SEQUIM — A popular music staple in Sequim starts next week with a new name, time and format at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Music Live at One, formerly Music Live with Lunch, opens its next era with BlueSkyz at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the church sanctuary, 525 N. Fifth Ave.
Four more acts perform at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday in November and from February through April, with Bread & Gravy on Nov. 13, Heidi Fiyash (classical pianist) on Feb. 12 and Buttercup Lane on March 12. The performer at the April 9 concert is to be announced later.
Music Live with Lunch concerts were held at noon on the third Tuesday of most months with lunch served afterward, but organizers plan to create a cafe setting promoting camaraderie with desserts and tea served in the parish hall instead.
Concerts will remain 30 minutes.
Tickets are $10 each or $45 for all five events, with all proceeds benefiting local, regional and global concerns. (Music Live began as a musical outreach 30-plus years ago.)
Advanced tickets are available at the church office 9 a.m. to noon, Monday to Thursday, or just prior to each event. For more information, call 360-683-4862.
Opening up BlueSkyz
For Music Live, BlueSkyz’ Tess Teel (vocalist/guitarist), Dave Keyte (electronic wind instrument) and Jason Paul (guitarist/vocalist) plan their own take on Nat King Cole’s “Straighten Up And Fly Right,” Richard Rodgers’ “My Romance,” Consuelo Velázquez’s “Besame Mucho” and more.
Each of BlueSkyz’s’ members has a deep history in music.
Teel said she began learning music at age 7, ranging from the oboe to alto sax to guitar before later choosing to focus on vocal performances. She’s centered mostly on classical and liturgical music with time as a soloist, psalmist and cantor at several congregations in California and Washington.
She previously performed with the Canto Bello Master Chorale, studied with Ralph Cato at the University of Riverside, and performed in the Riverside Lyric Opera concert series, full opera productions and as part of an international cultural exchange with opera and orchestra.
Keyte said he began playing saxophone in fifth grade but later lost his hearing during the Vietnam War while in the U.S. Air Force in 1971. He regained his hearing in 1986 after an operation but said he had to relearn everything about music, leading him to pursue the electronic wind instrument, EWI, which duplicates about 55 different instruments.
Keyte said he’s one of the few artists to perfect the EWI for live performances, since it’s customarily used in recording studios.
Paul said he grew up around artists and musicians and he started piano and violin lessons at age 7 before choosing guitar a few years later. He went on to train in classical guitar in high school while playing in cover bands.
After semi-retirement from being an architect, Paul began pursuing music standards including jazz, rock and more.
