Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy performing at Solid Sound 2010 (photo Seth Rogovoy)
WILCO, YO LA TENGO, MEDESKI MARTIN and WOOD HEADLINE MASS MoCA MUSIC FEST
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – This year’s Solid Sound, the annual music festival curated by indie-rock giants Wilco at MASS MoCA, will take place Friday, June 21, 2013, through Sunday, June 23, 2013, and will include performances by indie-rock legends Yo La Tengo; progressive jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood; acclaimed singer and songwriter Neko Case (of New Pornographers); low-fi outfit Low; and reunited psychedelic popsters Dream Syndicate, featuring Steve Wynn. Also on tap are an unusual duo performance featuring Los Lobos frontman/guitarist David Hidalgo and avant-jazz guitarist Marc Ribot; the Brazilian psych-rock band Os Mutantes and soul and gospel greats The Relatives. And speaking of relatives, Spencer Tweedy, son of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, makes his Solid Sound Festival debut performing with his band The Blisters.
Melissa Etheridge
(LENOX, Mass.) – Before the Boston Symphony Orchestra arrives and settles in for the summer, Tanglewood is opening its gates for a series of folk, rock, pop and jazz concerts, beginning Friday, June 21, 2013, with Oscar- and two-time Grammy-winning American folk rock singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, followed by the Boston Pops and Warren Haynes in Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration (Saturday, June 22); Joan Baez and Indigo Girls (Sunday, June 23); Terence Blanchard Group (Friday, June 28); Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” (Saturday, June 29); and Jackson Browne and fiddler Sara Watkins (Thursday, July 4).
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Soovin Kim
ALL-HUNGARIAN PROGRAM at TANNERY POND
(NEW LEBANON, N.Y.) – Violinist Soovin Kim leads an all-Hungarian program featuring works by Béla Bartok, Zoltán Kodály and Ernst von Dohnányi on Satrurday, June 22, 2013, at 8pm, as part of the Concerts at Tannery Pond chamber music series. Joining Kim will be violinist Jessica Lee, cellist Ed Arron, violist Maurycy Banaszek, and Tannery Pond artistic director Christian Steiner. performing the Piano Quintet in C minor, No. 1, Op. 1 by Ernst von Dohnányi. The works by Bartok and Kodaly will be selected duos for violin and viola and for violin and cello.
A scene from Dance Theatre of Harlem’s ‘The Lark Ascending’
DANCE THEATRE of HARLEM OPENS JACOB’S PILLOW SEASON
(BECKET, Mass.) – Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), the groundbreaking and newly revitalized classical and contemporary ballet company, will open the 2013 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival season in the Ted Shawn Theatre from Wednesday, June 19 to Sunday, June 23, 2013. Led by founding member and former principal dancer Virginia Johnson, the company will present a range of classic and new ballet work including George Balanchine’s Agon, The Lark Ascending by Alvin Ailey, and Far But Close by Canadian contemporary choreographer John Alleyne.
Zal Idrissa Sissokho
SENEGALESE GROUP BRINGS WEST AFRICAN SOUNDS to PS21
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Senegalese vocalist, oral historian and master kora player Zal Idrissa Sissokho and his band Buntalo will perform an evening of West African music on Saturday, June 22, 2013, at 7:30pm, at PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, located at 2980 Route 66 in Chatham. The concert will begin at 7:30pm. The music of Zal Idrissa Sissokho and Buntalo is a mix of traditional and modern world music, both festive and reflective. At its core is the sound of the kora, a 21-stringed harp-lute.
Kate Rogal
TIMELY NEW POLITICAL PLAY PREMIERES at BARRINGTON STAGE
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Muckrakers, a new play by Zayd Dohrn, is having its world premiere production at Barrington Stage Company (BSC). Starring Kate Rogal and Kahan James in their BSC debuts, the timely play centers around a young female activist who brings an older man – a famous political hacker/journalist – home to her Brooklyn apartment to spend the night. But as they start to expose each other’s secrets, personal and political desires collide, testing the limits of privacy in the modern world. Official opening night is Wednesday, June 19, and the run will conclude on Saturday, July 6. There will be a post-show discussion of Muckrakers on Thursday, June 20, following the 7:30pm performance.
SUZANNE VEGA to PLAY INTIMATE SHOW at CLUB HELSINKI
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega performs a rare, intimate nightclub gig at Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, June 22, 2013, at 9pm. One of the most literate and poetic singer-songwriters of the rock era, Vega is also a folk-pop craftsman, with a string of radio-ready hits that began with “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and have continued throughout her career, though “Book of Dreams,” “99.9F,” “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May” and “Pornographer’s Dream.” She’s also as edgy an observer of New York City street life as Lou Reed, a committed music activist, and a towering figure of influence on the entire folk-pop scene since the early 1980s. In the fall of 2013, Vega is heading to Eastern and Northern Europe, where she will perform in Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, and the other Helsinki.
Nomadic Massive
MONTREAL HIP-HOP OUTFIT KICKS OFF CITY ARTS FESTIVAL
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) — The sixth annual public arts festival DownStreet Art opens with a downtown celebration on Thursday, June 20, 2013, from 5 to 10 p.m. Main Street will shut down vehicular traffic for a World Music Dance Party featuring Montreal-based global hip-hop group Nomadic Massive, which starts at 8 p.m. This year’s festival theme is “Beyond Industry,” reflecting a North Adams that attempts to progress beyond its post-factory town and industrial past by using the arts as a catalyst for socioeconomic growth. DownStreet Art will run through October 31.
Matthew Shlian, Me and Fred, folded paper, courtesy the artist, courtesy Berkshire Museum
ON THE TRAIL OF PAPER at BERKSHIRE MUSEUM
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Score another home run for Berkshire Museum for the brand-new exhibition, PaperWorks: The Art and Science of an Extraordinary Material. The show explores paper as a source of creative inspiration and innovation and features contemporary works of art by more than 30 artists, all made from paper, as well as an array of objects and artifacts that show the uses of paper in industry, science, fashion, and technology. PaperWorks will be on view through October 26, 2013.
Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910), Two Guides, 1877. Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 38 1/4 in. (61.6 x 97.2 cm). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.3
HOMER’S WORK CLAIMS PRIMACY at THE CLARK
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Richard Rand, senior curator at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, says “We always say Renoir was the Clarks’ favorite artist, but it was really Homer.” And after viewing the summer’s blockbuster exhibition, Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind if there ever was – Homer and the Clark will now and forever will be practically synonymous. Selected works from what is reportedly the greatest collection of works by Winslow Homer assembled by one person since the artist’s death are featured in the exhibition, which explores the artist’s career from his beginnings as a commercial illustrator, through his great achievements in landscape and seascape paintings, to his works in other media, including prints, engravings, etchings and watercolors.
PITTSFIELD NATIVE RETURNS for SOLO PIANO CONCERT in HOMETOWN
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Pittsfield native Christopher Culpo returns home from Paris to present a solo piano concert on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at 7 pm, at First Church of Christ on Park Square (27 East St.). Culpo will perform his own compositions along with works by Duke Ellington, Lee Morgan, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Cole Porter, and others. Culpo has been based in Paris for the past 22 years and his work as performer and composer lies at the confluence of contemporary classical music, jazz and free improvisation. After graduating from Pittsfield High School, he studied at Boston University and at the Juilliard School before studying in Paris with a Fulbright scholarship.