.
Season highlights include NEA Jazz Masters Bill Holman, legendary composer/arranger for Stan Kenton, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich, and nine-time Grammy winner clarinetist/saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, in a new collaboration to be performed by the Centrum Faculty All-Star Big Band at 1:30 PM on Saturday, July 30 at McCurdy Pavilion, as part of the 2011 Jazz Port Townsend festival.
Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes is proud to welcome five winners of the NEA National Heritage Award, in concert at McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, July 9 at 1:30 PM. Centrum’s “Master Hands Project: NEA National Heritage Award Winners” concert features guitarist Wayne Henderson, fiddler and barn dance caller Dudley Laufman, Cajun master Marc Savoy, Swedish fiddler Paul Dahlin, and Irish fiddler Liz Carroll in an historic celebration of National Heritage honorees and recognized American treasures.
The 2011 summer season performances complement Centrum’s weeklong workshops in each genre, where participants and faculty from across the country and around the world come together to provide mentorship, and create artistic community. Applications are still being accepted for weeklong workshops for Voice Works, Fiddle Tunes, Jazz, the Writers’ Conference, and Acoustic Blues.
For a full schedule of performances, visit the performance page for each festival on the Centrum website, or download a season roster.