Today and tonight signify Friday, July 31.
PORT ANGELES — David Jacobs-Strain, the young, rocking bluesman from Eugene, Ore., is returning to the Olympic Peninsula for an intimate benefit concert next Saturday, Aug. 8.
The venue is Renaissance, the cafe overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca at 401 E. Front St., and the beneficiary is First Step Family Support Center.
Tickets to see Jacobs-Strain, one of the best-known performers in recent years at Port Angeles’ Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, are $20 per person or $35 for two.
Visit www.FirstStepFamily.org or phone the organization at 360-457-8355 for details and reservations.
Summer gala
QUILCENE — The first-ever Olympic Music Festival Summer Gala is set for this weekend at the festival farm, 7360 Center Road about 18 miles south of Port Townsend.
“This is our big fundraiser,” said festival general manager Susan Miller, so it generates support for the whole summer of concerts on the farm.
A pair of internationally known players are on the North Olympic Peninsula for performances at 2 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday: pianist and festival artistic director Julio Elizalde and violinist Sarah Chang.
They will offer the music of Vitali, Prokofiev, Franck and Ravel, while listeners can choose to sit inside the farm’s restored barn or outside on the lawn where the concerts are broadcast.
Tickets to Olympic Music Festival concerts, which happen every weekend through Sept. 13, range from $14 to $60.
The farm gates open at 11 a.m. for those who want to stroll and picnic; barn doors open at 1 p.m.
In the spirit of the place, the appropriate dress for these concerts is casual.
For details about and reservations for the Summer Gala, phone 360-732-4800 or visit www.OlympicMusicFestival.org.
Jazz outdoors
PORT ANGELES — Singer Robbin Eaves and the 13-piece Peninsula College Jazz Ensemble will lay out a Jazz on the Lawn concert Monday at the college, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., and everybody is invited.
There’s no charge for the hour of jazz, which will start at noon on the grass just east of the M building.
Music by Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, Bobby Watson, Kenny Dorham, Jackie McLean and Peninsula College’s own bandleader, David P. Jones, are all on the set list.
Listeners are welcome to bring blankets, lawn chairs or both; then again if it rains, the concert will move inside the nearby Pirate Union Building, aka the PUB.
For more details, contact Jones at the Peninsula College Music Department at 360-417-6405 or visit www.pencol.edu.
Musical picnic
PORT ANGELES — A picnic and concert featuring musicians from the Port Angeles Symphony will take place at Camaraderie Cellars, 334 Benson Road, next Friday, Aug. 7.
This is the summer fundraiser for the Port Angeles Symphony’s concerts and other programs, so tickets are $75 per person including Camaraderie wines, light picnic fare and live music by special chamber ensembles.
One is the Camaraderie Quintet, with violinists James and Heather Ray, violist Tyrone Beatty, cellist Elizabeth Koehler and bassist Clint Thomas.
Also set to play are organist Ken Young and fiddlers Kristin and Otto Smith; then Selbey Jelle will offer some romantic violin solos, and Joel Yelland and Jaie Livingstone will sing.
To make reservations and find out more about the Symphony, phone the office at 360-457-5579 and visit PortAngelesSymphony.org.
‘Radio’ tour
PORT TOWNSEND — The Ian McFeron band, featuring bassist and singer Moe Provencher, drummer and singer Aimee Zoe Tubbs and fiddler-cellist-singer Alisa Milner, will arrive at Port Townsend Brewing next Friday, Aug. 7, for a free concert.
McFeron is touring in support of his new album, “Radio,” recorded with producer Doug Lancio in Nashville, Tenn.
The music will pour out from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Port Townsend Brewing, 330 10th St., with no cover charge.
To find out more, phone the brewpub at 360-385-9967 and visit www.IanMcferon.com.

