RAP ICON TALIB KWELI to PERFORM at MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Hip-hop star Talib Kweli brings his singular brand of socio-political rap to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Saturday, October 19, at 8pm. In 1998, Brooklyn-based rapper Kweli blasted into the public consciousness as one half of rap duo Black Star. The group released only one album – “Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star” – before parting ways. Yet the deft, socially aware, and politically on-point lyrics laid down on that album catapulted Kweli and Def to the forefront of the late 1990s renaissance of conscious, Afro-centric hip-hop.
STRAUSS-WARSCHAUER DUO to PERFORM at YIDDISH BOOK CENTER OPEN HOUSE
(AMHERST, Mass.) – The Strauss-Warschauer Duo, featuring world-renowned klezmer musicians Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer, will perform at the Yiddish Book Center on Sunday, October 20, at 2pm, as part of the center’s day-long annual Community Open House. The day’s events, which are free and open to the public, include guided tours of the center’s many exhibits, a roundtable discussion with contributors to the recently published Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Choosing Yiddish: New Frontiers of Yiddish Language and Culture, as well as an update from Aaron Lansky, president and founder of the Yiddish Book Center.
NEW ROCKWELL BIOGRAPHY to GET LAUNCH at MUSEUM
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – Renowned art critic Deborah Solomon will be feted at launch party for her new biography, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, at the Norman Rockwell Museum on Saturday, October 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. A decade in the making, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell finds Solomon training her perceptive eye not only on Rockwell and his art but on the development of visual journalism as it evolved from illustration in the 1920s to photography in the 1930s to television in the 1950s.
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SISTER QUARTET SHEL BRINGS CHAMBER-POP HARMONIES to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Sister quartet SHEL, from Fort Collins, Colo., will bring its eclectic, original folk-pop and four-part harmonies to Club Helsinki Hudson on Thursday, October 17, at 8pm. What comes out when they join forces is at once wholly organic but also delicately beautiful – a latticework of chamber-pop that connects the dots between bluegrass, the Roches, Philip Glass and Led Zeppelin.
“WWII Vet” by William Wright
BILL WRIGHT’S PHOTOS of VETERANS on EXHIBIT at SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY
(SPENCERTOWN, N.Y.) – VETS: Portraits of Veterans of War, an exhibition of photographs by William Wright – himself a veteran of Desert Storm/Shield – will be on display at Spencertown Academy Arts Center from Saturday, October 19, through Sunday, December 15. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, October 19, from 4pm to 6pm, with catering by student chefs graduating from Culinary Command. Admission is free.
pianist Renana Gutman
CHAMBER SERIES COMMISSIONS NEW WORK by PAUL SCHOENFIELD
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – A tune from Viennese operetta that Beethoven employed in a piano trio will once again be heard in “Shaatnez,” a newly penned piece by American composer Paul Schoenfield, having its world premiere on Saturday, October 19, at 6pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, as part of the Close Encounters With Music chamber series. The program will include Beethoven’s Trio in B-Flat Major (nicknamed “Gassenhauer Trio”), which spins out variations on a theme from Joseph Weigl’s popular 1797 “L’amor marinaro,” and sets the stage for the newly commissioned piece by Schoenfield, “Shaatnez,” which incorporates the same theme. Brahms Piano Quartet Opus 26 ends the program, which features violinist Miriam Fried, violist Paul Biss, pianist Renana Gutman, and cellist Yehuda Hanani.
BRUBECK BROTHERS HEADLINE PITTSFIELD JAZZ FESTIVAL
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, featuring Chris and Dan Brubeck, will perform a tribute to their father, the late jazz legend Dave Brubeck, at the Colonial Theatre on Saturday, October 19, at 8pm, as part of the 2013 Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, running through Sunday, October 20.
FRED EAGLESMITH’S TRAVELING STEAM SHOW SWINGS BACK INTO CLUB HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Fred Eaglesmith’s Traveling Steam Show rolls back into Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, October 19, at 9pm. A longtime favorite of Helsinki audiences, rootsy singer-songwriter, Eaglesmith is a genuine iconoclast and true original who has doggedly gone his own way as an independent musical artist, while enjoying such high profile rewards as having his songs covered by country superstars Toby Keith, Alan Jackson and Miranda Lambert, among many other accomplishments.