Blaine Harbor Music Festival to return July 7-13

Blaine Harbor Music Festival is back for its annual week of bringing music to the Blaine community, both through instructing the youth and daily performances.

The festival will run Sunday, July 7 through Saturday, July 13, bringing musicians that include a Grammy winner and a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“There’s a lot of warmth. Those who are involved in music in the Blaine community have really embraced these guys,” Marla Tuski said of the camp instructors. Tuski is co-president of Pacific Arts Association, the Blaine nonprofit that organizes the festival and camp.

Musicians will teach classes to youth ages 12-20 during the six-day camp. A sampling of classes offered includes saxophone ensemble, songwriting, composition and music theory.

This year’s faculty includes artistic director and saxophonist Nick Biello, Grammy winner and trumpeter Charlie Porter, Berklee professor and trumpeter Greg Hopkins, and singer/songwriter Camille Bloom of Luxembourg.

Musicians will perform free weekday concerts at noon at G Street Plaza in downtown Blaine. The concert series will have the Mark Kelly Group on Monday, Greta Matassa on Tuesday, Nick Biello and Charlie Porter on Wednesday, Bob Storms, Rick Whitaker and the traditional jazz players on Thursday, and sus4 vocal ensemble on Friday.

In addition to the G Street concert series, the performance schedule is as follows:

• Sunday, July 7: Jazz performers Jerry Steinhilber Trio and Greta Matassa will give a performance at 7 p.m. at Blaine High School’s Black Box Theater, 1055 H Street.

• Tuesday, July 9: Randy Halberstadt, Andy Marshall, David Joyner, Greg Hopkins and the camp’s jazz faculty all-stars will perform at 7 p.m. at Blaine Middle School’s Performing Arts Center, 975 H Street.

• Wednesday, July 10: Returning for the second year, an evening concert will be held at G Street Plaza at 7 p.m. featuring Chris Woitach Group, Camille Bloom, David Marriott, Majid Khaliq and Jovino Santos Neto. Tables and chairs will be available for attendees.

• Thursday, July 11: The festival’s swing band performance will feature Greta Matassa and Clipper Anderson at Barnstar Events in Ferndale, 5295 S. Church Road. Tickets cost $75 and include barbecue.

• Friday, July 12: The festival’s student showcase will start at 7 p.m. at the Blaine Performing Arts Center.

• Saturday, July 13: The festival will end with a street fair and student performances from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the G Street and H Street plazas.

All festival performances, except for the swing band performance, will be free with donations encouraged.

Campers will attend classes at Blaine school district’s main campus, with overnight accommodation available at Lions Camp Horizon in Birch Bay. The camp, which had 88 participants last year, will be accepting students through the morning of the first day of camp.

“Our camp is noted for being a very loving, encouraging and joyful place,” Glenn Tuski said.