Ithaca area musicians and devotees of music icon Joni Mitchell will again pay homage in the Joni Mitchell Tribute Concert, a tradition now in its ninth year of benefiting the arts education programs of the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA).  The concert will take place on Saturday, March 9 in CSMA's historic Martha Hamblin Hall starting at 7:00 PM.

The lineup of performers has been announced, including Michael Allinger, Lorraine Bates, Mary Bentley, Rich DePaolo, Joseph Gaylord, Colleen Kattau, Diana Leigh, Molly MacMillan, Alice Saltonstall, Alison Wahl, and Margaret Wakeley.

Joseph Gaylord, a singer-songwriter on the bill for the evening, has been the brainchild and organizer of the Joni Mitchell Tribute since its launch at CSMA in 2010.

"Local musicians deeply embrace her music," says Gaylord. "Each year, I can't wait to see who will share their talents and what their vision of Joni Mitchell's music is. And this year's show will look and sound better than ever with CSMA's brand new lighting and audio equipment."

Mitchell's artistry and musicality has been praised over the past 50 years, with a career spanning folk, rock, jazz and pop genres. She is known and beloved as a poetic songwriter, pianist and acoustic guitarist, ethereal vocalist, ingenious composer, and avant-garde jazz collaborator. Her music offered counterpoint to the hard rock and roll groups of the late 1960s and early '70s, as well as to early electronic music of the late '70s. It is the complexity and challenge of her timeless music that continues to compel a wide range of artists to cover her music to this day.

"Joni is a perfect fit for CSMA, our great cause" says Gaylord. "She is an amazing musician, songwriter, painter, and creator of dance works. All these areas of artistry align with what the Community School of Music and Arts has promoted for nearly sixty years."

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