The Newtown Cultural Arts Commission (NCAC) will welcome American folk icon Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary, as the guest artist for the season finale of The Flagpole Radio Café on Saturday, May 22. The show will be in the theater of Edmond Town Hall at, 45 Main Street in Newtown, beginning at 7 pm.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by visiting the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission home page at NewtownArtsCommission.org and clicking on The Flagpole Radio Café link. If further information is needed, call 203-364-0898.

“We are privileged to have Peter Yarrow perform in our show and are delighted to afford our community the opportunity to hear an authentic living legend from our musical heritage,” said Flagpole Café Executive Producer Martin Blanco. “This is a wonderful way to end our season and we look forward to a third season with much anticipation.”  

For those not acquainted with The Flagpole Radio Café, it is an engaging variety show presented by Mr Blanco, Jim Allyn and Barbara Gaines in conjunction with NCAC. It features music by Mr Allyn and The Radio Café Orchestra, a dynamic ensemble created for the show, and radio style comedy sketches by the hyperbolically named Flagpole Shakespeare Repertory Theatre.

The Flagpole Radio Cafe is hosted by musician and radio personality Chris Teskey, who also broadcasts the show on his celebrated program on WPKN radio. Each show features a musical guest artist such as Peter Yarrow.  This past season, the show has presented R&B sensation Vanesse Thomas, jazz bass virtuoso Phil Bowler, and Yale’s internationally acclaimed male choir The Whiffenpoofs.

Peter Yarrow is an American singer who came into prominence with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul & Mary. He graduated from New York City’s High School of Music and Art, now called LaGuardia High School. His singing career began after graduating from Cornell University.

Soon after, Mr Yarrow met Noel “Paul” Stookey and Mary Travers in Greenwich Village. By 1962, Warner Bros. released the trio’s first album, Peter Paul & Mary, which remained in the Top Ten for almost a year and in the Top Twenty for two years. The album went on to sell more than 2 million copies.

Mr Yarrow’s talents as a creative artist, both with Peter, Paul & Mary and as a solo performer, are frequently directed at using music to convey a message of humanity and caring.  His gift for songwriting has produced some of the most moving songs Peter, Paul & Mary have recorded including “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Day is Done,” “Light One Candle” and “The Great Mandala.”  As a member of the renowned musical trio, he has earned many gold and platinum albums, has been awarded numerous Grammys and nominated for several more.

More important to Mr Yarrow, however, is the acknowledgement of the central role that he and his partners have played in bringing the folk renaissance of the 1960s to the hearts and homes of the American public.