Virtual Shows

Hot House West

MAIN STAGE

Genre: Gypsy Swing/ Jazz

Get ready for sheer delight, for here is happy music. When Hot House West begin to play, they unleash an impressive kinetic force, with pulsating, driving arrangements, the controlled fury of collective improvisation, and a spirit which no other band can match. This hard-hitting and straight-forward swing band have won over countless fans with their provocative and action-filled style of American jazz.

Massy Ferguson

Genre: Country Rock

For more than a dozen years, Massy Ferguson have proudly planted their boots on both sides of the country-rock divide, carving out their own brand of amplified Americana along the way. Based in Seattle, they’ve become international torchbearers of a sound that’s distinctly American, with a touring history that spans nine different countries.

The Paperboys

Genre: Folk/ Roots/ Celtic/ Latin

Wrapping up their 20th anniversary year, Vancouver Canadian musician Tom Landa, is looking back on the legacy of his much-loved folk rock band The Paperboys. For two decades, The Paperboys have been touring the world and lighting up stages with their free-wheeling blend of influences from Celtic and bluegrass, to Mexican son jarocho, brass bands, and Canadian roots. They’ve been called everything from Cajun slamgrass to worldbeat, they’ve received a Juno award (Canadian Grammy), plus two Juno nominations, released nine albums, and regularly play two-night bills in the Pacific Northwest.

Daniel Costa Dance

Genre: Contemporary Dance

Daniel Costa is Daniel Costa Dance. Founding DCD in 2017, Daniel identifies as a queer choreographer, performer, and educator who seeks to strip away shame and access vulnerability by channeling athleticism, artistry, and healing through dance. 

Currently, Daniel is developing a body of work around the concept of resonance, and the ways in which energy reverberates both in an individual body and in a collective. At a moment when our discourse and public sphere feels increasingly fractured, Daniel wants to offer a visceral and poetic vision of togetherness through contemporary movement.

David Jacobs-Strain + Christopher Worth

Genre: Roots & Blues

“ Two Oregon based singer-songwriters who join forces in a powerfully dynamic acoustic duo.”  

Drawing from a variety of roots and blues influences with a modern flare, Christopher Worth and David Jacobs-Strain are an inimitably powerful acoustic duo. The two began playing together in 2018 after jamming around a songwriters fire and within only a couple months were invited to play a variety of main stage sets at US festivals across the west coast.    

Though their command of craft is clear from the first note, it is the rawness and honesty of the performances that are most impactful.  David’s delicate and fine touch on slide guitar is the perfect complement to Worth’s rhythmic foundations, and the two both have rich voices that compliment one another seamlessly.  Above all it is their attention to space and dynamics that sets these recordings apart.  The songs are classic and poetic in both lyric and melody and come alive through the deftness of their respective performances.  

Between the two they have shared stages with (to name a few): Etta James, Robert Plant, Allen Stone, Nahko and Medicine for the People, Rising Appalachia, The Polish Ambassador, Dirtwire, and many more.

Ballet Victoria

Genre: Dance

Ballet Victoria, founded in 2002, is a boutique professional ballet company of 12 dancers and four yearly productions. A treasured participant of the Juan de Fuca Festival for many years, Ballet Victoria produces dramatic and technically demanding performances often laced with both depth and humor. 

Under the direction of Paul Destrooper, the company offers highly entertaining shows that embody great artistic depth inspired by music, the human body, and the beauty and harmony only found through dance. 

This year, Ballet Victoria invites you to join them in a virtual performance of all new works! Destooper’s new ballet, Carmen, set to Bizet’s flamboyant score is sure to ignite your passion while Montreal choreographer, Philipe A. Jacques, is premiering a contemporary work created via Zoom. Set to the beautiful Mexican folk music “La Llorona”, “Tell Me Your Story 1,000 Times” is a deeply moving and seamless work. 

Innovation and original creations are Ballet Victoria’s staples and, this season, Ballet Victoria is the only dance company in Canada who has completed and shared three new full productions. Innovation is happening quietly but insistently. The result is pure magic, the experience, fascinating and the memories, pure delight. 

