West Seattle, Washington
25 Tuesday
(WSCO photo: Sofia Aragon and Caroline Peyton, both members of the Debut Orchestra)
Calling musicians! The West Seattle Community Orchestras are ready for you to join:
West Seattle Community Orchestras (WSCO) announces that registration is now open for its fall 2019 session.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with WSCO, this is West Seattle’s very own community music organization, with three orchestras and a wind symphony (concert band). These performance ensembles rehearse weekly through the school year, each performing quarterly concerts.
In addition to these performing groups, we offer classes for adults in strings (violin, viola, cello, bass) and winds/percussion (e.g., flute, clarinet, saxophone, French horn, trumpet, trombone—oh, and percussion).
This fall we are also adding beginning student strings for those in grades 4 through 12. No charge to students for this class or for participating in any of our groups. (Adults pay a modest fee.) As far as we know, WSCO is unique in the state of Washington for having adults and young people play side by side in each of our performing groups. That is, placement is by ability (or inclination), not age!
Registration for all groups and classes is now open online: Visit www.wscorchestras.org and click on the Registration tab. (We’d appreciate your registration before August 31st to reserve space.)
UNCERTAIN WHICH GROUP IS RIGHT FOR YOU? If you’d like more information on opportunities to learn an instrument or perform in our ensembles, please fill out the registration form with your contact details. For new musicians, we’ll be in touch soon, to orient you further before the first classes and rehearsals begin.
As in previous years, rehearsals will be held Tuesdays at Chief Sealth International High School. Specific start times for the rehearsals and more details will be shared in upcoming announcements as well as listed on our website, www.wscorchestras.org, or you can contact info@wscorchestras.org.
We hope to see many of you—former members as well as newbies—when we open this, our eighteenth season of providing outstanding concerts for our community!
6:52 PM: “My favorite place to play is outside!” enthused Alec Shaw between songs as tonight’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha show got going. It’s a great place to be tonight whether you’re onstage or on the lawn (east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center (Walnut south of Lander) to be specific) – the stage and most of the lawn are in the shade already and the rest will be soon. The show’s on until about 8 – free – bring your own blanket/chair.
Alec Shaw at Summer Concerts @ Hiawatha. Beautiful night, hundreds here, all ages. pic.twitter.com/lSFqaoqufu
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) August 2, 2019
7:57 PM: Concert’s wrapping up – last song.
ADDED 11:11 PM: More photos!
You can find out more about Alec Shaw’s music here. Next week at Hiawatha – Ranger and the Re-Arrangers, 6:30 pm Thursday (August 8th).
Pianos in the Parks is back, with 11 art-covered pianos placed temporarily around the metro area, including this one in Junction Plaza Park (42nd SW/SW Alaska). The artist for this piano is Mindi Katzman; the community partner is West Seattle Community Orchestras; Pianos in the Parks is presented by One Reel. You can see this piano – and play it! – through August 18th.
6:51 PM: The drums are booming and the spectators are cheering at Southwest Athletic Complex as the 2019 Band Jam marching-band showcase proceeds.
Before Seismic Sound, the drumline that’s on the field right now, the Junior All-City Band performed:
Among the other bands coming up at this free event, the award-winning All-City Band themselves, whose director Dr. Marcus Pimpleton hatched the idea for this pre-Torchlight Parade showcase a decade ago. In the SWAC lot right outside the stands, something new this year, food trucks, so even if you haven’t had dinner yet, grab the family and come on over (2801 SW Thistle). You’re also invited to buy 50/50 raffle tickets to support the ACB.
7:11 PM: The band from nearby Kennedy Catholic High School followed – they were in West Seattle just last Saturday for the WS Grand Parade, as was the group on the field now, the Rainbow City Band (with their flag team Spinout), which so far has gone from Lady Gaga to Macklemore to Bruno Mars.
7:40 PM: Yet another band seen in the Grand Parade last Saturday, from Sumner High School in Pierce County, followed:
The event is in an intermission right now, with the Seahawks’ drumline Blue Thunder due to play at 8 pm, and the All-City Band to follow.
