Port Angeles and Port Townsend both vibrate with musical energy, fiddler Lisa Ornstein of Portland, Ore., believes.
“They have a disproportionate number of people who enjoy making music and listening to music,” she said. “And that’s a match made in heaven.”
Ornstein, along with Dan Compton, the man she calls her “musical partner in crime,” will make the most of that this weekend with a concert, three workshops and a dance.
In each event, Ornstein and Compton will bring their specialties — the sounds of Quebec and Appalachia — out to the North Olympic Peninsula.
Noon concert
Ornstein will take up her fiddle and Compton his guitar at high noon Saturday at the Rosewind Common House, 3131 Haines St. in Port Townsend.
They will give a 75-minute concert, for which admission is a donation of $12 to $20.
More details are available by phoning 360-379-0275.
Then come the workshops: Quebecois fiddling with Ornstein or guitar accompaniment with Compton at 1:30 p.m. and finally an old-time fiddle session at 2:45 p.m.
These workshops, all at Rosewind, go for $20 each or two for $30.
They’re intermediate-level, Ornstein said, though she knows how subjective such words can be.
If a musician has any doubt about his or her playing being intermediate or not, she welcomes email queries at lisa.ornstein@hotmail.com.
That’s also the address to use for workshop registration.
These activities are relatively early in the day because, Ornstein said, she and Compton will head for a community dance in Port Angeles on Saturday night.
That all-ages event, a mix of contra and square dances, will begin at 8 p.m. at the Black Diamond Community Hall, 1942 Black Diamond Road.
Dance lesson
Beginners are welcome at this and every first-Saturday community dance, and the evening always starts with a lesson at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is a suggested donation of $6, or $2 for dancers age 17 and younger.
“I feel like a homing pigeon,” said Ornstein, who has come to Port Angeles and Port Townsend many a time to teach and play.
Centrum teacher
She has taught at Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes at Fort Worden State Park in July as well as at other venues for the past several Decembers.
“Lisa knows the traditions inside and out. Both she and Dan are devoted to joyfully passing on these traditions,” noted Rosewind resident Alea Waters in an announcement of Saturday’s workshops and concert.
Ornstein’s deep knowledge of the Quebecois and Round Peak styles is impressive, Waters continued; so are the energy and grace with which she and Compton interpret the music.
Ornstein grew up just outside Cleveland, Ohio and started playing the fiddle when she was just 14.
When she discovered French Canadian music — brought down from Quebec by the men who came to work in Ohio’s mill towns — she was “passionately, obsessively consumed with it.”
As a young teenager, she traveled around the region to venues where the Quebecois music played.
Other musicians had to drive her, and Ornstein said she remains grateful — to those players and to her parents for letting her go in the first place.
Ornstein is likewise thankful for her current musical partner.
Partners for four years
She and Compton have been playing together four years, after meeting in Quebec and discovering that they’re fellow travelers, fellow storytellers who use string instruments to spin their tales.
“We played eight concerts together recently on a tour in California, and both of us realized: This is just a gift. You’re lucky to find somebody in any kind of relationship who’s a really great partner,” she said.
“One of the signs is if you play a concert every night and then you look at each other and realize you’ve had the same pleasure and excitement every time, it hasn’t become rote.
“The music is very dynamic. It’s very exciting to play with someone who is making it up fresh every time.”
To learn more about the duo and their music, visit www.OrnsteinCompton.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
