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What To Do if You’re a… Bach Festival-Goer or Music Lover
When Carmel native Alexa Dieterle moved home in 2020, after years abroad working in the opera and theater industry in Germany, she immersed herself in the local music scene. Alexa and her husband, Daniel Henriks, co-founded the Central Coast Chamber Choir, an ensemble of professional and semi-professional local singers. Daniel, a German conductor and opera singer, also took the helm of well-known community chorus I Cantori di Carmel, where he showcases his breadth of work encompassing the choral masterworks of Bach, Mozart, Puccini, and more. “We’re doing big symphonic choral repertoire, and that's a lot of fun because that doesn't really exist in this area,” Alexa says.
In honor of this summer’s beloved Carmel Bach Festival (July 13-27), Alexa shares her favorite local spots for music lovers of all stripes, from vintage record stores to al fresco venues.
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Favorite live music venues in…
Pacific Grove: I’m super excited about Pop and Hiss in Pacific Grove, which opened in April. It's a vintage record store with a little bar inside. It's also a really cool place for local musicians to showcase their art. As a classical musician, I am always trying to get people to be more open to classical music. So, for a venue like Pop and Hiss to welcome all kinds of music, I could go in there and do an acapella classical music program in a pretty rock and roll space.
Sand City: SandBox in Sand City is the best place for classical music events in an intimate setting. It’s a privately run little concert space by Michelle Djokic, a Juilliard-trained cellist. She moved here during Covid and built this beautiful, intimate performance space that feels like a living room. It has a great piano and she does lots of concerts, but you can also perform there. It's something everyone should check out because she does anything from world music to jazz to classical. And Sand City is kind of a hidden gem. There's so many artists that live there and are creating cool stuff.
Carmel Valley: Hidden Valley Music Seminars is a wonderful space just before you hit the Carmel Valley Village. It's a place where people from all across the country come for different master classes, but they also host and present concerts that are really beautiful. It's like a retreat-style performance venue. You feel like you're in a different world. It could be in southern France somewhere. There's trees, there's deer galloping across the field. And they have cool concerts that I think people don't really know exist.
Unexpected spots to enjoy music:
Local wineries, like Folktale, often showcase local musicians, so check those out. My friend Glenn Bell is a jazz bass player who often plays at Puma Road at Portola Plaza in Monterey. If you want to have kind of an old school feeling with jazzy standards or swing stuff, Cypress Inn, Doris Day's old hotel, has this sweet vintage feel. The piano bar at Mission Ranch is always fun for locals singing their hearts out. It’s hokey, but I mean that in a nice way. You feel like you've traveled to the world of the “Gilmore Girls” or something. It's small-town and it warms your heart. And people go crazy there. I've actually had dinner there when the guy at the piano was playing “Sweet Caroline.” People are eating their fancy prime rib, and then when the chorus comes on, they turn around and start singing, and then they keep eating. It's so funny. It's cinematic.
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Outside the box experiences I love:
Sound bath classes at Tejido in Carmel. It's a beautiful store with beautiful clothes and gifts and all that, but when they have their classes at night, it’s a special thing. Sound bath is not a concert—but it is. You're part of the music because the vibration of the sound goes through you. It's a very California kind of thing, but it’s a cool experience. When I took it for the first time, because I'm a singer, I realized that I am just a sound bowl, too. It made me think about the fact that when I sing, I create these vibrations and just the physics of that. It opened my mind as a performer and changed the way I look at myself as a singer.
Best outdoor adventure:
Taking a sunset flight from Aerodynamic Aviation in Monterey. Daniel, my husband, is a private pilot. We know this is a beautiful area we live in, but the way it looks from above, it just adds another dimension. It only takes an hour. You fly up the coast a bit and you can fly over Carmel Valley. Cost-wise, it's totally doable for a special occasion. It's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, and it is really cool.
End the day with:
A concert or movie at the Forest Theater in Carmel. Especially in the summer, if people are here for the Bach Festival or whatever, they should check it out. It's a small nonprofit and they put on great shows. The movies are fun, everyone's screaming at the screen, and you can bring a picnic. When I was growing up here, it was a really special part of Carmel.
Illustrations by Kelsey Wisdom
PLAN YOUR DAY
on the Peninsula
- Pop and Hiss
Pacific Grove, CA
- SandBox
Sand City, CA
- Hidden Valley Music Seminars
Carmel Valley, CA
- Folktale
Carmel Valley, CA - Puma Road at Portola Plaza
Monterey, CA
- Cypress Inn
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
- Mission Ranch
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
- Tejido
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
- Aerodynamic Aviation
Monterey, CA
- Forest Theater
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
