West County Tune Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

Bring your instrument down to OCA for our Bluegrass Jam Session!

Led by multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe, our monthly jam session is held on the first Tuesday of each month. We’ll meet in the OCA classroom and take turns leading/choosing songs. Guaranteed to be a great time for all! $5 donation requested of participants. BYOB.

See you at the jam!

West County Tune Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

Bring your instrument down to OCA for our Bluegrass Jam Session!

Led by multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe, our monthly jam session is held on the first Tuesday of each month. We’ll meet in the OCA classroom and take turns leading/choosing songs. Guaranteed to be a great time for all! $5 donation requested of participants. BYOB.

See you at the jam!

West County Tune Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

West County Fiddle Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

Bring your instrument down to OCA for our Bluegrass Jam Session!

Led by multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe, our monthly jam session is held on the first Tuesday of each month. We’ll meet in the OCA classroom and take turns leading/choosing songs. Guaranteed to be a great time for all! $5 donation requested of participants. BYOB.

See you at the jam!

West County Fiddle Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

Bring your instrument down to OCA for our Bluegrass Jam Session!

Led by multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe, our monthly jam session is held on the first Tuesday of each month. We’ll meet in the OCA classroom and take turns leading/choosing songs. Guaranteed to be a great time for all! $5 donation requested of participants. BYOB.

See you at the jam!

West County Fiddle Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

Bring your instrument down to OCA for our Bluegrass Jam Session!

Led by multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe, our monthly jam session is held on the first Tuesday of each month. We’ll meet in the OCA classroom and take turns leading/choosing songs. Guaranteed to be a great time for all! $5 donation requested of participants. BYOB.

See you at the jam!

DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH - Mark Tate and Prartho Sereno

Free event!

Author Mark Tate shares selections from his latest book of poetry “Walking Scarecrow”, along with former Marin Poet Laureate Prartho Sereno who will share her latest poetry. Audience Q&A, book sales & signing. Refreshments available. Join us for an afternoon of poetry!

Mark Tate

Walking Scarecrow: The Poems of Pineshadow

Walking Scarecrow: The Poems of Pineshadow is a dialogue with Hanshan, the Chinese mountain hermit beloved for his brief poems about life far away from court life in the early 7th century. About thirteen hundred years after Hanshan, an old man who is more scarecrow than active citizen of a community walks each day pondering some of the same subjects that entertained the Chinese master.

Prartho Sereno 

Starfall in the Temple

In Prartho Sereno’s poems, the daily doesn’t collide against the cosmic but collaborates with it. Writing with the eyes of a mystic seeker whose heart is wise enough not to take itself too seriously, the poetry of Starfall in the Temple veers wondrously from scientific speculation to natural delight, from mathematical proof to child’s play. More than anything, each poem is a little lesson on how to love properly—and how to love properly, Sereno suggests, is to learn to love all. 
                            ~ Dan Beachy-Quick, poet and translator of The Thinking Root

Biographies/Testimonials

Mark Tate is the author of three novels, Beside the River, its sequel River’s End (McCaa Books, 2021), and Butterfly on the Wheel (McCaa Books, 2022). He served for ten years on the Sonoma County Poet Selection Committee for the poets laureate of that county. His book of poems Walking Scarecrow, awarded the Blue Light Press Book of the Year, was published December 2023. He is a long-time resident of Sonoma County where he lives with his wife, Lori.

Poet Laureate Emerita Terry Ehret said that “alluding to the Tang poet Hanshan, Tate writes, “I use what remedy / Is at hand to save the world.” Tate’s depiction of a Zen tea ceremony midway through the collection offers a kind of ars poetica, simultaneously describing the ritual and his verses, “bowing to every honored thing.”

Local poet Sandra Anfang, author of Finishing School: “Mark Tate’s new volume of poems is a microcosm of large-scale wisdom and beauty. Generously including bits of conversations with the ancients – Basho, Li Po, and . . . Cold Mountain.”

Prartho Sereno’s most recent collection, Starfall in the Temple, was published by Blue Light Press, Fall 2023. Her four other full-length collections include Indian Rope Trick, Elephant Raga, Call from Paris, and her illustrated Causing a Stir: The Secret Lives and Loves of Kitchen Utensils, all of which won national prizes. 

Poet Laureate Emerita of Marin County (2015-17), MFA Syracuse University (2013), and Radio Disney Super Teacher (2005), Prartho attributes over four years in an Indian ashram as her strongest creative influence, but she also credits excursions into other art forms: counseling psychologist, vegetarian cook, mother of 2, meditation and yoga instructor at Cornell University, book and cover illustrator, and amateur singer-songwriter. She was a Poet in the Schools for 21 years and currently teaches The Poetic Pilgrimage: Poem-Making as Spiritual Practice online. https://www.prarthosereno.com 

"The magnificent poems of Prartho Sereno reground us in our bodies, in the glistening syllables and scenes surrounding us. They retune us to a tender, more palpably luminous world we would prefer to inhabit."
~ Naomi Shihab Nye

OCA is thrilled to host this year’s Occidental Pride Festival!

This free event is open to everyone. Enjoy live music, great food, and meeting community members at this fun event. Chill area/lounge, children’s activities, community info tables and more! 2-8 PM.

Entertainment provided by

RAD

Erica Ambrin

Teresa Raef

DJ Jen DM

Late for the Train is celebrating their latest album release “The Flowers of Yesteryear” at OCA! Join us for a fun evening with Laura Benson, David Pascoe, Bud Dillard and Thom Beneduci. Check out their latest music video here!

