Around Town … with Robert Airoldi: Gav’s Bach to Blues is back on stage with lots of wonderful music

This year’s guest performers are jazz great Nate Pruitt and American jazz guitarist Rick Vandivier

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By Robert Airoldi

The popular Bach to Blues concert is coming back for a live in-person musical experience. After a virtual concert in 2021, Bach to Blues is returning to the Gavilan College Theater stage at 7: 30 p.m., Saturday, March 19.  The annual fundraising concert showcases musically talented faculty and students.

This year’s guest performers are jazz great Nate Pruitt and American jazz guitarist Rick Vandivier, along with flamenco dancing troop Koko de la Isla Flamenco.

“It’s a wonderful, family event,” said Maria Amirkhanian, music faculty and longtime organizer of the event.

The Gavilan College Theater is located on the Gilroy main campus.

VIP tickets are $25; General Admission is $15; Seniors/Students tickets are $10. Tickets can be purchased at the Gavilan College Bookstore, BookSmart in Morgan Hill and the Gavilan College site in Hollister. Space will be limited to 50 percent capacity because of COVID-19 health safety precautions. Tickets will also be sold at the door.

All proceeds will benefit the Gavilan College music program. For more information, contact Maria Amirkhanian at [email protected] or (408) 848-4796.

There’s bad news and good news for Patti Tartaglia, owner of Patti’s Perfect Pantry. “With deep thought and a very heavy heart, I have decided to retire,” she told us. “This was one of the hardest decisions of my life.”

After years working in the corporate world, she chose to be a stay-at-home mom for her two sons until they were in high school when she decided to go back to work. But at 50, she learned she was “too old and too experienced.” This realization made her look back to her interests and talents. “I always had a love for baking and science. I thought I should find a way to marry the two.”

She enrolled in a school dedicated to holistic nutrition. During this time she was diagnosed with celiac disease, a condition where gluten destroys the lining of your small intestine so it can’t absorb nutrients.

She began by making pies and selling them at The People and Planet Store that specialized in gluten free products. Eventually, she found a spot in Gilroy where she spent two years  before moving to Morgan Hill in November 2015.

“To all my wonderful customers, I want you all to know that you will always have my deepest thoughts and I will greatly miss you when I go,” she said in a press release she sent us.

Good news. Tartaglia is working on a cookbook to share her baking recipes.

After its longtime pastor Mike Garner died from a heart attack recently, the San Martin Presbyterian Church will find itself starting 1 p.m. Sunday April 3 sharing the services of Rev. Trevor Van Laar, the pastor of the Gilroy Presbyterian Church.

The church congregation has 15 members and among them Morgan Hill resident Chick Spain asked us to let our readers know of its long history in San Martin.

The first service took place Sunday, March 27, 1898 when nine individuals representing three families came together to worship at the San Martin School at Depot and South streets. The historic church is located at 13200 Lincoln Ave. (around the corner from the San Martin Post Office off Llagas Avenue).

“For many years the church enjoyed growth,” Spain said in a letter to us. “However, as the younger generations enjoyed a less formal way to worship, SMPC lost membership. We feel that there are still a few who would enjoy singing the old hymns and order of worship.”

The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival opens April 6 for eight days of cinematic art and entertainment from filmmakers across the U.S. and around the world. And to encourage South Valley residents to share their artistic talent, festival director Mattie Scariot is inviting movie lovers to create a poster to promote the event.

This is not a contest but a fun way to get creative using the medium of visual art, she stressed. All ages are welcomed, and entries will receive a free ticket to a movie screening.

“When you make a movie, you have to put a poster together, it’s part of promoting a film,” she said. “ The art of poster making is just as creative as making a film. So I thought it would be great for artists to do their own version of what a poster for us would look like.”

Anyone can design and submit a poster. The artists can use any medium they wish, including paint or photography. The festival will put the posters on social media platforms and also is going to print them out on paper so Poppy Jasper guests can see them in a gallery-like setting, she said.

“It’s just a way of engaging the community and promoting local art and getting people excited about being part of the film festival,” she said.

“I don’t want to tell the artists what they should do,” Scariot said. “I want to have them get creative and find their own interpretation of the film festival poster.”

April 1 is the deadline to send the poster to [email protected].

The city of Gilroy received a $3.9 million grant through the California Department of Transportation Clean California Local Grant Program for improvements within Gilroy’s downtown. Gilroy’s project includes the renovation and beautification of Gourmet Alley and Railroad Street, renovating these spaces into pedestrian and bicycle-friendly pathways through infrastructure and aesthetic improvements. Also included in the project is a “Keep Gilroy Clean” anti-littering campaign.

“Out of 329 applications that were submitted, only 105 projects were awarded, and we’re lucky enough to be one of them,” said Gilroy Mayor Marie Blankley. “We’re very excited about the opportunity to make some significant improvements to the downtown and to see the plans for Gourmet Alley come to life.”

Gilroy’s historic downtown holds charm and local dining and shopping. We can’t wait to see how the grant money will be used to make the downtown experience even better for residents and visitors.

With the crisis in Ukraine, the Gilroy Foundation has had residents contact them about making donations to help the refugees. They contacted their partner, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and found the research they had done to give donors five choices to help. Here is a link to their “Support the People of Ukraine” page: www.siliconvalleycf.org/blog/giving/support-for-the-people-of-ukraine

If anyone prefers to send a check, please send it to Gilroy Foundation, P.O. Box 774, Gilroy, CA 95021, put “Ukraine” on the memo line and we will handle the donation for you.

Finally, the Stebbins Family 8th annual Diapers and Wipes drive Benefiting Community Solutions is now taking place. They are accepting donations until the end of April.

Please contact Lisa Stebbins for donation and drop-off information.

Call her at (408) 607-3200 or email [email protected].