Notes from the Seasons: New trends, old friends for summer '22

The summer calendar at The Seasons Performance Hall is slightly different from other times of the year. People favor spending time in their gardens, gathering for free summer concerts, taking their time to visit wineries or just relaxing in the long summer evenings. So The Seasons is focusing on making itself a tempting destination to spend an hour or two in air-conditioned comfort in the hottest part of the evening. Here, you can experience Yakima at its finest: live music, fresh art, casual conversation and an exciting sampling of locally based food and drink.

The Bistro is now open Thursday through Sunday every week and hosts quality music nightly — including before, during and after every main stage performance. Want to know what’s happening in the Bistro? Check the bottom rows of our homepage at theseasonsyakima.com.

• Thursday is typically open mic night. Bring your instrument or your band and spend some time polishing your performance chops.
• Fridays and Saturdays feature local and regional performers of note in the Bistro. This Friday,

June 24, our late-night Salsa with Yakima Salsa Company is on tap starting at 8:30 p.m. in the Bistro. Saturday, June 25,

• we’ll be open before, during and after the Yakima’s Got Talent Finals on the main stage.
• On Sundays for the rest of the summer, we are instituting a Seasons Sunday Serenade featuring classical, jazz and Latin by students and professionals. The Sunday Serenade this week is a mystery guest duo that will blow you away. Check our website for details.

While the Bistro is an anytime source for live music and fun, The Seasons will continue to host several summer concerts in the gorgeous Seasons Performance Hall, starting at 7 p.m. this Saturday, June 25, with Yakima’s Got Talent: The Finals!

This is the first summer in three years that The Seasons can really reconnect and showcase the talented folks in our community and bring them and their fans out to cheer them on. Performers need to learn to perform. But we all, also, have to learn how to “audience” again! So it felt perfect that The Seasons Performance Hall hosted a raucous crowd for the Yakima’s Got Talent semifinals last Saturday. Highlights included Nahum Ray as host, and three celebrity judges — John Gasperetti, Jo-Anne Carlson and Charlie Robin — who had the right balance of sincere advice and humor.

The top 10 talents in this year’s field made convincing cases for their excellence. As always, there’s awesome talent right here in our community, whether young or old, new or hidden in plain view. And stakes are high — there’s a $1,000 grand prize for the winner.

Our programs feature plenty of old friends, and new friends, too. We are busy putting a great calendar together for summer and fall. Old friends are those performers we know will deliver great music to appreciative crowds. New friends are essential to creating an exciting mix of programs for our Yakima fans. We rely on lots of community advice and support to bring in the best, newest artists. Just in the last few months we hosted Lyrics Born and Halluci-Nation.

Some July highlights:

• July 9: The Stout Pounders, a large, lively Irish/Celtic group
• July 14: A focus on children, with a 4 p.m. show featuring Justin Roberts. Bring your kids and use the Bistro to decompress while your kids have a blast.
• July 15: The Seasons’ favorite flugelhornist, Dmitri Matheny, and his jazz quintet debut his new CD, “Cascadia.”
• July 22: Bourbon & Bellows.
• July 23: MAITA.
• July 30: Orquestro Pacifico Tropicale, the legendary Portland-based salsa/cumbia band.

By far the most important thing in this post-COVID summer is to relax, have fun, and bring back our community to experience and renew the thrill and joy of live music.