8:05 PM: But first – Sounders FC’s Sound Wave is on the field.
8:35 PM: Also from the stadium zone, Blue Thunder:
8:44 PM: And the grand finale, the hosting All-City Band, is taking the field.
($505 raised for them by tonight’s raffle, too!)
12:30 AM: We’ve finished adding visuals above.
Saturday and Sunday, you can enjoy more than “just” the sun and sea at Alki Beach – the annual Alki Art Fair is happening both days! We’re among the community co-sponsors again this year. From festival organizers explain that you’ll find more than at=rt:
What’s better than music, beer, wine and the beach on a summer weekend in West Seattle? Join the festivities at the Main Bathhouse Stage (sponsored by Canna West Culture Shop), featuring live music and performances throughout the weekend from 10 am – 9 pm on Saturday, July 27 and 10 am – 6 pm on Sunday, July 28. Rock, blues, jazz, folk, theatrical performances, yoga – with 18 performances, there’s a little something for everyone! Catch acts like Tobias the Owl (the award-winning musical collective), Angela Soffe Band, Payge Turner, Tiger Rider, The Odd Kids, Steel Beans, Annie O’Neill Band, and Sam Cobra. Come down to the beach Sunday morning for FREE yoga with Limber Yoga. Plus head down the promenade to the Community Stage hosted by West Seattle Blog for additional acoustic performances and more. See the full Bathhouse stage music lineup and schedule here (and above).
While you enjoy the views and performances, the beer & wine garden (a new addition to the fair) will serve up tasty local sips from Two Beers Brewing, Georgetown Brewing, Seattle Cider and Charles Smith Wines. All proceeds support the fair and keeping it free for the community.
In addition to the music lineup, the fair has a lot to offer—an expanded artist lineup, larger kids zone (hosted by Outer Space Seattle), more interactive art activities and the new beer and wine garden. Best of all, it’s on the beach, free and easy to get to with free shuttles (sponsored by Therapeutic Associates – West Seattle) running a loop between the Admiral Junction and the Park n’ Ride under the West Seattle Bridge.
The shuttle stop in Admiral is on the northwest corner of California/Admiral, by the Chevron station.
11:50 AM: One by one, the canoe families are leaving Alki Beach, carrying their wooden canoes to the water and paddling off to the next stop, hosted by the Suquamish Tribe on the Kitsap Peninsula, ultimately headed for the Lummi Nation, this year’s hosts at journey’s end. (And yes, this is what the helicopter is circling Alki for; it’s a TV chopper.) More photos to come.
1:04 PM: The Duwamish Tribe has joined the Paddle to Lummi – after we left Alki, we found the Duwamish canoe launching from Don Armeni:
Back at the beach, Alki photographer David Hutchinson says all have left, just one canoe (flying the Chehalis flag) left on the beach. He sent this photo:
ADDED FRIDAY NIGHT: Carrying a canoe back to the water posed some challenges:
It was something to watch with admiration:
The departures continued:
Still adding!
(Photo courtesy Young Shakespeare Workshop)
It’s not your first chance this summer to see a Shakespeare play in a West Seattle park – but it’s the only one featuring the national-award-winning Young Shakespeare Workshop: 6 pm Sunday (July 21st) at Roxhill Park (29th/Barton), you’re invited to see YSW’s production of “The Merchant of Venice.” From YSW director Darren Lay (a Vashon resident):
The Revolving Company of the nationally awarded Young Shakespeare Workshop presents a free performance in the birch grove at Roxhill Park. Bring a picnic dinner if you like and dine with the Doge, no Gondola required.
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
“Tell me where is fancy bred, or in the heart, or in the head?”
– a question posed in song in this curious and complex play in which Shakespeare also explores the antithetical question of where is loathing bred, and of course some silliness by way of the clown Launcelot Gobbo.
This event is made possible with funding from Arts in Parks by Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Free, all ages welcome. YSW is in its third decade!
