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“The mark of the caliber of a society is how it takes care of its seniors,” Edmonds European travel guide and philanthropist Rick Steves said. That’s why Steves is emceeing a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, April 16 supporting the Edmonds Waterfront Center (EWC) – and featuring his longtime friend, pianist Walt Wagner.
Wagner’s program will include an eclectic mix of jazz classics from legends like Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, along with his own original compositions. The performance will also feature covers of DJ Shadow, Talking Heads, Pearl Jam, Billie Eilish and Pink Floyd, and the return of his improvisational rendition of Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire.
Steves was an early supporter of transforming what was then the Edmonds Senior Center into the multi-generational Edmonds Waterfront Center, which has grown from roughly 1,000 members to more than 4,200.
My Neighborhood News Group spoke with Steves in advance of the event about what this benefit means to him.
In many places, Steves said, seniors are “siloed away in some ramshackle building,” while in Edmonds they have “a beautiful destination community center that is wonderfully located,” offering activities and services that weave through generations.
Steves said he enjoys seeing the range of programming offered at EWC, praising the work of staff in creating opportunities for people to gather and “embrace life in a beautiful way.”
“It’s exceeding my hopes for it,” he said, adding that while the building itself has been paid for, ongoing fundraising is needed to keep programming “vibrant and full and exciting.” That need, he said, is what led him to support this benefit concert with Walt Wagner.
I asked Steves about his personal connection to the original senior center – now the Edmonds Waterfront Center. He remembers his father (Richard “Dick” John Steves) going there for four years in the final part of his life.
“He loved music,” Steves said. “He was part of the senior choir where they had such joy putting on their red vests and singing lunchtime concerts.”
One day, on a busy work schedule, Steves made a point to sneak in to see him perform. His father didn’t even know he would be there.
“I was sitting there with the public, enjoying the seniors singing,” he said. Then “My dad’s eyes caught mine, and there was this amazing twinkle in his eyes.”
“It reminded me of the twinkle that must have been in my eyes when I saw him – when I was here at Edmonds Junior High School 60 years before,” he said, recalling the joy of those earlier performances when his father had been in the audience. “And now I can bring him joy by being in a concert with him.”
“What I call intergenerational twinkles. That’s what the Edmonds Waterfront Center is specializing in.” — Rick Steves
Steves first knew Wagner through his father. “My dad always raved about Walt Wagner,” he said. His father, a piano seller and tuner who also imported fine German pianos, had a professional connection to him through Sun Valley Resort in Idaho, where Wagner was teaching.
“Walt said, ‘We’ve got to buy this German Steinway from Dick Steves at the Steves Sound of Music Store in Edmonds,’” he recalled. His father would then “drive all the way to Sun Valley in Idaho” to make sure the piano was ready for Wagner to play.
“My dad was so inspired by Walt’s music and his love of performing,” Steves recalled.
That thread of connection continued over the years. Wagner eventually bought a piano from Steves’ father for his own home, and the two crossed paths repeatedly. Steves grew up as a piano teacher and Wagner, a local pianist in Seattle.
Later, Steves recalls hearing Wagner play at the Canlis in Seattle. “I would be sure to go there on the night when Walt was playing the piano,” he said. Steves would even carry his dessert from the dining room into the lounge area, settling there to listen.
“I would sit there with my dessert and enjoy the way Walt loves music and the way he loves sharing,” he said, remembering Wagner’s “beautiful covers of all my favorite songs.”
“I’m so happy to be able to introduce Walt,” Steves added.
“People always ask me to play the piano – I’m very shy about that,” Steves said with a chuckle. But he shared that he will be “tickling the ivories a little bit with the help of Walt,” and leaning into a bit of lighthearted fun while introducing Wagner.
I asked when he last performed, and Steves reflected, “I have not performed on the piano since I was in my 20s.” He also added that a 9-foot concert grand piano has been rented for the event.
“So it’s going to be the greatest piano you can have with the greatest piano player that I’ve ever met,” he said.
After the performance, Steves said he and Wagner will both be in the lobby to meet attendees, sign autographs and take part in the community celebration.
He said the appeal is also the shared experience. “You get an intangible joy about bringing the community together,” Steves said, “not seeing it on a screen, not seeing it on your computer or your TV, but there with your neighbors enjoying this kind of music and at the same time supporting our wonderful Edmonds Waterfront Center.”
Wagner, in a statement provided by EWC Stewardship Director Joan Morrison, said that live performance is electrified by the exchange between artist and audience.
“For me, the phenomenal art of music is of course the bottom line, both as a performer and when I play and practice at home,” he said. “But what motivates me to perform – sometimes even beyond my normal abilities – is the relationship between a live audience and me, and the energy in the room. It’s like nirvana to me when I sense they’re feeling what I’m feeling in the music.”
At the end of our interview, Steves offered thanks to Barbara Kindness for her work in organizing the event, and to Wagner for helping make it possible. “We can have a beautiful event like this and have it be a fundraiser – for a beautiful cause,” he said.
Tickets are available online, or by calling 425-275-9595. The concert is this Thursday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m., during Art Walk Edmonds.
Editor’s note: The Edmonds Waterfront Center also operates the Lake Ballinger Center in Mountlake Terrace, which provides services for Mountlake Terrace seniors.
Based in Edmonds, Nahline Gouin is a freelance writer, ceramicist and arts advocate with experience in art museums and performing arts centers. She continues to create with clay, homeschool her son and write as a creative practice.
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