Big talent is Bigfork bound

Tickets are now on sale for the six public concerts that will be held during the week-long Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop.

The workshop runs Aug. 24 through Sept. 1.

Each evening of music features top-name artists drawn from the extensive list of artists in residence who are teaching at the workshop. All the concerts, except the one scheduled for Aug. 24, will be held on the Crown Festival Stage at Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork.

“Guitar Night for the Glacier Fund” will launch the week of music on Aug. 24. The musical fundraiser is organized to support the Glacier National Park Fund and features fingerstyle guitarist Bill Mize along with the Brazilian jazz group Rio. It begins at 8 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish.

Mize received a Grammy award for his collaboration with storyteller David Holt and is a winner of the Winfield World Fingerstyle Competition. He has been featured on the popular guitar compilations “Windham Hill Guitar Sampler” by Windham Hill Records and “Masters of the Acoustic Guitar,” and his music appeared in the Ken Burns’ documentary “The National Parks: America's Best Idea.”

Beth Bramhall will accompany her husband, Mize, in a vibrant combination of fingerstyle guitar and accordion music. Their music is influenced by not only their Appalachian roots, but also by soul, jazz, world and modern classical music.

Rio is a bossa nova jazz group that was featured recently on the Montana Public Broadcasting show “11th & Grant with Eric Funk.” The band includes Max Hatt on guitar, Edda Glass on vocals, Dennis Unsworth on drums and Pete Hand on bass.

Hatt plays a wide range of guitar tonalities, including steel-string, baritone, nylon, electric arch-top and guitalele, while Glass brings alive the cadences of Portuguese carioca. Unsworth is known for sounding like a small samba drum school, and Hand on bass provides a warm jazz growl and gorgeous solos.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit Glacier National Park’s High School Citizen Science Program, a hands-on educational program that encourages teenagers to learn more about nature and the environment of Glacier National Park.

On Aug. 27, “guitar-driven urban folk-pop” artist Patty Larkin will perform with classical flamenco master Dennis Koster. That show starts at 8 p.m. at the Crown Festival Stage.

Larkin, a self-described “guitar-driven songwriter,” combines evocative vocals, inventive guitar wizardry and imaginative lyrics in a delightful soundscape. Her songs run from impressionistic poetry to witty wordplay. She has won an unprecedented 11 Boston Music Awards among numerous others.

Koster is widely regarded as the country's leading authority on flamenco guitar and is also acclaimed as a classical guitarist. He is one of the few guitarists ever to have learned flamenco directly from both Mario Escudero and the legendary Sabicas.

Three jazz and blues legends will share the stage Aug. 28, when Lee Ritenour, Sonny Landreth and Dave Grusin perform with Melvin Lee Davis on bass and Sonny Emory on drums. That show starts at 8 p.m. on the Crown Festival Stage.

Ritenour, a Grammy award-winner, is a true multi-style guitarist. From rock to jazz to blues, he has recorded more than 40 albums, with 35 chart hits.

Landreth is a Louisiana bluesman best known for his slide playing, having developed a technique in which he frets notes, plays chords and chord fragments behind the slide while he plays.

Grusin, a legendary American pianist, composer, arranger and producer, has written more than 100 scores for feature films and television. His numerous awards include an Academy Award and 12 Grammys.

Davis worked with Don Cornelius of Soul Train and has toured and recorded with Ritenour, Chaka Khan, the Pointer Sisters, Bryan Ferry, David Benoit, Larry Carlton and other top acts.

Emory, another Grammy award-winner, is best known for his ground-breaking drumming with Earth, Wind and Fire, and has performed with a virtual who's who in pop and jazz music.

The Lee Ritenour Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition finals take place at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts. Six finalists from around the world in rock, blues, jazz, classical, acoustic and country vie for the grand prize.

New world jazz guitar phenom Julian Lage performs at 8 p.m. Aug. 30 on the Crown Festival Stage. Lage will perform with his trio, and Jody Fisher will open the show.

Lage was featured as a guitar prodigy at the Grammys when he was 8 years old and has been hailed by All About Jazz as “a giant in the making.”  He brings a purity of tone and consistency of attack to everything in his repertoire. His first album, “Sounding Point,” earned him a 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Tupac Mantilla, drummer, and bassist Jorge Roeder are members of the Julian Lage Trio and Grammy nominees. Each has been recognized as versatile, creative players in the New York and international music scenes.

Finger-style jazz master Fisher is chairman of the Los Angeles Music Academy guitar department and author of more than 20 jazz guitar instructional books. He is a faculty member of the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation's week-long workshop.

The “Festival Finale with Pioneers of Country Rock” takes place at  7 p.m. Sept. 1. The concert features Chris Hillman and Herb Peterson, and opens with Matt Smith and friends’ energy-charged rock and blues.

Hillman is considered the pioneer of the country rock genre and has carved a permanent niche in the history of contemporary American music through his work with such seminal bands as The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas and the Desert Rose Band. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a four-time Grammy nominee.

Pedersen is a legendary vocalist and all-star multi-instrumentalist who for 40 years fronted his own band, The Laurel Canyon Ramblers. He has collaborated with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, The Dillards, Old and in the Way, Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills, Linda Ronstadt, John Prine, Jackson Browne and John Denver.

Smith, along with Mark Dziuba, James Hogan and other faculty with the workshop that runs in conjunction with the festival, are guitar virtuosos who blend music across many genres with great entertainment.

Tickets are priced at $30, with the exception of the Six String Theory competition, which is $50.

A Crown Pass for $158 is also available. The pass admits patrons to all performances, except for the Aug. 24 fundraising event. The Crown Pass Includes a commemorative poster designed by Western artist Nancy Cawdrey.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.cocguitarfoundation.tix.com or by calling 249-4671. They are also available at the following local Flathead Valley locations:  Nancy O's in Bigfork’s Branding Iron Station; Donna Shanahan Interiors and Electric Avenue Gifts in downtown Bigfork; Sportsman Ski Haus in Kalispell and Whitefish; Bonelli’s Bistro in Kalispell; SM Bradford in Whitefish; and the Glacier National Park Fund office in Columbia Falls.

For additional information about the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation and the 2012 workshop, go to www.cocguitarfoundation.org.