7:30 PM: Great night for a concert, and the West Seattle Big Band has drawn a great crowd to the east lawn at Hiawatha.
You still have time to get there – the free concert’s on until about 8:30. More coverage to come!
ADDED: The WSBB, directed by Jim Edwards, played up a storm until almost 8:45! A sample, featuring vocalist Jenaige Lane:
And the big finale:
One more thing to add – the special Orville Rummel Trophy for Outstanding Service to the Community presentation to philanthropist Adah Rhodes Cruzen!
ADDED WEDNESDAY: Adah (above with Michelle Edwards, WSBB member and West Seattle Grand Parade co-coordinator) accepted the award after an introduction by Barbara Edwards, who detailed her philanthropy. Her donations have enabled restoration of some of the murals her late husband, Earl Cruzen, made happen, as well as the new Welcome to West Seattle sign. She noted in her remarks that he had left her “extra zeroes” to carry on his legacy. You can cheer her as she rides with the trophy in Saturday’s parade (11 am, southbound on California SW from Lander to Edmunds).
(WSB photo, July 2018)
On Thursday, some of the canoe families participating in this year’s Intertribal Canoe Journey, the Paddle to Lummi, will stop at Alki Beach. We’ve confirmed with the Alki-hosting Muckleshoot Tribe‘s cultural director Willard Bill Jr. that they are expected to start arriving around noon on Thursday. Fewer canoes this year because the journey is northbound – he says they’re expecting about 15. They will then travel by land to the Muckleshoot Powwow Grounds in Auburn and depart Alki on Friday morning for the next stop – here’s a map of the stops before and after (those stopping here will have been with the Puyallup Tribe the night before, and headed to Suquamish the night after). Every year a different tribe/nation in the region hosts the celebration at the end of the journey route.
(Video courtesy Ralph Lane Productions)
That video is from yesterday, when the West Seattle Big Band played to a big crowd at the Ballard Locks – and tomorrow night, you can see them right here at home, during their 24th annual Concert in the Park. Free! Just BYO chair/blanket to the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center, along Walnut south of Lander – the music starts at 7 pm Tuesday (July 16th).
(WSB photo from WSBB Concert in the Park 2018)
The WSBB is directed by Jim Edwards, also a coordinator of the West Seattle Grand Parade, and the concert has another connection to Saturday’s parade – presentation of the Orville Rummel Trophy for Outstanding Service to the Community. As reported here last week, this year’s honoree is philanthropist Adah Rhodes Cruzen, and you can applaud her at tomorrow night’s concert. Side note – its past winners include WSBB director Jim and wife Barbara Edwards, who as the video clip above shows, just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary!
P.S. Don’t let today’s rain worry you … tomorrow’s forecast looks dry. All ages are welcome to come enjoy the WSBB’s outstanding music. You can even get up and dance if you feel like it.
Thanks to Judy Waring for the photo! That’s from last night’s “Backyard Bard” edition of condensed Shakespeare at High Point Commons Park, courtesy of GreenStage. After “Merry Wives of Windsor” last night, tonight it’s an hourlong edition of “Measure for Measure,” also at High Point Commons Park (right behind Neighborhood House at 6400 SW Sylvan Way), 7 pm, free. Judy advises, “Easy parking nearby, not crowded, bring cushion for sitting on a rock or a lawn chair for tonight’s play.” GreenStage has other performances – both “Backyard Bard” and full length – coming up this month and next at other West Seattle parks; we have them all in the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar and you can check out the GreenStage website too.
(Photo by Paul Weatherman)
The West Seattle Summer Fest excitement rolled north to the main stage and beer garden as night arrived. Paul Weatherman‘s aerial view shows the crowd during Common Market‘s performance; then came the final band of the night, Polyrhythmics:
(WSB photos/video from here down)
A bit of video:
Tomorrow’s main-stage music is scheduled to run 12 full hours, all the way through Blackie’s 10 pm performance, with other highlights including Jeremy Enigk at 5:30 pm and Jenn Champion at 8:30.
