TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET to PLAY JIMI HENDRIX at the COLONIAL
Turtle Island String Quartet
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Classical/jazz fusion ensemble Turtle Island Quartet will celebrate the music of Jimi Hendrix with their dynamic Have You Ever Been…? program on Friday, February 17, 2012, at 8 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre. Through its exploration of jazz, classical, American vernacular and world music styles, the Turtle Island Quartet has taken its audiences on a journey through many musical genres, eras, and places – the American landscape, Latin America, Europe and India to name a few. Now, the two-time Grammy Award-winning quartet is tackling works by legendary guitarist, songwriter and performer Jimi Hendrix as well as other compositions reflective of and inspired by Hendrix’s music, including Turtle Island Quartet founder David Balakrishnan’s new composition, “Tree of Life.”
JAZZ and BLUES GREAT CATHERINE RUSSELL to PERFORM at MASS MOCA
Catherine Russell (photo Stefan Falke)
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – It was totally appropriate that Catherine Russell, who performs at MASS MoCA on Saturday, February 18, at 8 pm in the Hunter Center, released her brand-new album, Strictly Romancin’ (World Village), this past Tuesday – February 14 aka Valentine’s Day – as it’s an album full of romance and heartbreak. But Russell’s is no mere tribute album to the romantic side of the so-called Great American Songbook. As soon as Russell opens her mouth and sings, a listener can hear the profound depths of her connection to the music – the spirit of gospel, the longing of spirituals, the ache of blues, the swing of jazz, and the color of brilliant singing.
ARTS FESTIVAL TO FEATURE PLAYS, SONGWRITERS, POETS, FILM, DANCE
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – 10X10 On North, a winter contemporary arts festival kicks off on Thursday, February 16, featuring performances and events for ten days spanning visual art, dance, film, music, theater, and poetry. Barrington Stage Company will present the 10X10 On North New Play Festival; the Beacon Cinema in tandem with Berkshire International Film Festival will host a Smartphone Film Festival; Berkshire Actors Theatre will stage One Man Show 10X10, featuring one actor portraying 10 characters in 10 minutes, at Ferrin Gallery, which will also host Burlesque 10X10, a 10-minute performance piece including poetry, dance, music and the history of burlesque.
MORGAN BULKELEY: BIRD STORY AT BERKSHIRE MUSEUM
Morgan Bulkeley's 'New Eats'
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Berkshire artist Morgan Bulkeley’s playful, fabulistic landscapes are the subject of a solo exhibition at Berkshire Museum now through March 4, 2012, in the museum’s Ellen Crane Memorial Room. Morgan Bulkeley: Bird Story is a terrific companion exhibition to the sprawling, epic major exhibition, Taking Flight: Audubon and the World of Birds, in the museum’s main exhibition space. Bulkeley’s whimsical oil paintings combine naturalism and pop, juxtaposing, for example, familiar grocery items and cartoon characters with birds, so that an owl tramples Mickey Mouse (poor Mickey, but he is a Disney character, after all). Bulkeley’s densely populated images are bright and slightly hallucinatory in their formal qualities as well as in their shimmering palpability and narrative content.
THE CLARK TO SCREEN LIVE IN HD TOUR OF NATIONAL GALLERY’S LEONARDO DA VINCI EXHIBITION
Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, about 1500
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Leonardo Live, a special tour of the National Gallery of London’s landmark exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, comes to The Clark on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at 3 p.m., captured live in HD. In the 85-minute movie, internationally renowned art historians and broadcasters Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrup lead the audience through the critically acclaimed exhibition, which brings together the largest number of Leonardo da Vinci’s rare surviving paintings ever assembled in one collection.
10 BERKSHIRE ARTISTS FEATURED ON BILLBOARDS AS PART OF 10X10 ON NORTH FESTIVAL
Billboard art by Kiki Dufault
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Ten Berkshire artists will be featured on ten different billboards throughout western Massachusetts this month as part of 10X10 On North, a winter arts festival taking place over the course of 11 days. The featured artists are part of the invitational art show TEN SPOT, on display from February 16 through March 10, 2012, at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in downtown Pittsfield.
NEW BRITISH PLAY to SCREEN at MAHAIWE LIVE IN HD FROM LONDON’S NATIONAL THEATRE
Antony Sher (Jacob Bindel) and Abigail McKern (Ida) in the National Theatre production of 'Travelling Light'
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Travelling Light, a new tragicomic fable of enchantment by renowned U.K. playwright Nicholas Wright, about the invention of the movies, pre-World War I Jewish life, and the price one pays for artistic passion and commitment, will be screened Live in HD from London’s National Theatre at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington on Saturday, February 18 at 7 pm.