Country Singer Krauss To Perform

Grammy-award winning country musician Alison Krauss and several other prominent folk artists will be performing at Sanders Theater in mid-May in benefit concerts for the locally-based Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center, which is celebrating its 47th anniversary.

The Passim Center is also organizing a free concert on May 21 in the Cambridge Common featuring children’s events and musicians with local ties. The Cambridge Arts Council is sponsoring the concert.

Melanie L. Bates, the director of development at the Center, said that the target audience is the folk music aficionados in the surrounding area.

“It is a major benefit for us and we hope to raise $200,000, which would be unprecedented,” Bates said.

Tickets for the two Sanders events on May 19 and 20 range from $35 to $250 for “VIP” status—including a pre-concert reception with the performers. Krauss is slated for the May 20 concert with tickets starting at $50.

The money that the Center raises from these concerts will be used for several of its programs, including the Passim School of Music and the historical Archive Project. Another beneficiary will be Culture for Kids, which introduces children to ethnic and religious cultures through arts, music, dance, and food, Bates said.

She acknowledged that the Sanders concerts might be prohibitively expensive for college students, but she said those strapped for cash still longing to hear folk music can volunteer to help with the concerts.

“We’re in desperate need for volunteers for all three events,” she said. Those that donate their time “will enjoy part or all of the event.”

And students who don’t even have time to spare can attend the free concert at Cambridge Commons. The outdoor event will kick off with programs for children and will then feature seven hours of music, said Jane A. Beale, the director of community arts at the Cambridge Arts Council.

Bates said that she is always trying to reach out more to the Harvard community and reinvigorate interest in folk music.

“Now folk music isn’t considered as cool,” she said, adding that the center’s music venue in Harvard Square, Club Passim, may miss out on younger customers because it does not have a liquor license.

While students currently only comprise about 10 percent of Club Passim’s membership, they once almost numbered 90 percent.

In those days, she said, Club Passim, which was originally named Club 47, was “the center of the folk revolution” and the place where notables such as Bob Dylan and Peter Wolf got their start.

The Club still hosts a full schedule of 400 shows a year.

Manager Devorah S. Sperling of “Outings & Innings,” a service which offers perks for Harvard faculty and staff, said that although she has not yet been contacted by the Center, “there has been interest in partnering with Passim to get discounted tickets.”

“I’m very interested personally,” she said, laughing.