Large turnout for Drums in the Park!

Thanks all for coming to the opening event of the 9th season of Classical Tuesdays in Old Town. On September 10, we had a great turnout of folks from the Old Town neighborhood and from throughout the Puget Sound region gathering in Old Town Park!

Thione Diop & Yeke Yeke on the new stage

The weather was perfect and the sprawling lawn beckoned chairs, blankets and picnics. The newly constructed stage in the park was the center of attention.

Quite an array of drums!

Thanks to The Spar for the use of their sound system, Thione Diop and the Yeke Yeke West African Ensemble filled Old Town Park with the beats and timbres of their traditional drums. Thione's "talking drum" was amazing!

Yeke Yeke Ensemble

And especially inviting was the Yeke Yeke's dancer Sumaya Diop. She enticed many from the audience to join in the dancing! 

Sumaya's great smile & movements!

Thanks! to Rosemary Ponnekanti of the TNT, Matt Nagle of Tacoma Weekly and Amanda Westbrooke and the team at TVTacoma's CityLine for helping to get the word out about this year's Classical Tuesdays season, September through February.

Over 200 enjoyed the music, the sunshine and neighbors on the grass
(photo by Jim Robbins)

A festive 2012 Wine & Song benefit for Classical Tuesdays held at the Connelly Law Offices

Thanks to all the Classical Tuesdays supporters who joined us for a delightful evening of Wine & Song on December 8, 2012.  Our gracious hosts, Jack and Angela Connelly and the Connelly Law Offices, had decked the hall for the holidays. Lights shone on the highly polished woodwork and green boughs were strung.

A full house of supporters at Wine & Song 2012

Because a grand piano is in the Connelly Law lobby, we enjoy featuring voice and piano each year. For this year’s affair Christina Kowalski, soprano, and pianist Denes Van Parys performed a selection of captivating songs by Franz Schubert.

Denes Van Parys and Christina Kowalski

For the reception, local wine shop merchant Katrina Lange of 21 Cellars donated lovely wines, as did Kathy Manke (The Spar), Josh Dunn of South Sound Magazine, and John and Karen Trueman. As she has each year, Chris Reynolds set a lovely table. Barb Bourscheidt, Kathleen Butler and Joan Iverson set out the food and John Trueman handled the wines. Barb, Chris, Karen, John, Cathy Russell (of Hawthorn Tea Room) and Kathy Westlin prepared many lovely and tasty foods, both sweets and savories. Jim Robbins took these great photos!

A festive gathering of friends

Thanks to all of you for your tremendous support! Our ninth season is in the works – lots more great music to look forward to.

Artistic Director Pamela Ryker

Full House for Oct 9 Scandinavians in Old Town

Our thanks to all of you for a fantastic season opener!

Classical Tuesdays filled Slavonian Hall and Old Town district with fiddle playing and foot stomping in traditional Scandinavian music and dance. Thanks to Hale Bill & the Bopps and to the Bygdedeal dance group!

Thanks too to photographer Dayton Knipher for capturing the energy and merriment of the evening.

A great time was had by all!


Hale Bill & the Bopps, with the Bygdedeal dancers



Photos of 2011 Wine & Song Benefit Concert

Thank you to everyone who was part of the Classical Tuesdays 2011 Wine & Song Benefit! As always, we had a wonderful audience, dedicated volunteers, and generous support from local businesses and residents.

Tacoma photographer Dayton Knipher has generously shared her photos of the event. Below are soprano Christina Kowalski, tenor Gino Lucchetti, pianist Denes Van Parys, and our beautiful venue, the John Connelly Law Offices.

Thanks to Community for Supporting Evening of String Trios

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Connelly Law Offices, Classical Tuesdays' audience enjoyed a delightful evening of string trios and duos on November 8.  The Manette Trio performed works by Beethoven, Mozart, Dohnanyi and Kodaly to a full audience in our lovely Slavonian Hall.

The support of members of the Old Town Business & Professional Association makes it possible to present these concerts - for free - in the Old Town District. For the Manette Trio concert, the Connelly Law Offices underwrote the expense of the concert and printed the flyers and programs for the event. Many thanks for these generous contributions!

Classical Tuesdays also has a number of full-season sponsors, including both businesses and individuals in the district. The Slavonian-American Benevolent Society offers the series free use of the hall, the Old Town Starbucks donates coffee and cups, and Cathy Russell at the Hawthorn Tea Room contributes teas and cookies. Last but not least, the Tacoma Arts Commission grants financial support for the entire season--for seven straight seasons of Classical Tuesdays!

photos by Jim Robbins

Photos of 2010 Wine & Song benefit concert

Thanks to all who came out for our 2010 Wine & Song benefit concert! The "Romantic Arias" theme was an instant favorite, and the reception was lovely as always, thanks to our wonderful volunteers.

Tacoma photographer Dayton Knipher was kind enough to provide photos of the event. Below are soprano Alexandra Picard, baritone Charles Robert Stephens, and pianist Denes Van Parys in the handsome John Connelly Law Offices.

