Arts Wrap: Spokane Symphony’s ‘Out & About Concerts,’ Best of Broadway, Baroque Quartet, Eileen Garvin and 20th Street Music Week

The Spokane Symphony will begin offering free “Out & About Concerts” this month. The new series of small ensemble concerts – held in a variety of locations around town including cafes, restaurants and community centers – will provide the public with opportunities to hear classical music in a casual environment.

“People might think there’s something mysterious or forbidding about live classical music, so I’m happy that these ‘Out & About’ gigs take our talented musicians out of the Fox Theater and into the community where people can just stumble upon them and have a great time,” music director James Lowe said in a news release.

Each of these late-afternoon weekday concerts will feature 45 minutes of light classical music from small groups of two to five Spokane Symphony musicians. Each piece will be introduced and discussed by the musicians:

May 18: 5:30 p.m. at First Avenue Coffee, 1011 W. First Ave., (509) 863-9442

May 19: 7 p.m. at the Mason Jar, 101 F St., Cheney, (509) 359-8052

May 20: 5 p.m. at Slightly Charred Wood Fired Pizza, 816 W. Sprague Ave., (509) 315-9050

May 27: 6:30 p.m. at the Carl Maxey Center, 3114 E. Fifth Ave., (509) 795-1886

For more information, contact symphony public relations manager Alison Highberger at (509) 842-2943 or alisonhighberger@spokanesymphony.org.

Best of Broadway single tickets

Individual event tickets are on sale for STCU Best of Broadway’s 2022-23 season. The season includes “Hadestown,” July 5-10; “Hairspray,” Sept. 20-25; “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” Jan. 17-22; “Dear Evan Hansen,” March 14-19; and Disney’s “Aladdin,” June 27-July 2, 2023.

All performances are at First Interstate Center for the Arts, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Organizers will announce information about additional special engagements later in the spring and summer.

“It’s great to announce a brand-new season of live Broadway entertainment again,” WestCoast Entertainment President Justin Kobluk said in a news release. “We’re looking forward to bringing Spokane audiences this exciting season of award-winning shows, including four new productions playing in Spokane for the first time.”

Quartet visit St. John’s Cathedral

Spokane’s Baroque Quartet will perform “a most unusual concert” featuring music from the 17th and 18th centuries and Indiana-based harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright, Montreal-based viola da gambist Susie Napper, Oregon-based baroque violinist David Greenberg and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan, recently settled in Colville.

The concert is at St. John’s Cathedral on May 14 at 3 p.m. Presented by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival in collaboration with St. John’s Music Series, the concert will feature works including a dramatic presentation of François Couperin’s “L’Apothéose de Lully” from 1725, among other works for violin, flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord.

For more information, call (360) 503-8816.

Eileen Garvin at the Hive

Author Eileen Garvin will visit the Hive on Saturday to celebrate the paperback release of her novel “The Music of Bees.” Garvin, who appeared on the virtual Northwest Passages Book Club program last year, will be at the Hive at 7 p.m. The book is available at Auntie’s Bookstore. The Hive is at 2904 E. Sprague Ave. For more information, visit auntiesbooks.com. Admission: FREE

20th Street Music Week

Calling all buskers and friends! The 20th Street Music Week has been announced for downtown, the Garland District and Coeur d’Alene during the noon hours June 13-17. Second Harvest food bank, CHAS Health, Kootenai Health and Empire Cycle & Powersports are this year’s beneficiaries. For more information, go to streetmusicweek.com and facebook.com/streetmusicweek.