As mentioned here last month, The Junction plans to add music to the monthly West Seattle Art Walk. So the call has gone out for interested musicians. The announcement:
Call for Musicians — The Art of Music:
The West Seattle Junction Association plans to present several performances by musicians in the West Seattle Junction to take place during the Junction’s Second Thursday Art Walks. The first two are scheduled to take place on, and to complement, Second Thursday Art Walk evenings on August 8 and on September 12.
For further details and to submit an application for consideration as a performer, please click here. Performances on those two dates will begin at 6 p.m.
Perfect night on Puget Ridge! This was the second of four Monday nights for the relocated Music Under the Stars events at the Seattle Chinese Garden on the north side of the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) campus. The grassy space north of the garden’s iconic courtyard proved to be a perfect setting for the live half-hour recital preceding the broadcast audio from the Seattle Chamber Music Society‘s Benaroya Hall concert. The recital is performed by student musicians, tonight an excellent quartet from the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra:
We recorded them performing Haydn‘s String Quartet #1, Opus 77. They were scheduled to return during the broadcast intermission with a Schubert piece. Admission is free and you are welcome to bring family, friends, neighbors, a picnic dinner, and stay for as little or as much of the event as you want. You have two more chances, July 15 and 22, mini-recital at 7:30 pm, live broadcast at 8. This map of the SSC campus shows where to find the garden.
SIDE NOTE – MORE SUMMER OUTDOOR MUSIC: This weekend (Friday through Sunday), West Seattle Summer Fest in The Junction; one week from tomorrow, the West Seattle Big Band Concert in the Park (7 pm July 16th, east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center); six Thursday nights starting July 18th (6:30 pm), Summer Concerts at Hiawatha. And more – watch our calendar!
That’s a new video chronicling what it’s like to learn music with the professional musicians who own and teach at Mode Music Studios (WSB sponsor) in North Delridge. Mode proprietor Erin Rubin told us about it while sharing word that Mode expanded its summer-camp lineups and now has “availability in the all-day camps as well as private music lessons for summer and fall, enrolling now.” You can explore the camp and lesson info by scrolling through Mode’s website – and see what musicmaking at Mode is like by watching the video.
P.S. Mode is representing at West Seattle Summer Fest (now just a week and a half away) – the music lineup includes Blackie (Erin Rubin’s in the band), Jenn Champion (Mode teacher alum), Nils Petersen with Jeremy Enigk (Mode teacher alum), and the Mode Music Studios Kids!
Until 8 tonight, and again 11 am-6 pm Sunday, you are invited to be part of the 20th Arts in Nature Festival at Camp Long (5200 35th SW). You can create, and/or contemplate …
The late afternoon sun sparkled off the park’s pond, highlighting the “nature” part of the festival’s name. Nearby, Cabin 8 offered a chance to make paper cranes for peace outside …
…while inside the cabin, artist Joselynn Tokashiki Engstrom‘s installation “The Boys in the Barracks” offers a view into her Green Beret father’s everyday life during the Vietnam War.
Performing arts are a festival feature, too. We were there for Show Brazil! on the stage in the meadow:
A night full of headliners has just begun – see the schedule here. Admission is free; the festival is presented by the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association.
(WSB photo from August 2018)
Before the day gets busier, one more reminder/preview … we are now three weeks away from the start of this year’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series. For a decade, the Admiral Neighborhood Association has presented this series of six free Thursday night outdoor concert, on the east lawn at Hiawatha Community Center (off Walnut south of Lander). This year’s lineup was rolled out in phases, starting at March’s ANA meeting (WSB coverage here). In its entirety:
July 18 – SWAY WILD featuring Mandy Fer & Dave McGraw
July 25 – THE NOT-ITS
August 1st – ALEC SHAW
August 8th – RANGER AND THE REARRANGERS
August 15th – THE HIGHSTEPPERS
August 22nd – CASPAR BABYPANTS
(For more info on the performers, see the ANA website.) All concerts start at 6:30 and run till about 8 pm. Bring your own chair/blanket for seating. In case of rain, the concert will usually just move into the Hiawatha gym, but check here for updates. (WSB has been a series co-sponsor since the start.)
