Jazz and Americana music will open the 37th season of the Valhalla Arts, Music & Theatre Festival this week.

The Earles of Newtown play Valhalla’s Boathouse Theatre starting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 22.

The group is composed of recognized musicians from around the region and is a bit of “Northern California jazz Americana super-group,” said Evangeline Elston, the festival’s director.

“What I hear is that people just love them, from young to old,” Elston said Wednesday.

The festival runs through Aug. 31 and includes a wide range of events.

“From high-quality Americana and New Orleans roots music, to a Tony Award-winning wickedly pathological play to a jazz orchestra to immersive outdoor art camps for kids to an uplifting gospel send-off, the creative arts offerings are plentiful and appealing to all ages,” according to festival organizers.

The festival’s second event will be especially important for the future of the historic Boathouse Theatre, Elston said. The Valhalla Boathouse Theatre 20th Anniversary Fundraiser takes place at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 25, and includes a high-end raffle, a piano concert by Radoslav Lorkovic and the Lucky Baldwin Poker Promenade.

The promenade “will feature various stations around the Tallac Historic Site, each offering food and drinks, interpretive history and historic figures along with playing cards for event participants. Prizes will be given to the winners with various poker hands,” according to festival organizers.

“It’s a really fun way to experience the historic site and support Valhalla,” Elston said.

The night also includes a concert by pianist Radoslav Lorkovic.

“When he was six, the family moved to the U.S. — and by his teens, classically trained in piano, he was heading toward a life in classical music when the blues sidetracked him and he began to turn his distinctive piano style into a career that has led him to the Canary Islands, Yup’ik villages, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall,” according to festival organizers.

Tickets to the fundraiser are $75 and will help update and maintain the Boathouse Theatre. The boathouse was built in the late 1800s and was turned into a theater in 1996 through a significant community effort, Elston said.

“The Valhalla Boathouse Theatre is a unique cultural resource in the Tahoe basin, indeed in all of northern California and northern Nevada,” according to Valhalla. “No other arts venue showcases Tahoe heritage and the stunning beauty of the lake like the Boathouse Theatre. Patrons sitting in the theatre are treated to a view of the lake like no other, through the floor to ceiling window behind the stage. The interior, preserved with exposed beams and wonderful natural acoustics, is both intimate and grand creating an experience unrivaled in performing arts venues.”

The theater is in need of funding for maintenance and upgrades such as LED lighting and new sound and lighting boards, Elston said.

Valhalla is located off State Route 89 just west of Camp Richardson.

More information on the events, as well as a full schedule, is available at http://www.valhallatahoe.com.