Sway Wild

Genre: Folk Rock

“Grooving…wistful, driving, and a masterful combination…velvety vocals over staccato guitar and light percussion capture your attention with Sway Wild.”-Parade Magazine

Internationally acclaimed indie folk-rock duo Mandy Fer and Dave McGraw, are back at it with a new sound, a new album, and a new name: Sway Wild. Their exceptional vocal harmonies, coupled with Fer’s pioneering electric guitar work, have become a vehicle to carry them around the world, sharing stages with the likes of Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Lake Street Dive,Gregory Alan Isakov, and Mandolin Orange. Sway Wild’s infectious sound explores the corners of rock, pop, funk, prog, worldbeat, and folk, but at its nucleus it is undeniably a music full of joy. It can squeeze the heart in your chest, it can draw tears from your eyes, and it can force you to get up and move your body; over and over, it somehow manages to do all three at once. Their 2019 self-titled debut album as Sway Wild includes guest appearances by Birds of Chicago, Sean Hayes, members of MarchFourth, Anna Tivel, and others.

Dirty Cello

Genre: Blues / Bluegrass

“Dirty Cello’s music is all over the map: funky, carnival, romantic, sexy, tangled, electric, fiercely rhythmic, and textured, and only occasionally classical.”  -Oakland Magazine

From China to Iceland, and all over the U.S., Dirty Cello brings the world a high energy and unique spin on blues and bluegrass. Led by vivacious cross-over cellist, Rebecca Roudman, Dirty Cello is cello like you’ve never heard before. From down home blues with a wailing cello to virtuosic stompin’ bluegrass, Dirty Cello is a band that gets your heart thumping and your toes tapping!

Kristen Grainger & True North

Genre: northwest Americana / Folk

Fronted by singer-songwriter Kristen Grainger, the bluegrass-infused folk powerhouse includes Dan Wetzel, guitar; octave mandolin, banjo; Martin Stevens, mandolin, octave mandolin, fiddle; Josh Adkins, bass – and everybody sings.

A songwriter whose star is rising, Kristen was named, alongside Brandi Carlile and Dolly Parton, one of the Women Who Wrote Our 2020 Soundtrack by The Bluegrass Situation. 

She won the 2020 USA Songwriting Competition (folk), and she has won or been a finalist in some of the nation’s most prestigious songwriting contests, including Telluride Bluegrass Festival (CO), Wildflower Festival (TX), Merlefest (NC), and Kerrville Folk Festival (TX). 

The band’s 2020 release, Ghost Tattoo, was named one of the Top 20 Albums of 2020 by Folk Alley’s Listeners Choice, hitting #1 on folk radio charts for both albums and singles. And, according to Folk Alliance International, Ghost Tattoo was the second most-aired album on folk radio in 2020. 

With deep roots in Oregon and Washington, the quartet tours nationally and internationally — when not curtailed by a global pandemic. 

Locarno

Genre: Latin

Locarno is the Latin project of JUNO Award winning musician, Tom Landa. Like him, the music is equal parts Mexican and Canadian. Tom was born and raised in Mexico City, and moved to Canada in his teens. In the mid nineties he formed the Folk Roots band, The Paperboys, who have been touring world-wide for over 20 years. Tom has always dabbled in Latin music, and in 2005 decided to immerse himself more into genre, and started working on material for an album. In 2006 he was awarded a Canada Council Grant to study traditional Mexican Music in Veracruz, Mexico. Tom spent his days learning the jarana (an 8 string guitar), and learning songs from the Son Jarocho repertoire. Upon his return to Canada, Tom started working on what would be Locarno’s debut CD. Since then the band has honed in on their sound and incorporated more of their influences such as music from Columbia, African Sukous, Mexican Marimba Music, Venezuelan Joropo and Brazilian Forro Music. 

Locarno launched their second CD, ‘Luz Y Sombra’ in November 2015 which was nominated for a Western Canada Music Award in the spring of 2016.

Locarno’s approach is so genuine and so welcome for audiences who enjoy great song writing, a respect for tradition, a searching musical curiosity, and virtuoso performance skills. Their compelling blend of Mexican, Cuban and North American popular music delivered with exuberant energy is a winning combination.

Hiroya Tsukamoto

Genre: Acoustic / World

Hiroya is a one-of-a-kind guitarist and composer. Born and raised in Kyoto, Japan and in 2000, he received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and came to the US. Since then, he has been performing internationally including appearances at Blue Note(NYC), United Nations (NYC) and Japanese National Television. Hiroya released six albums. Most recently, he won 2nd place in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2018.

