With the summer season fast approaching, Ravenna’s Reed Memorial Library is putting its new outdoor pavilion to good use by hosting a series of music festivals, named the Summer Concert Series over the next several months.
“We are very excited to offer it this year,” Reed Memorial Library Executive Director Amy Young told The Weekly Villager on May 21. “We do hope that it will become an annual tradition and something that we will be able to offer every year. Since announcing it, we have had several musicians and bands reach out to us telling us that they would love be considered in the future and that they would love to play here.”
According to Young, Reed Memorial Library sought to increase its events by building an outdoor pavilion last summer. It was a four-month project that began in March and ended in the first half of July. She added that the funding for the project came through a capital grant from the State of Ohio and financial assistance from the Reed Memorial Library Foundation, a non-profit organization which encourages donations and fosters philanthropy to support building endowments of the Library’s capital project.
Young said that the Library hosted an outdoor event at the end of last summer but this summer will be the first time the pavilion will be put into full use, which can seat up to 200 people.
“We just thought that it would be nice to use our outdoor pavilion in this way and introduce families and other patrons to different styles and genres of music as just one more way of offering educational programming to our patrons,” noted Young.
She said that The Summer Concert Series is already in full swing, with the Library recently hosting a matinee by “The Jazz Guys” on May 11.
The Library’s newest summer attraction is being sponsored by The Friends of Reed Memorial Library, a non-profit organization comprised of local residents and business members who value the importance of public libraries.
Over the next four months, the Library will host one monthly musical performance by a Portage County band, such as “Silver & Stings” on June 15, “Babies in Black” on July 13, “Back Alley Relics” on Aug. 10, a local band in which Ravenna City Council Member Rob Kairis is a member, and Joanie Calem’s Sing-Along on Sep. 7.
“We are excited about that because we feel it offers our patrons more engagement and connection with our musicians, so we are excited to offer these opportunities where they might be able to hear their neighbors or a co-worker or someone that they can identify with,” Young said.
Young said that most of the bands that are performing are cover bands but a few of them do perform original music, including the “Back Alley Relics”.
Each band performs a different genre of music, as “Silver & Stings” performs orchestral music which includes a string trio, “Babies in Black” includes a string trio that offers more orchestral music, and performs music from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s and the “Back Alley Relics” cover popular songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, while Joanie Calem’s repertoire is folk music.
Young acknowledged that variety was a key factor for the Summer Concert Series.
“We are trying to introduce our patrons to music that they have not experienced before but we want to have broad appeal to all of our community members and community from all over Portage County and even farther, but we wanted to bring some musicians that might appeal to everyone,” she said.
Young said that the first musical festival in the summer series drew a nice crowd, with about 60 residents in attendance. She said that as the Summer Concert Series rolls along, there should be bigger crowds for each performance.
“I think Ravenna is very proud of their library and this is just one more way that we are listening to patrons and trying to provide some new and exciting entertainment and educational opportunities for the community and the surrounding area, and we are just really excited about what we might be able to accomplish with these new outdoor spaces as well,” she said.
The Library’s Summer Concert Series will not just provide musical entertainment but also refreshments with food trucks being stationed by the Library at each concert.
We are really excited about new opportunities that may come up and even our patrons are excited and are even recommending bands or recommending events that we might host at each of those concert events,” Young remarked.
