Whale Watch Inn by The Sea

09/21/2025

There’s quite a bit of activity in Anchor Bay cove right now, just past the large rock.

08/21/2025

01/08/2025

10/07/2024

Gualala Arts and Fred Adler are presenting another great performance in the Whale & Jazz Concert Series this Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 4:00 pm at the Gualala Arts Center:

The Music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington & Glen Pearson

The event will showcase the extraordinary talents of pianist Glenn Pearson, tenor saxophonist Michael O’Neil, trumpeter Dave Bendigkeit, trombonist Charles Hamilton, bassist, Doug Miller, and drummer Akira Tana.

Tickets are selling for $25 in advance for General Admission, plus an additional $5 on the day of, available at Gualala Arts, the Dolphin Gallery and online at GualalaArts.org.

Treat yourself and support our community!

09/11/2024

SPECIAL EVENT - Gualala Arts Chamber Music Concert

ERIC KRITZ and Friends

Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 4 pm at the Gualala Arts Center

This ensemble features the talents of Eric Kritz on clarinet, with Paul Brancato, Marcia Lotter, and Susan Freier on violin, Stephen Harrison on cello, and Carolyn Steinbuck on piano.

The program promises a rich tapestry of sounds, opening with the vibrant “Disco Toccata for Clarinet & Cello” by Guillaume Connesson, followed by the emotive “Sonata for Clarinet & Piano, FP 184” by Francis Poulenc, movements from the deeply reflective Allegro Tristamente to the spirited Allegro con Fuoco.

The first half concludes with Peter Schickele’s “Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello & Piano,” a piece that promises to take the audience through a range of emotions and rhythms.

After the intermission, the grandeur of C. M. von Weber’s “Grand Quintet, Op.34” for Clarinet and String Quartet will be on full display, featuring movements that range from the exuberant Allegro to the whimsical Menuetto capriccio.

Send a message to learn more

08/25/2024

Studio Discovery Tour 2024
5 Tour days on the Sonoma/Mendocino Coast
Sat-Sun Aug 24-25 & Sat-Mon Aug 31-Sept 2, 10am - 5pm
https://www.studiodiscoverytour.com/studio-tour-maps

06/14/2023

The Whale Watch Inn by The Sea is proud to be a host for another great performance scheduled this Sunday, June 18, at 4:00 pm at the Gualala Arts Center: Two Baritones of Soul.

Remember some of the great vocalists and the music they made?

Gualala Arts and Fred Adler present "Two Baritones of Soul: Jamie Davis and Lloyd Meadows.” This unique and intimate concert is set at the Coleman Hall. Tickets are available at Gualala Arts, Dolphin Gallery and EventBrite.com.

The two baritones will be supported by some of the finest first-call Northern California instrumentalists: The rhythm section includes Richard Howell, tenor sax; Tammy Hall, piano; Leon Joyce ("the people’s choice"), drums; and the elegant French Bassist Pierre Archain. The evening will be fresh, yet familiar, as Davis and Meadows perform the songs associated with Lou Rawls ("Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing," "Dead End Street"), Billy Eckstine ("Prisoner of Love"), Joe Williams ("Goin’ To Chicago" and "Everyday I Have The Blues"), plus Stevie Wonder and others.

Festival Music Coordinator Fred Adler’s choice of musicians is first rate. According to Adler, “Jamie Davis is unquestionably one of the foremost, classic male vocalists of the decades, and this is no exaggeration! With a tonality and style, uncannily reminiscent of the late Lou Rawls and Count Basie’s historic lead singer, Joe Williams, his voice is a present-day gift to the globe.

Lloyd Meadows, lead singer and mouth harpist of the famous Zydeco Flames, is another versatile and soulful baritone voice that has been touched by the magic of the hall of fame pinnacle jazz and soul vocalists. Meadows’ Stevie Wonder numbers will feature his mouth harp expertise. Davis and Meadows will be joining forces in tribute to the past masters, at my request!”

It’s been said about tenor man Richard Howell, “He’s got so much soul . . . . People sometimes perceive jazz as being clinical. You look down and your foot isn’t moving. That isn’t going to happen when you hear Richard. You’re going to feel him.”

S.F. Chronicle media critic Andrew Gilbert has high praise for pianist Tammy Hall. ”What stands out most is her compelling lyricism. With an uncluttered, telegraphic style marked by her classical training and deep roots in the Baptist church, Hall gracefully combines elegance and grit.”

