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Carlsbad Music Festival to turn 13 with pluck

The eclectic fete, which runs Friday through Sunday, mixes an array of styles designed to stimulate listeners

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“It’s not your father’s rock concert, and it’s not your grandfather’s string quartet.”

That’s how Carlsbad Music Festival artistic director and co-founder Matt McBane described his fledgling fete in 2005. It’s still an apt description 11 years later.

The all-ages festival, which celebrates its 13th anniversary this weekend, is a celebration of stylistic diversity. McBane, 37, has a seemingly endless appetite for aural adventure. This applies to his work as a composer, violinist and — especially — as the curator of his critically acclaimed and increasingly popular annual music fete.

Carlsbad Music Festival

When: Friday through Sunday (schedule of artists and performance times appears at the bottom of this article)

Where: Eight indoor and outdoor venues in Carlsbad Village

Tickets: Free for many concerts; $10-$40 for paid concerts

Phone: (619) 920-6207

Online: carlsbadmusicfestival.org

That appetite is reflected in the festival’s marketing slogan: “Adventurous music by the beach,” and by its eclectic lineup.

This year’s performers range from vintage analog synthesizer champion Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Persian classical music specialists the Namad Trio and San Diego Opera soprano Anishka Lee-Skorepa to jazz guitar dynamo Peter Sprague, the rollicking Euphoria Brass Band and the proudly uncompromising cutting-edge quartet gnarwhallaby.

The lineup also includes McBane himself. He will perform “Drawn,” his suite for a bluegrass string band with a group of musical pals. He has also composed a novel piece for a triangle quartet, which the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet will perform Saturday at the festival as a West Coast premiere. The full schedule appears below.

This weekend’s offerings include nine ticketed, paid-admission concerts, along with a heady array of free performances by dozens of artists. Many are locally or regionally based; others journey from across the country.

McBane, who grew up in Carlsbad, is a key member of the Brooklyn-based ensemble Build, which draws from chamber music, various iterations of rock, jazz, minimalism, the avant garde and more. A longtime proponent of the DIY aesthetic, McBane built his festival from the ground up, finding venues, selecting the performers, writing grants, doing the marketing and more.

After being held for its first six years in the Carlsbad Library, the festival expanded its reach — literally — by starting to expand into the surrounding community.

It is now held on the streets, sidewalks and parking lots of Carlsbad, as well as in art galleries, the train station, parks, churches and other Carlsbad Village locales. Starting four years ago, the festival added free outdoor concerts that embraced everything from folk and indie-rock to World Music and various points in between.

McBane is at work on his Ph.D. in music composition at Princeton University in New Jersey. He is savvy enough to realize that when serious — and sometimes seriously challenging — music is presented alongside styles that are more accessible and mainstream, listeners who came to hear one are more likely to be exposed and receptive to the other.

It’s a sound recipe for success. Here’s to the Carlasbad Music Festival’s next 13 years.

Friday ticketed concerts at St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Church, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd.

7 p.m.: Matt McBane & Friends, $10 (general admission), $20 (priority seating)

8 p.m.: wild Up performs Future Folk

Friday free concerts

6-6:40 p.m.: Dapper Bandits, 2897 State St.

7:30-9:30 p.m.: Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble performs live film score for “The Golem,” Giacolleti Music parking lot, 505 Village Drive.

8-8:40 p.m.: Taken By Canadians, 2897 State St.

9-9:40 p.m.: Inspired and The Sleep, 2897 State St.

10-10:40 p.m. Jodie Landau, St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Church

Saturday ticketed concerts at St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Church, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd.

1:30 p.m.: Pascal Le Beouf, $10 (general admission), $20 (priority seating)

5 p.m.: Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, $15 (general admission), $30 (priority seating)

8 p.m.: wild Up performs WEST, $20 (general admission), $40 (priority seating)

10 p.m.: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, $10 (general admission), $20 (priority seating)

Saturday free concerts

Noon-12:30 p.m.: Andrew Tholl, St. Michael’s Hall

12:30-1:30 p.m.: Daniel Corral, Jeremy Kerner & the Isaura String Quartet, St. Michael’s Chapel

1-1:30 p.m.: Now Hear Ensemble, St. Michael’s Hall

2:40-3 p.m.: The B Band, St. Michael’s Hall

2:30-3 p.m.: Euphoria Brass Band Street march (starts at Pine Ave. Community Park, 3333 Harding Ave.)

3-3:40 p.m.: Euphoria Brass Band, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

3:10-3:30 p.m.: Daniel Pate, Magee Park Heritage Hall, 258 Beech Ave.

3:10-3:30 p.m.: Aperture Duo, Carlsbad by the Sea Retirement Community, 2855 Carlsbad Blvd.

3:30-4:10 p.m.: The Gift Machine, Magee Park

3:40-4 p.m.: Isaura String Quartet, St. Michael’s Chapel

3:40-4 p.m.: The B Band, St. Michael’s Hall

3:40-4 p.m.: Alexandra Matloff, Carlsbad by the Sea Retirement Community

4-4:40 p.m.: The Red Fox Tails, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

4:10-4:30 p.m.: Aperture Duo, Magee Park Heritage Hall

4:10-4:30 p.m.: Anishka Lee-Skorepa, Carlsbad by the Sea Retirement Community

4:30-5:10 p.m.: Peter Sprague, Magee Park

4:40-5 p.m.: TBA, St. Michael’s Chapel

4:40-5 p.m.: The B Band, St. Michael’s Hall

4:40-5 p.m.: Kamini Natarajan, Carlsbad by the Sea Retirement Community

5:30-6:10 p.m.: MandoBasso, Magee Park

5:40-6 p.m.: Kamini Natarajan, St. Michael’s Chapel

5:40-6 p.m.: Anishka Lee-Skorepa, St. Michael’s Hall

6-6:40 p.m.: TBA, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

6:30-7:20 p.m.: Qamar, Magee Park

6:40-7:10 p.m.: Isaura String Quartet, St. Michael’s Chapel

7:10-8 p.m.: Jesse Daniel Edwards, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

7:45-8:45 p.m.: TBA Magee Park

9-10 p.m.: Paper Days, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

10 p.m.-midnight: After-party with DJ Lexicon Devil, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

Sunday ticketed concerts at St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Church, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd.

1-2 p.m.: Hocket, $10 (general admission), $20 (priority seating)

4:30-5:30 p.m.: Richard Valitutto, Justine Aronson and gnarwhallaby, $15 (general admission), $30 (priority seating)

7-8 p.m.: Namad Trio, $15 (general admission), $30 (priority seating)

Sunday free concerts

2-2:30 p.m.: TBA, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

2:40-3 p.m. and 3:30-4 p.m.: Peter Kuhn & Kyle Motl, St. Michael’s Chapel

3-3:30 p.m.: Son de San Diego, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

4-4:40 p.m.: G Burns Jug Band, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

4:40-5 p.m.: Alexander Elliott Miller, St. Michael’s Chapel

4:40-5 p.m. and 5:40-6 p.m.: Stephanie Richards & Andrew Munsey, St. Michael’s Hall

5-5:40 p.m.: LA Edwards, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

5:40-6 p.m.: Alexander Elliott Miller, St. Michael’s Chapel

6-7 p.m.: Trouble in the Wind, Lawn Stage at St. Michael’s

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