May 16 Saturday
Earshot Jazz Hall of Fame vibes player Susan Pascal brings her quartet to “Jazz on J Street”. Susan Pascal is one of the top professional Jazz musicians in the PNW.Susan Pascal-VibraphoneDanny Kolke-PianoChris Symer-BassGreg Williamson-Drumset
…one of the world’s greatest exponents of the cuatro…Valera specializes in Son, the infectious call-and-answer Cuban song form, but solos like a jazz guy. THE SEATTLE TIMES
Son Cubano is one of the most popular musical styles in Cuba and Grammy-nominated Kiki Valera is one of its foremost exponents. Cuban son is the music that made the Buena Vista Social Club worldwide stars in the late 1990s, but Kiki Valera comes from a family of musicians whose involvement with Cuban son pre-dates the BVSC by decades. A multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, sound engineer and producer, Kiki is best known as one of the world’s greatest players of the Cuban cuatro, a mid-size guitar with 8 strings grouped in sets of 2.
Kiki will be joined this evening by an all-star lineup including Carlos Cascante on lead vocals, Joe de Jesus on lead vocals & congas, Pedro Vargas on bongos, Javier Marú on guitar, Julian Weisman on bass and Nathan Vetter on trombone.
Artistic Partner Mei-Ann Chen joins us for this East meets West program. Following Che-Yi Lee's dynamic and virtuosic Dancing Strings, violinist Melissa White brings us the beloved Butterfly Lovers' Concerto, a tale of love, longing and transformation. Ravel's Mother Goose closes our season, with magical spinning wheels, pagodas, princesses and enchanted gardens. This program includes a mini Taiwan Festival with food and activities provided by Asia Pacific Cultural Center.
Best known for his hit truTV television series The Carbonaro Effect, Michael Carbonaro is now thrilling audiences with Carbonaro: Lies on Stage. America’s favorite trickster is conjuring up a concoction of unbelievable magic, offbeat shenanigans, and wonder for all ages. You’ll be baffled when you’re in the presence of Carbonaro! In 2016 Carbonaro embarked on his first theater tour and in 2021 launched his current live show Carbonaro: Lies on Stage. Carbonaro showcases an unmatched blend of humor, charisma, and inventive illusions that amaze audiences of all ages.
Ohhh those summer nights! From its earliest performance in a Chicago nightclub through its record-breaking Broadway run and hit feature film, Grease has remained one of the world’s most popular musicals. Featuring the many hit songs that became the soundtrack of a generation, like “Greased Lightnin’,” “Alone at the Drive-in Movie,” and “It’s Raining on Prom Night,” this 1950s pop culture satire is filled to the brim with grit, glam, and youthful exuberance.
In roles made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive their sizzling summer fling as the Burger Palace Boys and Pink Ladies of Rydell High’s senior class navigate the peer pressures and social politics of high school in the 1950s. Directed and choreographed by Lisa Shriver (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), this production of Grease promises nonstop, nostalgic, hydromatic fun. So throw on a poodle skirt, dust off that leather jacket, and rediscover the show that’s been winning hearts for generations!
Welcomed by KNKX. Frank Vignola is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Ringo Starr, Madonna, Donald Fagen, John Lewis, Tommy Emmanuel, Lionel Hampton, the Boston Pops, the New York Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List:” for the Wall Street Journal.
His dynamic genre-spanning music has brought him to 21 countries on three continents – and still growing – performing in some of the world’s most illustrious venues, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, and the world’s oldest indoor concert hall, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy.
Pasquale Grasso - It was the kind of endorsement most rising guitarists can only dream of, and then some. In his interview for Vintage Guitar magazine’s February 2016 cover story, Pat Metheny was asked to name some younger musicians who’d impressed him. “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult. “Mostly what I hear now are guitar players who sound a little bit like me mixed with a little bit of [John Scofield] and a little bit of [Bill Frisell],” he continued. “What’s interesting about Pasquale is that he doesn’t sound anything like that at all. In a way, it is a little bit of a throwback, because his model—which is an incredible model to have—is Bud Powell. He has somehow captured the essence of that language from piano onto guitar in a way that almost nobody has ever addressed. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”
When a near-death experience derails her flight through Southeast Alaska, Rose awakens to find herself in the care of the kind man who pulled her to safety. But who is this mysterious stranger? And how is it possible that she survived? As they journey by boat through the darkness and fog, Rose untangles the mysteries of her past, questions the world around her, and comes to an inescapable crossroads. Driven by Tlingit song, dance, and ancestral wisdom, this heartfelt drama honors Indigenous voices and stories that echo across time. Some journeys don’t end at the summit—they reach all the way to the stars.
May 17 Sunday
Supported by KNKX. NEA Jazz Master and four-time Grammy Award Winner Stanley Clarke has attained “living legend” status during his over 50-year career as a bass virtuoso. He is the first bassist in history who doubles on acoustic and electric bass with equal ferocity and the first jazz-fusion bassist ever to headline tours, selling out shows worldwide. A veteran of over 40 albums, he won the 2011 Best Contemporary Jazz Album Grammy Award for The Stanley Clarke Band. Clarke co-founded the seminal fusion group Return to Forever with Chick Corea and Lenny White. In 2012 Return to Forever won a Grammy Award and Latin Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Forever.
Clarke’s creativity has been recognized and rewarded in every way imaginable: gold and platinum records, Grammy Awards, Emmy nominations, virtually every readers and critics poll in existence, and more. In 2022 Clarke was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its four new Jazz Master honorees. He also was Rolling Stone’s very first Jazzman of the Year and bassist winner of Playboy’s Music Award for ten straight years. Clarke was honored with Bass Player Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Gallery of Greats.” In 2004 he was featured in Los Angeles Magazine as one of the Top 50 Most Influential People. He was honored with the key to the city of Philadelphia and put his hands in cement as a 1999 inductee into Hollywood’s “Rock Walk” on Sunset Boulevard. In 2011 he was honored with the highly prestigious Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival for his entire body of work. Clarke has won Downbeat Magazine’s Reader’s and Critics Poll for Best Electric Bass Player for many years. In September 2016 he became a part of the permanent collection displayed at the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC.
The Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest, put on by the Wenatchee River Institute and North Central Washington Audubon Society, occurs every 3rd weekend in May. The annual Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest promotes conservation through educational and recreational activities about birds, wildlife, and their environments.
Come bird with us, discovering the natural beauty and wonders of North Central Washington! Celebrate the return of migratory birds in the midst of peak wildflower season. Enjoy the excitement of birding field trips and workshops. Take part in speaker events, music, visual arts, picnics, and activities for all ages and abilities.
Registration for all trips and events opens Wednesday, March 25th.
Determined to make something of herself, a girl from rural Texas dreams of flying. But it’s 1917, and flight schools don’t accept women, much less one who is Black and Native. Refusing to take no for an answer, Bessie Coleman goes to extraordinary lengths to make her dream of flying a reality.