Max Hatt / Edda Glass

Genre: Jazz / Americana

“BEAUTIFUL… #CHILLS.”

— Ann Powers of NPR Music

Max Hatt / Edda Glass have “an incomparable spook” and a “unique sound” (Nashville Scene and NPR’s Larry Groce) that’s taken them across the country from NPR and PBS to NYC’s Lincoln Center, DC’s Kennedy Center, and the Sundance Film Festival. Praised for her “impeccable vocal command” (PopMatters) and compared to a gamut of singers from Astrud Gilberto to Billie Holliday, Glass’s voice is ultimately “one of a kind…you cannot confuse her with another artist” (New York Theatre Guide). Their award-winning original music and mesmerizing reinventions of the Great American Songbook and Brazilian classics create a swoon-inducing soundscape of voice and guitar that is both epic and intimate, making one feel “both lost and found, all at once” (New York Theater Guide). If we live in uneasy times, this music is both a reflection and antidote, an escape that is really a healing-in-place.

“Subtly poignant, elegantly funky, and haunting without trying to be.”

— Nels Cline, Wilco

Port Angeles Symphony String Quartet

Genre: Contemporary Classical

The Port Angeles Symphony String Quartet was formed for this year’s Festival and is made up of violinists Jory Noble and Morgan Bartholick-LeMaire, violist Tyrone Beatty, and cellist Traci Winters Tyson.  They have selected music that represents very different moods and styles, from 18th century classical to 19th century romantic to 20th century modern, including parts of string quartets by Mozart, Borodin, Ravel, and Prokofiev.  Their set is capped off by a light-hearted tango. 

Jessie Young feat. Sophie Wilhoit

Genre: Contemporary Dance

Jessie Young is originally from the Olympic Peninsula, on the unceded land of the Lower-Elwha Clallam Tribe (Port Angeles, WA). She is a choreographer, dancer and teacher, approaching choreography as a poetic provocation, viewing dance as a form that must constantly redefine itself in relation to shifting sensorial, emotional, political, and cultural circumstances. Her choreographic work emerges from a dedicated teaching practice operating as the base of her research. Currently, she is working on an interview series called “Portraits of Process” in which she speaks with artists and teachers who engage their creative process as a catalyst for dialogue and resource-sharing.

Jessie has thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with Sophie (Wilhoit) from across the country on this unique project. Sophie was born and raised in western Washington and works for the national park service. Currently she is getting a masters degree in geographic information system (GIS) and cartography. Mapping self and sound has been an ongoing theme throughout her life. She enjoys surfing, diving, hiking, gardening,  and hanging out with her wild dog Quil.

Quattlebaum

Genre: Free Range Folk & Bluegrass

Quattlebaum, Southern Gent and Banjo Slinger, brings more to the table than just music. With his infectious smile and weird antics, he brings people together; encouraging camaraderie and building community. The singer-songwriter, currently based in Portland, Oregon, tours the country picking and strumming indie-folk songs that are spacious and emotive, and have an implicit groove. When he plays, you can hear the reverberations of the rustic mountains clashing with the breezy ocean. Like a willowy heron, Quattlebaum struts around on stage as the music moves through him, evoking a range of emotions from laughter to longing. He shares tender moments, where one can almost hear his banjo breathing, then erupts into raucous peaks of unbridled energy—his captivating solo performances take his audiences on a ride.

Quattlebaum’s playing style is rooted in traditional southern bluegrass, but his stage presence and improvisational nature have morphed his sound into something all his own. He’s developed his show to be a more complete live experience, switching instruments around on stage from banjo to cello banjo to guitar, and incorporating comedy and funny stories in between songs.

Jack Dwyer

Genre: Americana

Raised in an Alaskan family band, on the stages of various New York City, Hudson Valley, and Pacific Northwest music clubs, Jack Dwyer has embraced his far flung roots-music background and found his voice as a multi-talented songwriter, singer, and instrumentalist. His songs move seamlessly through classic country, swing jazz, honky tonk blues, bluegrass, and bayou-influenced Americana, exploring an uncommonly wide musical vocabulary that sets him apart among solo performers and songwriters. Jack is a skilled and seasoned bandleader and sideman, and he brings years of ensemble playing experience to bear when he walks onstage. He has released a number of albums ranging from original Americana, bluegrass and old-time, to instrumental world music mandolin duets. He currently resides in Port Townsend, WA.