Leon Joyce is a first-call drummer for many top artists. He has worked with Ramsey Lewis, Nancy Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Ellis Marsalis, Larry Coryell and others.

Bassist Pierre Archain, born and raised in southern France, lays down a powerful groove on his instrument. After having spent a few decades in the Bay Area, he currently resides in Mendocino County. He has been touched by the music of jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and bassist Jaco Pastorious.

Adler adds, “My inspired concept, and dream concert? Absolutely, and not to be missed. I will be there to M.C. with wings on! If you have any feeling at all for the great masters of soul, do not miss this gem.”

04/01/2023

We are on a roll! The Whale Watch Inn is proud to host Violinist Mads Tolling, one of the four talented musicians performing at yet another great event at the Gualala Arts Center this Sunday, April 2, 2023, at 4 pm.

"Jazz Meets Classical”
A Global Harmony and Whale & Jazz Festival Series Special Event

The concert features four outstanding talents: violinist Mads Tolling, pianist Miles Graber, guitarist Dave MacNab, and harpist Anna Maria Mendieta.

Mads Tolling, 2-time Grammy award winning classical violinist, and the sensitive classical piano of Miles Graber open the concert.

A first set of classical works by late 19th century composers such as Johannes Brahms and Jules Massenet will be performed. After intermission there will be a violin/guitar jazz duo performance extraordinaire.

The concert’s grand finale will be Astor Piazzolla’s famous composition, “Libertango,” with a passionate violin, harp, piano and guitar collaboration, with all "hands on deck.”

Internationally renowned violinist and composer Mads Tolling hails from Copenhagen, and now lives in San Francisco. As a former member of both bassist Stanley Clarke’s band and the Turtle Island Quartet, he won two Grammy Awards. Tolling has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Paquito D’Rivera and Leo Kottke, and is a current member of Bob Weir’s Wolf Bros & Wolf Pack Band.

The “Jazz Meets Classical” concert is part of the Global Harmony and the Whale & Jazz Festival Series “Festival of Strings for World Peace”. Watch for more events in the coming months.

03/11/2023

The Whale Watch Inn is pleased to host Nikita and Margarita Borisevich, who are performing this weekend, March 12, at the Chamber Music Concert at the Gualala Arts Center.

The Borisevich Duo, featuring pianist Margarita Loukachkina and violinist Nikita Borisevich, is an internationally acclaimed violin and piano duet, frequently performing across the United States and Europe.

Mr. Borisevich and Ms. Loukachkina are winners of numerous international music competitions and have collectively performed on world renown stages such as The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Mozarteum University Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria), Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory (Moscow, Russia), Shriver Hall (Baltimore, Maryland), California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA), JCC Greater Washington (Rockville, MD) and Manuel de Falla Auditorium (Granada, Spain), among others.

The Borisevich Duo was a recipient of the inaugural Young Artist Development Series Award at The El Paso Pro Musica Festival in collaboration with Peabody Conservatory, and has since then been invited to do a residency at El Paso Pro Musica Festival and Sitka Summer Music Festival by Grammy-Award-winning cellist, Zuill Bailey.

Most recently Nikita and Margarita made their debut at the Venetian Arts Society in Florida, the Chamber Music Society of Maryland, and gave performances in Metz, France and Luxembourg. The Borisevich Duo was named a winner of the Beverly Hills National Auditions, in addition to making their debut at the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago (IL), the Alden Theatre in McLean (VA), the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (NY), the Gualala Chamber Music Society in Gualala (CA), the Tuesday Concert Series in Washington, DC and the Evensong Concert Series in Silver Spring (MD). In addition to an active performing career, Nikita is a professor of Chamber music at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The scheduled performance will include:
Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Piano No.5 “Spring”
Niccolò Paganini, Cantabile
Fritz Kreisler, Schon Rosmarin and Liebesleid
Manuel de Falla, Spanish Dance
Edvard Grieg, Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2
Maurice Ravel, Tzigane

We are honored to have them stay with us, if even for just a short time.

03/08/2023

Snow in Coastal Gualala. Amazing but crazy California weather we’ve been having. This video clip was taken a couple of weeks ago at the Top of Fish Rock Rd. Snowplow had just cleared the snow off Old Stage Hwy.

12/22/2022

We need your help to photograph king tides King Tides this week! We need your help to photograph extreme high tides on December 23 & 24 (this Friday and Saturday) and January 21 & 22. You can find loc