Although she has performed professionally on hammered dulcimer, flute and guitar internationally for more than two decades, Carolyn Cruso still remembers what it was like to be a newcomer to the performing songwriter genre.

“With the Slightly OffCenter performances, I knew it was a wonderful opportunity to provide emerging artists, many of them newcomers to singing and songwriting, with a great setting to share what they were creating and in some cases take their performances to the next level,” said Cruso, curator of the performances.

“These performances are supposed to be a little surprising to the viewer, not part of the mainstream. For the particular performance I wanted to have solo female songwriters,” she said.

A published author who is also a world-record weightlifter and drummer, a self-taught ukulele player and the daughter of a well-known music producer are the emerging artists to be featured this Sunday when the Orcas Center holds the last “Slightly OffCenter Local Artists Showcase.”

Charly Robinson learned to play the ukulele to accompany her singing. “I grew up playing the flute and have been a shower singer for as long as I can remember. I always loved to sing with others and used to sit around the campfire waiting for them to sing the songs I knew. I loved singing harmony with my friends. In January of 2007, I decided to teach myself an instrument so that I would not have to wait to have others to sing with,” Robinson said.

She chose the ukulele because of what she calls her “overly romantic fascination with the 1920’s.” She considers the ukulele to be a light-hearted instrument and says she will be performing original songs with a whimsical interpretation to love and life.

“I am excited about this as my first solo experience,” Robinson said. “I am looking forward to sharing it with the community and my friends and with the two other female performers. I feel there is a lot of room for female performers on Orcas.”

Many Orcas residents know Jaen Black as the drummer for the musical group, The Buzzbombs. On Sunday, the audience will see her doing a comedic performance piece with music as the medium when she performs solo as, “Jaen Black and the Cutouts.”

Black has many talents. She is the author of a novel about murder in the deep south called Bastante, is the current master’s world record holder in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, is a USA Weightlifting Regionally ranked coach and a vegan activist.

Black was first published at six years of age when with her father she authored a jingle for a local milk company in southern Alabama.

Her performance experience includes being a trap set drummer for Atlanta’s theatrical performance band, Moral Hazard, and an actor in the historical Red Dyke Theater.

“I have always had this dream of doing Jaen and the Cutouts,” she said. “When you are in a band it’s like you are in a marriage. Since I am a drummer and songwriter and a play a rudimentary keyboard and I play upright base and guitar the cutouts are me as the entire band.

“I have performed and I have done readings and taken to stage in an open mic but this is my first dedicated first solo comedic performance.”

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m., Nov. 23 performance of the “The Slightly OffCenter Local Artist Showcase” are $10 and are available at the door of the Off Center Stage and in advance at the Orcas Center box office.

Jaz Lund, who attended high school on Orcas and now lives in Seattle, is the third performer chosen for the showcase. She will be performing original songs that blend soul and Brazilian rhythms for a richly textured sound.

Organizers say that her voice alternately purrs and soars. Lund is the daughter of Orcas islander Martin Lund, who has worked in the studios of Los Angeles as a composer, arranger and musician with artists as diverse as Mel Torme and Isacc Hayes, and the vocalist Moki Lund. 

“These days every time I answer the phone it for people wanting to find out about Jaz. It’s very exciting for me. I will certainly be in the audience on Sunday to hear her,” Martin Lund says.

The showcase presentations on the Black Box or Off Center Stage were designed to provide a supportive performance venue for emerging local performance artists including singer/songwriters, musicians, poets and spoken word artists. During 2007 and 2008 there were seven shows featuring 50 artists.

Next year, Cruso says, the showcase will take a break.

“The first year of the showcase was an experiment,” she said. “Next year, we are going to try something new in the Black Box space.”