Jack has performed professionally for the last 18 years, 100+ shows a year, as a solo artist, bandleader, and sideman, at many festivals, including:

Pickathon (OR), String Summit (OR), Wintergrass (WA), The Mandolin Symposium (CA), Shakori Hills Festival (NC), Harvest Festival (AR), New York Ukulele Festival (NY), Woodstock Film Festival (NY), Big Apple Bluegrass Festival (NY), Long Island Bluegrass Festival (NY), Clearwater Festival (NY), Juan de Fuca Fest (WA), Boats and Bluegrass Festival (MN), Subdued Stringband Jamboree (WA), Bellingham Folk Festival (WA), North Cascade Bluegrass Festival (WA), Portland Old-Time Gathering (OR), Oregon Country Fair (OR), Olympia Old-Time Festival (WA), Anchorage Folk Festival (AK), Granite Creek Bluegrass Festival (AK), East Vancouver Old-Time Social (BC, CAN), Folklife Festival (WA), Dungeness Crab Festival (WA), The Wooden Boat Festival (WA), Port Townsend Film Festival (WA), and more…

Henrik Bothe

Genre: Physical Comedy

The Henrik Bothe Physical Comedy Show blends comedy with various circus skill and stupid human tricks. Henrik has entertained crowds around the world from the Tonight Show w Leno to Chinese Television and even appeared juggling on the Garrison Keilor “A Prairie Home Companion” radio show. Yes, a juggler on a radio show.

His biggest claim to fame is that if you google “plate spinning GIF” he occupies the top 5 positions.

During COVID-19 he has made huge advances with his new skill of ventriloquism. Some people say he is cheating wearing a mask but he says he is just playing it safe.

Samantha Kushnick

Genre: Cellist / Singer / Songwriter

Based in Portland, Oregon, Samantha Kushnick is a cellist, singer and composer in the folk tradition. Samantha has toured internationally with the Portland Cello Project and with Typhoon, Portland’s fourteen-piece indie rock ensemble. Through her travels with these and other ensembles, Samantha has performed at venues ranging from The Late Show with David Letterman to Oregon’s Britt Festival to Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated with many acclaimed musicians on stage and in the studio, including Gregory Alan Isakov, The Helio Sequence, Peter Yarrow and Noel Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary, and Berlin Philharmonic director Sir Simon Rattle.

Samantha refers to her unique style of music as “chamber folk” and often performs her original songs while accompanied by a string duo or trio. When Samantha isn’t teaching strings or creating sound waves, you can usually find her in the ocean among her other favorite waves.

The Whateverly Brothers

Genre: Folk

The Whateverly Brothers grew out of three friends enjoying playing music together. Starting as a maritime music group, they soon followed their wide interests and backgrounds into many styles and genres including full Celtic and Yule sets. Dan Roberts and Chris Glanister, both seasoned folk music collectors, performers, and multi-instrumentalists, have delighted audiences with their varying repertoire, shimmering harmonies, striking arrangements, and offbeat humor. A power group, tight and expressive.

The Whateverly brothers have been performing for wide ranges of audiences – young and old, small and large alike – for over a decade and wherever the Brothers go, the fun follows!

A Mixed Program of Mixed Emotions:

A Noah Long Film

Genre: Dance

Former soloist with the National Ballet of Canada and Ballet Workshop’s Director of Productions, Noah Long, has recently created a “mixed program of mixed emotions”.  With project direction and choreography by Noah Long, and camera work and film editing by Jeffrey Giles, this is a true collaboration of intention and vision.

 Including three unique works and featuring dancers from the advanced program at the Ballet Workshop school in Port Angeles, Washington, this film is dedicated to Noah’s mother, Valerie. Valerie suffers from alzheimers and dementia, and has been isolated without visitation since the beginning of COVID. She was the “sun in the sky” for thousands of people and is Noah’s leading inspiration behind each piece.

This is an independent project that explores the complexities of human emotions and relationships through a beautiful combination of visual, physical and musical influences.