Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group (photo Julieta Cervantes)
MOSES-INSPIRED DANCE by REGGIE WILSON at JACOB’S PILLOW
(BECKET, Mass.) – Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group brings its program, Moses(es), to the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for six perfomrances from Wednesday, July 9, through Sunday, July 13. The choreography – fusion of modern and African dance – is married to a diverse score including music by Louis Armstrong, the Klezmatics, Amahlokohloko, Ngqoko Women’s Ensemble, MaZarher, Aly-Us, Tiger, Bi Kidude, Southern Sons, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and traditional African-American spirituals “Wade In the Water” and “Eli, Eli (Somebody Call Eli),” sung live by the artists of Fist & Heel Performance Group.
Buddy Guy
BLUES VISIONARY BUDDY GUY COMING to MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) — Buddy Guy is plain and simply the Pablo Picasso of the blues. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a six-time Grammy Award-winner and blues legend who Rolling Stone named one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, Guy will perform at the Mahaiwe on Friday, July 11, at 8pm.
Tasha Lawrence
NIKOS STAGE SEASON OPENS with ‘A GREAT WILDERNESS’ at WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – “A Great Wilderness,” a new play by Obie Award-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter, inaugurates the 2014 season on the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, running from Wednesday, July 9, through Sunday, July 20. Walt has devoted his life to counseling teenage boys out of their homosexuality at his remote Idaho wilderness camp. Pressured to accept one last client, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel with the arrival of Daniel.
Dafnis Prieto
DAFNIS PRIETO QUARTET BRINGS AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ to PS21
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Cuban-American drummer, composer, and bandleader Dafnis Prieto and his globally inspired Si o Si Quartet will perform their singular mix of Afro-Cuban jazz at PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century on Saturday, July 12, at 8pm.
Daniel Riordan (Ulysses) and Michelle Joyner (Emma), photo by Daniel Elihu Kramer
ROMANTIC-COMEDY DUET ‘ANNAPURNA’ at CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY
(CHESTER, Mass.) – Annapurna, an intimate, two-character play by hot young playwright Sharr White, begins its run at Chester Theatre Company on Thursday, July 10, concluding on Sunday, July 20, at the Chester Town Hall. The comic duet finds a couple reunited after twenty years of separation; their reunion, alternately comic and conflicted, is full of razor sharp wit and brutal honesty. To their surprise, the more they understand what drove them apart, the more they are drawn together.
KT Sullivan (photo Stacy Sullivan)
CABARET STAR KT SULLIVAN SINGS at BARRINGTON STAGE
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – KT Sullivan, one of the premier cabaret artists of our time, performs a two-night stand of Broadway and popular classics at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret at on Saturday and Sunday, July 12-13. Sullivan’s Colored Lights program is a memoir-in-music of how Kathleen Sullivan, from Boggy Depot, Okla., went from performing with her family gospel choir to the top cabaret rooms in world capitals.
Andris Nelsons
ANDRIS NELSONS MAKES TANGLEWOOD DEBUT as BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR with DVORAK, ‘BOLERO’
(LENOX, Mass.) – This coming weekend marks conductor Andris Nelsons’s first Tanglewood appearance since taking on the role of Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate (Nelsons officially begins his tenure as BSO Music Director with the BSO’s 2014-15 season, which opens on September 27), conducting the orchestra in an all-Dvorak program on Friday, July 11, with special guest violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and leading the BSO and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra on Saturday, July 12, in works by Strauss, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel. Also this weekend, the Boston Pops Orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart make their 2014 Tanglewood debut in an afternoon performance on Sunday, July 13, at 2:30 p.m., with special guest Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame.
Chris Stack and Birgit Huppuch in ‘Love in the Wars’ (photo Julieta Cervantes)
WORLD PREMIERE of ‘LOVE IN THE WARS’ – NEW KLEIST ADAPTATION by JOHN BANVILLE – at BARD SUMMERSCAPE
(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – Love in the Wars, a theatrical adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s romantic drama Penthesilea by Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville, receives its world premiere at Bard SummerScape 2014 in two previews and eight performances between Thursday, July 10, and Sunday, July 20, in Theater Two of the Fisher Center at Bard College.
