- The results are being filtered by the department: Programs
Alyssa de Leon
Program Manager for Creative Youth Development
Alyssa de Leon (Program Manager for Creative Youth Development) was raised in the forests of Northern California on a steady diet of reggae music, arts festivals, and hippie counterculture. She studied education, philosophy, and politics at the Dominican University of California, and went on to obtain a Master’s of Education. Her professional career has ranged from preschool and forest school director to aquarium naturalist, to Community Radio Station Manager.…
Gwen Franz
Program Manager: Chamber Music, Choro and Jazz Port Townsend
Gwen Franz joined the Centrum team in 2023 as the Program Manager of Jazz, Chamber Music, and Brazilian Choro. She brings many years of experience as a classical violist, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral member, recording artist and concert producer. Gwen discovered Fiddle Tunes at Centrum in 2007, then became a regular attender of the Choro Workshop in 2010, and in 2019, participated in Jazz Port Townsend.…
Mary Hilts
Program Manager: Red Hot Strings, Acoustic Blues, Development
Mary Hilts (Program Manager, Red Hot Strings, Acoustic Blues, Development) joined the Centrum staff in 2003. Mary manages Red Hot Strings and the Acoustic Blues programs; and assists with resource development and the Board of Directors. A graduate of Washington State University, Mary also completed Jazz Studies at Shoreline Community College, and Los Angeles Harbor College.…
Matt Jones
Program Assistant: Chamber Music, Choro, Jazz Port Townsend
A lifelong music superfreak, Matt listens to, collects, and occasionally tries to create music in nearly every waking moment of life. A former fishery biologist, Matt spends most of his time hiking the Peninsula, writing unfinished books, listening for the secret, and searching for the sound.
Peter McCracken
Program Manager: Fiddle Tunes, Voice Works, Ukulele
Peter McCracken (Program Manager, Fiddle Tunes, Voice Works, Ukulele) has served at Centrum in various capacities, including Arts Program Director and Traditional Arts Program Manager. In 1992, he started the blues workshop and festival, bringing five National Heritage Award recipients to Fort Worden to perform and teach. McCracken led the initial curatorial project for Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes Preservation and Stabilization project in 2000, producing Volume 1 of the Fiddle Tunes Archives.…
The Onlies
Artistic Directors: Fiddle Tunes
The Onlies are a young group of old friends who perform together in a stringband. They grew up playing fiddles, guitars, and banjos in their hometowns of Seattle, WA and Lexington, VA. With their latest self-titled recording, the band digs deep into performances of traditional American popular (old time) music. The music moves with a pulsating drive, sharp arrangements, and rich vibration — it resounds with the present.…
Libby Pratt
Program Manager: Artist Residencies
Libby Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts at the International Center of Photography at Bard College and served as Director of Baxter Street at The Camera Club of New York from 2014 to 2019, a 138-year-old nonprofit art organization in executing diverse programming including Exhibitions, Workspace Residency, Conversation series, Critiques, and Photo Book Fair. Raised on the Olympic Peninsula, she moved back to Port Townsend during the pandemic and has been an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Seattle Central College.…
Lisbeth White
Residency & Artist Projects Program Assistant
Lisbeth is a writer and ritualist born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. With a background in creative writing and expressive arts therapy, she is dedicated to creating and supporting communities that uplift artists and cultural creators. She is the author of the poetry collection American Sycamore, and co-editor of the anthology Poetry as Spellcasting: Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power.…