Mark your calendar for Sept. 16 and prepare to tap your feet. Our 40-year-old concert series in Pasadena will resume with outstanding fiddler Mari Black on that Saturday, at 8 p.m.

Black is a multistyle violinist who has won major international fiddling championships. She and her accompanists sweep audiences away on a spirited musical adventure featuring dance music from around the globe: Celtic, American, and Canadian fiddling, jazz, tango, klezmer, folk, original works, and more.  For a taste, check out a medley of three fiddle tunes here.

Ticketing details will be announced soon. We just couldn’t wait to share our excitement about booking Black to perform in the cherished setting of Caltech’s Beckman Institute Auditorium. That’s the 200-seat venue, with every seat near the performers, where most of our 400-plus concerts have been staged — not the much larger Beckman Auditorium nearby.

It’s no coincidence that Mari’s will be our first concert in this venue in more than three years. She was scheduled to perform there in April 2020. When the pandemic hit, we hoped at first to rebook her for later that year. Well, the pandemic persisted and other complications arose, but we kept in touch with her to fulfill this long-postponed treat when it became possible.

Also at Caltech: Climate Threat to Coral

Now that you’ve added Mari Black to your September calendar, we want you to know about a free screening at Caltech of the beautiful and important documentary Chasing Coral this Tuesday, July 25, at 7:00 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium (the big one). The July presentation for Caltech’s Movies that Matter will feature Chasing Coral, along with a live interview and Q & A with the filmmaker. We’ve all been hearing a great deal about our warming planet, especially these past couple of weeks, and it turns out the ocean is absorbing even more of the heat than land surfaces. Watching this film will make you feel a connection to corals, this curious creature that is key to life communities in the sea, and you will meet some heroes who are doing what they can to help. This movie is strong stuff, and ultimately very moving. Find out more about this Caltech presentation here and check out the trailer. They suggest that you register, but if you forget to do this, you will get in with no problem. The parking lot to the north of Beckman Auditorium has reopened and there is also parking on South Wilson Avenue in Pasadena, including two free parking structures. Beckman Auditorium is directly east of our concert venue at Beckman Institute and this map will help you find your way.

Ending on a musical note, you can hear a classic Prairie Home Companion show from 1999, featuring Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Geoff Muldaur and Dave Van Ronk here!