October's Native Flutes: standing room only!

Thanks, everyone, for a fantastic start to Classical Tuesdays' 6th season!

Slavonian Hall was packed for Gary Stroutsos playing flutes of the Lakota, the Hopi and the Zuni. Gary told stories about learning the songs of these great tribal nations, and played melodies evoking sounds of nature.

Many thanks to Dayton Knipher for capturing the evening in these terrific photos.

Also check out this short video of Gary performing in Slavonian Hall, thanks to Carol Abed:



What an exciting start to our season. Be sure to download a copy of the season poster to hang on your fridge! Our next concert will be November 9th.

New video of Wine & Song 2008: Opera in Old Town

As we plan our fifth season of Classical Tuesdays in Old Town, we'd like to share a video of last winter's benefit concert. In this clip you'll see and hear Charles Robert Stephens, Gino Lucchetti, and Tanya Stambuk in a lovely performance December 9th, 2008, at the beautiful Connelly Law Offices.



Many thanks to Jim Robbins for producing the video, and thanks once again to the many supporters of Classical Tuesdays. Check back soon for our season announcement and details of our October concert.

Photo from our Valentine's concert

Elizabeth Brown, lute, and James Brown, tenor, performing Lyrical and Humorous Love Songs last week at Slavonian Hall.

We were serenaded in Italian, archaic French, Spanish and English (and Scottish brogue!) The songs in the first half of the program dated back to 1500. After an intermission in which we shared coffee, chocolates and camaraderie, we heard songs of Schubert and Beethoven (eighteenth/nineteenth century) and Joaquin Rodrigo (twentieth century.)

Love, and the joys and loss of love, have made the world spin 'round for centuries! We were all moved -- to laughter and to tears -- by the performance by Jim and Elizabeth.

Greet the New Year with a Bang!! January 8

Last evening's concert featured the University of Puget Sound Percussion Ensemble Quintet, Director Amy Putnam, co-Director Gunnar Folsom, and members Gordon Robbe, Andy Lum and Mitch Knottingham. We all had a bang-up time!

The program was so varied, and the array of instruments was amazing. No wonder that it required 4 hours to move the equipment! But the concert was well worth the effort. Everyone performed wonderfully. Such a variety of timbres and rhythms, and combinations of those elements. Mallet instruments -- marimbas and xylophone -- were at the forefront in each number except Russell Peck's Lift Off which featured bass drums!

Other numbers performed were three of Bach's Two Part Inventions, Dill Pickles by Charles Johnson, Back Talk by Harry Breuer and Limejuice by Arthur Lipner. The evening was great fun and well attended.

Wonderful concert by Brass Unlimited, great audience

This week's Classical Tuesdays in Old Town concert was performed by the Brass Unlimited quartet. The members are David Mulkins and Karl Ronning on trumpets, and Keith Gorsuch and Eric Stevens on trombones. All four are professional music-educators in the Tacoma public schools.

Thanks to Jamie for the photo of the concert!

Brass Unlimited had appeared in the first season of our series, and we were happy to bring them back -- by popular request. They played wonderfully, individually, and especially as an ensemble, as only a group that has performed together for ten years could. Let's be sure to watch for the Brass Unlimited tenth anniversary concert at the end of January.

The pieces performed Tuesday night were often lyrical and mellifluous, at other times sonorous and stirring. The program was full of concert favorites composed by Beethoven, Mozart, Frackenpohl, American-great Copland, and many others. All the selections were transcribed by member Keith Gorsuch.

Photo from lute & guitar concert

Elizabeth Brown gave us a lovely season finale, with a program of lute and guitar music from around the world.

Photo from November concert

We had a wonderful concert last week with Maria Sampen, Timothy Christie, Miriam Shames and Joyce Ramée.

Evergreen Brass Quintet in the park

Thanks to everyone who came out Tuesday night! It was a beautiful evening in Old Town Park, and the Evergreen Brass Quintet were a great start to our season.

A final photo

Brass Unlimited gave us the perfect season finale last Tuesday. We also had another excellent student ensemble from the Tacoma Youth Symphony at C.I. Shenanigans:


Happy holidays!

Photo from the Sunset Strings concert

Tuesday's concert was our biggest crowd yet! You'll notice that we couldn't find a photo showing all 3 of us performing.... There's a simple explanation! This month's performers were Maria Sampen on violin, Timothy Christie on viola, and Pamela Butler Ryker on flute and camera.

Photos of last Tuesday's concert

Thanks everyone, for another great concert! Last week we heard from Craig Alden Dell on guitar:



And C.I. Shenanigans showcased an excellent University of Puget Sound string quartet during Sunday brunch:

Photos of "Percussion in the Park"

Thanks to everyone for making Tuesday's concert a great kickoff to our season! A couple photos of Loop 2.4.3 in Old Town Park on a gorgeous day: