The daily Astorian., October 13, 2016, Page 10, Image 21

10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
WATER MUSIC FESTIVAL
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Hot club jazz group Pearl Django started in Tacoma, Washington, in 1994 and has released 12 albums since. The group will perform Friday with vocalist Gail Pettis.
THE 32ND ANNUAL FESTIVAL OFFERS SWINGING JAZZ, CAPTIVATING FLUTE AND
GUITAR, AND CLASSICAL PIANO OCT. 14 AND 15 ON THE LONG BEACH PENINSULA
By MARILYN GILBAUGH
I
n 1717, reigning English
monarch King George
I requested from Georg
Friedrich Handel a
composition that could
be performed on a barge
on the Thames River, a
high-end boat party done
right. Handel, doing his best to
stay in the king’s good graces
— or what we might today call
“on the payroll” — got busy. He
created a collection of orchestral
movements he divided into three
suites. He ittingly called his work
“Water Music.”
In our own area, the Water
Music Festival’s 32nd season
is going strong, culminating in
performances Oct. 14 and 15 on
the Long Beach Peninsula. And
like Handel’s three-part suite, the
Water Music Festival now divides
itself into three distinct musi-
cal offerings, which it presents
in three distinct settings. But it
didn’t always.
The Water Music Festival irst
began in 1984. Minus royal re-
quests and fanfare, a small group
of classical music lovers gathered
in Oysterville, Washington, locat-
ed at the northern tip of Wash-
ington’s Long Beach Peninsula.
The area is bordered by Willapa
Bay and the Paciic Ocean, so, as
Continued on Pg. 11