Music on the Strait finales in Port Angeles, Quilcene

As the last notes hung in the air, listener James Garlick felt tears come to his eyes.

His friend and fellow musician Jeremy Denk had given the first of four concerts in the 2021 Music on the Strait, the festival Garlick cofounded.

“I have to pinch myself,” Garlick said this past Sunday.

All of this live music, after such a long break, felt almost too good to be true.

But it will happen again this weekend, in three concerts at two venues: Maier Performance Hall at Peninsula College in Port Angeles and Trillium Woods Farm in Quilcene.

Music on the Strait’s final weekend also brings free livestreams of the Maier Hall events Friday and Saturday nights. Viewers can see the concerts on the Music on the Strait Facebook page or on the festival’s YouTube channel, accessible from musiconthestrait.com.

Then will come Sunday’s Concert in the Barn, held at the farm at 7360 Center Road. There, the surrounding lawn and picnic tables provide ample space to spread out.

The musical lineup of these concerts includes Denk, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient, performing with Garlick, a violinist born and raised in Port Angeles, Richard O’Neill, a Grammy-winning violist from Sequim, and cellist Ani Aznavoorian, a member of California’s Camerata Pacifica.

The performances include:

• Friday at 7 p.m., Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C minor and String Trio in G are in the spotlight as the quartet performs at Maier Hall;

• Saturday at 7 p.m., The Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, Hindemith’s Sonata for Viola and Piano and Jessie Montgomery’s Duo for Violin and Cello will fill Maier Hall in the festival’s Port Angeles finale;

• Sunday at 2 p.m., it’s “Barn-Burning Brahms,” as Denk, Garlick, Aznavoorian and O’Neill will give the last 2021 Music on the Strait concert in the barn in Quilcene.

Tickets for the Maier Hall performances are $40 for general admission or $10 for students via musiconthestrait.com.

As for the Concerts in the Barn, those are always free, but reservations are needed at concertsinthebarn.org. The website also has information about its concerts Aug. 28-29 featuring the Fulton Street Chamber Players.

All audience members at Maier Hall and inside the barn in Quilcene must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination; masks will be required in both indoor settings.

People who are unvaccinated or prefer to be outdoors can choose lawn seating outside the barn. Chairs, blankets and picnics are encouraged at the farm, which has a flower garden and shade trees for pre-concert strolling.

The gates there will open at 11 a.m. Sunday while the barn doors will open at 1 p.m. Music on the Strait posters and T-shirts, local cider, wine and bottled water will be available.

Last weekend O’Neill, who, along with Garlick, started Music on the Strait three years ago, gave performances with the Takács Quartet, the internationally known chamber ensemble to which he belongs.

On Sunday afternoon in the barn, he recalled a particular summer day there.

In 1992, O’Neill was a preteenage musician attending a youth camp at the farm. On July 3, he was inside the barn, sitting on a hay bale up in the loft, listening to a string ensemble play Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden.”

“This music is so eternal, so potent,” he said.

O’Neill remembers thinking: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could become a musician capable of playing it for an audience?

Holding out his instrument, he thanked Alan Iglitzin, founder of the Concerts in the Barn, not only for starting the music series, but also for providing that instrument, a 16th century Italian viola. O’Neill won his Grammy award earlier this year for his recording of Christopher Theofanidis’ Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra.

Then he and the Takács Quartet — violinists Harumi Rhodes and Edward Dusinberre, cellist András Fejér — played a concert of Ravel, Haydn and, as the finale, “Death and the Maiden.”

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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.