(WSB photo, July 2018)
One week from tonight, the Seattle Chamber Music Society‘s “Music Under the Stars” series of free outdoor events returns to West Seattle for a third summer. This year, though, a new location, as SCMS spokesperson Alexander Hawker explains:
Music Under the Stars is a free community event that takes place in parks throughout Seattle. It features classical chamber music performances and live broadcasts of our concerts in Benaroya Hall. It is family friendly, and a great opportunity to bring a picnic, enjoy beautiful Seattle weather, and listen to some great chamber music.
In previous years we have held the West Seattle events at Delridge Playfield. We had an exciting opportunity this year to partner with the Chinese Garden so we are moving from Delridge Playfield to the new location at Seattle Chinese Garden for these performances.
The details for the event are the same as previous years, with the exception of the change in location. Music Under the Stars in West Seattle takes place on the first four Monday evenings in July, beginning July 1st at 7:30 pm, and takes place in Seattle Chinese Garden. The event begins with a live student performance of classical chamber music, which is followed by an HD radio broadcast of chamber music from Benaroya Hall.
The Chinese Garden is on the north end of the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) campus on Puget Ridge, 6000 16th SW.
Thanks to Andy for the photo – Desmond Hansen‘s newest signal-box portrait is at California/Stevens, just outside the West Seattle High School campus. This one depicts Mia Zapata, the rising Seattle singer murdered in 1993. And yes, for those who have asked, the artist is still crowdfunding to cover expenses. We first reported on Hansen’s project – which started with a Jimi Hendrix portrait in Morgan Junction – in March 2018.
Congratulations to Susan Rich, Harold Taw, and Katy E. Ellis, the local writers who founded WordsWest Literary Series, for its successful five-year run, which ended last night with a celebration at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor).
Among the accomplished authors and poets who joined them one last time for readings, West Seattle-residing Claudia Castro Luna, our state’s Poet Laureate:
As the three co-founders told WSB just before season 4, the idea behind WordsWest was to be able to go to readings without having to cross the bridge. But this year, various life changes led Ellis, Rich, and Taw to decide it was time to close the book on a good run.
Thanks to Lynda B for the photo – that’s Desmond Hansen’s latest signal-box portrait, Seattle’s own Sir Mix-A-Lot, at 35th/Raymond near the High Point Library.
As the weekend ends, a look at how it began:
(WSB photos/video)
On Friday night, students, families, staff, and neighbors gathered at West Seattle Elementary School in High Point to celebrate this year’s Multi-Cultural Night. The program began with students singing African songs of welcome:
The program also included hula from Hawai’i and a folkloric dance from México:
Vietnam, Eritrea, and Bangladesh were represented too – as were U.S. art forms from hiphop to cheerleading, the latter courtesy of next year’s Chief Sealth International High School varsity cheer squad:
While performing was a joy …
… visual art was shown off too:
Multi-Cultural Night at WSES was the result of lots of community support as well as school planning and practice.
Three West Seattle Junction notes:
FIRST WEST SEATTLE .5 K: The first-time West Seattle .5K today was a sudsy success, with seven venues participating in the sold-out event that put a different twist on the term “beer run.” The Beer Junction was packet-pickup central before the four-hour .5K began:
More than 200 peoole signed up. If you missed out, watch for early word next year.
MURAL RESTORATION: Work continued this week on the next historic Junction mural to get some TLC:
THat’s Bob Henry at work on the “West Seattle Ferries” mural behind the KeyBank/Bin 41/Pharmaca building. As we reported last month, crowdfunding continues to cover the costs of restoration, and a commemorative keychain remains available through the end of this month for donations of $50 and up. Here’s how to donate.
FARMERS’ MARKET PARTY SUNDAY: And one more reminder that tomorrow brings a party at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market in the heart of The Junction – it’s celebrating 20 years, with cake (first-come first-served) and founder Chris Curtis ringing the opening bell at 10 am. See you there!
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