Late for the Train is a modern string band rooted in the rich traditions of Americana, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music. Influenced by artists such as Kate Wolf, The Wood Brothers, and Nickel Creek, the California-based group's skillful craftsmanship meets tender harmonies and potent lyrics that grapple with the wonder, contradiction, and truth of living in the modern age. The core ensemble consists of songwriters and multi-instrumentalists David Pascoe (guitar), Laura Benson (fiddle), Thom Beneduci (upright bass), and Bud Dillard (mandolin).

Multi-instrumentalist David Pascoe is a talented musician and teacher, and leads our monthly Fiddle Tune Workshops and Bluegrass Jams here at OCA.

Tickets are $20 GA, $15 for OCA members. Don’t miss this incredible show!

A Roo Tunes Revue

Celebrating the magic of Reeta's remarkable songwriting with a selection of her best choral compositions of the last 35 years. Featuring a hand-picked choir of 30 accomplished local singers. Directed by Gage Purdy. Artistic Direction by Crystal McDougall.

Tickets are $50-$20, sliding scale.

Two performances will be offered - 3pm and 7pm. This listing is for the 7pm show. To purchase tickets for the 3pm show, click here. We expect both shows to sell out - purchase early.

This show is a benefit for Occidental Center for the Arts.

West County Fiddle Workshop
(every 3rd Tuesday from 7-9 PM)

• In this 2-hour workshop, we'll dive into a new fiddle tune every month. American traditional fiddle music is vast, with deep Celtic roots and a fascinating multi-cultural history that gave birth to old-time music, and later to bluegrass. Each month, we'll work on a new tune from one of these three genres. After learning the basic melody, we'll explore the nuances that make each tune & style come alive.

• All stringed instruments and levels are welcome, but students should be comfortable enough on their instruments that they can learn bite-sized phrases of a melody by ear.

• David Pascoe is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Occidental, CA. In addition to being a passionate music educator and the co-founder of Every Folk (a 3-day camp for adults to explore traditional music and culture), he performs with multiple groups up and down the West Coast on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. He lives for the moment when music comes alive in the people around him.

Workshop fee is $25, $20 for OCA members.

The magical duo returns for a performance in our amphitheater!

Don't miss Nina Gerber and Chris Webster in our Amphitheater!

Bring your own seat cushion or low-backed chair. (Please note: chairs more than 16" tall will need to be placed at the top of the amphitheater. Please contact us to reserve handicapped seating (ground-level).

Refreshments for sale, art gallery open during intermission.

Outside food & drink is not allowed in our amphitheater (excludes water).

Tickets are $35 GA, $30 for OCA members.

Online sales have ended - tickets will be available at the door. Doors open at 2 PM.

Born and raised in the semi-rural outskirts of Sebastopol, Nina Gerber has been an undeniable staple of the West Coast acoustic music scene since the late 70's. From the first time she heard Kate Wolf perform in a local pizza shop, the budding teenage guitarist single-mindedly dedicated herself to her instrument. Within a few years she had won Wolf's respect and a place as her principal musical collaborator. From there she built a career as a sought after teacher, arranger, producer and prolific accompanist to a veritable who's who of folk music royalty (Greg Brown, Karla Bonoff, Kate Wolf, Dave Alvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Peter Rowan, Rosalie Sorrels, Mollie O'Brien, Laurie Lewis, Eliza Gilkyson, Chris Webster, and so many more).

It would take pages to include all the accolades Gerber has received from the manysongwriters she has worked with. In 2018 Maria Mulduar wrote of Gerber, "It is so Zen the way she under-girds and complements whatever music is at hand, never playing an extraneous or superfluous or irrelevant note." Acclaimed songwriter Karla Bonoff says, "Nina has this uncanny ability to weave an emotional tapestry throughout a song...never getting in the way of the song, but adding this incredible depth to it...Sometimes, I am just amazed at what I hear coming from her side of the stage."

Chris Webster is a soul singer beyond genre.

In the course of recording over 20 albums on her own and with others, she has drawn equally from classic R&B thumpers and gospel-grass prayers, from rockabilly rave-ups and singer/songwriter confessions. Webster’s work is rooted in the classic American tension between a yearning for transcendence and a lusty connection to the here-and-now.

She’s also funny. Though in performance she hangs back, all sly allure - when you’re in it for the long haul, you learn to pace yourself - she’s got a cool, understated comic timing. Chris Webster has traveled far and deep in her musical career; she has built a body of work to be reckoned with, and has earned the notice of numerous established artists. She was recruited by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel to join the Grammy-winning country swing band, and her song, “Shake On It,” was recorded by The Band. Chris has sung back up vocals for several artists, including the legendary Ferron, and long-time collaborator, Jennifer Berezan. In 2006 Chris was awarded the Gibson Guitar New Musician Award for best new singer-songwriter.

Join us in the OCA Amphitheater for the return of 3 Acre Holler! Enjoy appalachain-inspired soulful melodies performed by talented Sonoma County musicians Cori Wood, Michael Capella, Paul Shelasky, Cary Black and Layne Bowen.

Refreshments for sale, art gallery open during intermission. Outside food and drink is not permitted in the amphitheater (excludes water). OCA is wheelchair accessible.

Tickets are $25 GA, $20 for OCA members. Online sales end at Noon day of show; tickets will be available at the door.

Bring your own seat cushion or low-backed chair (Please note - any chairs taller than 16” must be placed at the top of the amphitheater)