Paula Samonte will be a featured performer at the May 10 concert. Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT – The wonderful world of contemporary popular music will take place on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 10, when the Lake County Symphony presents "Another Op'nin',Another Show" – a tribute to the late Cole Porter and others.

The concert is sponsored by Clear Lake Performing Arts and will start at 3 p.m. at the Marge Alakszay Center at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport.

Symphony director John Parkinson has put together a program consisting of music bound to please Moms of all ages, including such titles in the Cole Porter Salute as "In the Still of the Night," "Anything Goes" and "Night and Day." But Porter is only one of a group of inspired composers and musicians the Symphony is saluting on Mothers Day. Others include Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin and some of the best of Louis Armstrong.

Ellington's music is represented by such numbers as "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)", "Sophisticated Lady", "Caravan" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it ain't Got That Swing)."

A medley called "George Gershwin in Concert" includes "I Got Rhythm," "Someone to Watch Over Me,' "S'wonderful" and "Rhapsody in Blue." Others by Gershwin are "A Foggy Day" (In London Town) and "Embraceable You" featuring a beautiful Flugelhorn solo by long-time symphony member, Gary Miller. Gershwin’s brother, Ira, wrote the lyrics for most of the tunes.

Other enduring favorites are "Deep Purple", "April in Paris", and "Georgia". Blues man Louis Armstrong is featured in a medley entitled "Satchmo" that includes a number of his most-loved vocal numbers including "What a Wonderful World, " When The Saints Go Marching In," "St. Louis Blues" and "Hello, Dolly."

Vocalist Paula Samonte will be featured with the orchestra, singing more popular jazz arrangements by conductor, John Parkinson. "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "I’ll Take Romance", and "I’ve Got the World on a String."

The annual Mother's Day classic has become a tradition for many Lake County families with attendance at the concert being a special – and inexpensive – way to pay tribute to Mom on her special day. Tickets at the door are $20 for general admission and $15 for members of Clear Lake Performing Arts. Young people under age 18 are admitted free. For further information contact 279-0877.

LAKEPORT – At this time of year, dancers are ready to begin showing the results of their work over the winter. Across the country, there are dance festivals in the spring, in those areas lucky enough to have enough dancers, dance groups, and dance schools to put together a good two-hour show.

On May 2 and 3, Lake County's own long-lived Spring Dance Festival will be held, with 130-plus dancers doing 38 dance numbers.

Performances will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the Marge Alakszay Center, 350 Lange Street, in Lakeport. Doors will open a half-hour before each performance.

The county is blessed to have a real wealth of dance talent and great opportunities for that talent to be nurtured and presented. There are schools and groups for young talent and for mature dancers; for clogging and for ballet; for belly dance and for ballroom; for hula and for hip-hop. This festival will have all of those represented, and more.

The crew has had a lot of experience producing this show. The lighting, sound and backstage teams have worked together many times now, and the performance ticks over like a watch. The dancers have been practicing these dances for months.

The presentation is dramatic on the great stage at the Marge Alakszay Center, and the entertainment energy quotient is as high as one can experience safely. Boring people will be on hand to restore you, if you become excessively entertained.

And since it is a benefit for the Lake County Arts Council, the tickets are not expensive. The best seats are only $15, and there are discounts for students, seniors and children, but all tickets are $1 more at the door.

To get tickets beforehand, you can go to Catfish Books in the Willow Tree Plaza or Wild About Books in Clearlake. To get the prime reserved seats, while there still are some, you have to go to the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport, where you can also get all those other tickets as well, and which you can call at 707-263-6658 for further information.

UKIAH – Distinguished poets from Lake County will join Mendocino and Sonoma county poets Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during "LitFest 2009, A Celebration for Word Lovers."

Readings will take place in the Lowery Library Building at Mendocino College, 1000 Hensley Creek Road. Admission is free.

The event will feature writing workshops, readings by the novelists and poets, and opportunities to meet the authors. Food from Schat’s Bakery and the Mendocino College Latino Club will be available.

For more information about LitFest 2009, call the Mendocino College Library at 707.468.3051 or visit the event website, www.mendocino.edu/litfest. The Mendocino College Foundation, along with the Friends of the Mendocino College Library and additional supporters, sponsors the one-day festival.

A portion of the festival is dedicated to celebrating the work of local poets, according to John Koetzner, head librarian at Mendocino College. He said it is "an honor" to present well-known poets including the current and former poet laureates from Lake County. The scheduled participants are James BlueWolf, Jim Lyle, Mary McMillan, Sandra Wade and Carolyn Wing-Greenlee, all of Lake County.

Short biographies and links to the poets’ Web sites can be found on the LitFest 2009 Web site, www.mendocino.edu/litfest.

Jim Lyle, James BlueWolf, and Carolyn Wing-Greenlee will read from their works at 2 p.m. "Things Seen in the Desert" was Lyle’s first book, released in 2001. He was selected Poet Laureate in Lake County in 1998. He has been a guest lecturer at several colleges.

BlueWolf is an internationally published poet who is also known as a songwriter and storyteller. His book "Speaking For Fire" earned him the honor of WordCraft Circle of Native Writers & Storyteller’s "Children’s Writer of the Year" in 2006. In addition, he is a media editor for the Smithsonian National Museum of The American Indian and senior editor for the online poetry journal Queen: Calliope.

Poet Laureate for Lake County from 2004 to 2006, Wing-Greenlee has written more than a dozen books. She has been a teacher of poetry and creative writing at high schools and colleges, and her poetry appears in several magazines and literary journals. She studied comparative literature with an emphasis on poetry at Occidental College.

Lake County’s current Poet Laureate Mary McMillan will round out the day’s poetry readings along with Sandra Wade at 3 p.m. McMillan published her first collection of poetry, "This Wanting," in 2008 following 10 years of writing poetry. During those 10 years, her poems were published in several publications, including the Santa Clara Review, Tomcat, and most recently accepted in Toyon. Before writing poetry, however, McMillan developed composition skills in journalism and fiction.

Wade preceded McMillan as Lake County’s Poet Laureate, appointed in 2006. She is working on a compact disc of her poetry, hoping to have it completed in time for Saturday’s event. Wade has composed poems over the past 20 years. Her poetry has been published in several journals. She also presents a weekly radio program, "Accent on Words," on Lake County’s community radio station, 88.1 KPFZ-FM.