Port Angeles’ homegrown project Music on the Strait is back, this time presenting a special concert at Field Arts & Hall (201 W. Front St., Port Angeles) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4.

Tickets are on sale at musiconthestrait.com, and choose-your-price tickets are newly available, starting at just $5 for most remaining seats.

The concert features Bach’s Goldberg Variations, arranged for violin, viola and cello. Music on the Strait artistic directors Richard O’Neill and James Garlick will perform with celebrated cellist Karen Ouzounian in a haunting adaptation for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky.

“The Goldberg Variations are one of music’s most epic and memorable journeys,” O’Neill said. “Bach marries logic, emotion, and spirituality in these magnificent 32 variations, and truly fulfills his dedication to ‘refresh the spirits of the music lover.”

The concert will also feature two works commissioned by Music on the Strait specifically for the 2022 and 2023 festivals. These works — by Paul Chihara and Lembit Beecher, respectively — will be performed and recorded for professional release this weekend.

Lembit Beecher piece, “The Happiness of Two Salmon Returning Home,” was inspired by the Elwha River’s restoration.

“Last summer was my first time in Port Angeles and I immediately felt a deep connection to the place,” Beecher said. “I’m especially looking forward to seeing the Elwha River and its many stones again! It will be particularly special since I’ll be able to share the experience with my wife, Karen Ouzounian, who is performing on the concert.”

Though new to Port Angeles, Beecher found a way to connect to the Elwha River through meditations on his own heritage. “When I was 12, I traveled to my mother’s hometown of Taru, Estonia for the first time, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Freedom for Estonia,” he recalled.

“As I thought about the emotional shape of the journey to a place that I had never been but that felt like home, I thought about the first two salmon to swim up the Elwha to their ancestral spawning grounds after the dams had been removed … at it’s emotional core, the piece tries to arrive at a spot musically that is new but very much feels like home, like my experience in Estonia and the way I imagined the journey of the salmon.”

This kind of hyper-local connection to place is part of the core of Music on the Strait, which is excited to continue putting down roots in the community and becoming even more of a local fixture.

“It’s exciting to be able to play music outside of our yearly festival structure,” Garlick said. “This is our first foray into non-summer performances, which we hope to do more of. We’ve been inspired by the warm reception and continued excitement around the festival, so we’re thrilled to be able to come together with the community once again.”

To get tickets, learn more about Music on the Strait’s programs and outreach, or get involved, visit musiconthestrait.com.