High culture meets the high mountains when the 2012 Lake Tahoe SummerFest kicks off this weekend in the northeast corner of Big Blue.

An amalgam of music, theater and fine art, the inaugural SummerFest, which will be centered in and around the Incline Village area, attempts "to develop a sense of regionalism through the arts and present an opportunity to light the torch to fuel a creative economy," according to event founder Madylon Meiling.

Classical music, featuring the works of Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Copland, Dvorak, Beethoven et al, will be presented over the next three weekends (Aug. 3-5, Aug. 10-12 and Aug. 17-20) at a 500-seat outdoor venue on the Sierra Nevada College campus. The concerts, under the baton of maestro Joel Revzen, will be held Friday and Saturday evenings at 6:30, with Sunday "family" concerts at 3 p.m.

American Impressionist artists will be on display daily at the Diamond Peak Gallery at the Diamond Peak resort, which will also host receptions and painting and framing demonstrations over the weekends of Aug. 3-5 and Aug. 10-12.

The performing arts will be represented by the on-going Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor, which this year is featuring the Bard's comedy "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" Tuesday through Sunday evenings through August 26.

Full schedules and ticket packages for all performances and showings can be found at tahoesummerfest.org.