Jasper String Quartet (photo Vanessa Briceno-Scherzer)
JASPER QUARTET to PLAY WORKS by HAYDN, DVORAK, SHOSTAKOVICH at TANNERY POND
(NEW LEBANON, N.Y.) – The Philadelphia-based Jasper String Quartetwill perform works by Haydn, Dvorak, and Shostakovich in the series of Concerts at Tannery Pond at the Darrow School on Saturday, July 12, at 8pm. The Jasper will play the Haydn Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3, Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73 and Dvo?ák’s String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106.
LONE BELLOW BRINGS AMERICANA-SOUL to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Brooklyn-based folk-rock trio The Lone Bellow, whose name is often uttered in the same sentence as Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers, brings its self-described “country soul” to Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday, July 13, at 8pm. The New York Times called the group’s performances “visceral” and “gut-wrenching.” Known for combining bluegrass-style three-way harmonies with rock dynamics, the Lone Bellow was called “one of the next big things” by Billboard magazine.
Scene from Faye Driscoll’s ‘Thank You For Coming’ (photo Maria Baranova)
FESTIVAL of EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ARTS and FILM at SIMON’S ROCK
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Dancer/choreographer Faye Driscoll kicks off the Mass Live Arts festival at Simon’s Rock College with her newest dance piece, Thank You for Coming: Attendance, running Thursday-Saturday, July 10-12. Mass Live Arts is a summer festival of contemporary and experimental performing arts running now through July 26. This year’s festival presents three New England premieres of critically acclaimed, new and remounted works, including Driscoll’s dance, theater artists Sibyl Kempson and Mike Iveson Jr, along with two media-based performances by director Phil Soltanoff.
CAPITOL STEPS RETURNS to CRANWELL for 2014 SUMMER SEASON
(LENOX, Mass.) – The award-winning musical satire group Capitol Steps is back in residence at Cranwell Resort now through Sunday, August 31, with nightly shows at 8pm except Tuesdays. The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. They’ve also been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and can be heard 4 times a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during their “Politics Takes a Holiday” radio specials.
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Wintergreen
SUMMER MUSIC SERIES at FIELD FARM, NAUMKEAG, ASHINTULLY
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Unconventional music in unconventional venues could be the theme of a series of concerts planned for three indoor and outdoor sites owned by The Trustees of Reservations, beginning this Sunday, July 13, at 4:30pm at Field Farm with a performance by Wintergreen, a Lanesborough-based folk trio. The gardens and ruins of Ashintully, set in the countryside town of Tyringham in the southern Berkshires, will also play host to two intimate concerts in the famed music studio of composer John McLennan, whose grand piano graces the space, while at Naumkeag in Stockbridge, jazz lovers can bask in the early evening rays during the Naumkeag at Night series, which blends pastel Berkshire sunsets and Gilded Age-style with weekly jazz concerts, drinks and guest lectures on Thursdays in July and August from 5 to 8pm.
The Pistolwhips
CHESTERWOOD LAUNCHES FRIDAY NIGHT AMERICANA MUSIC SERIES
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – Bluegrass outfit the Picky Bastards and singer-songwriter Mikey Sweet will kick off Chesterfest, a new Friday night Americana music series at Chesterwood, on Friday, July 11, at 6:30 p.m. The summer-long series will include a wide range of contemporary American musicians, from folk, alt-country and rockabilly to garage, punk and psych-folk bands.
13 Strings and a Two Dollar Bill (photo Peter Earl McCollough)
OLD TIME ROOTS MUSIC FESTIVAL at HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Fiddles, banjos, acoustic guitars, mandolins, kazoos, and hand percussion will abound when Club Helsinki Hudson features a mini-festival of old-time American roots music featuring a triple-bill of 13 Strings and a Two Dollar Bill, Intuitive Compass, and the Lost Dog Street Band, on Friday, July 11, at 9pm. Among the three groups, attendees are likely to hear a variety of early 20th century sounds and styles, including ragtime, jug band, hot jazz, old-timey, high lonesome, cowboy songs, and country blues.
The Klezmatics
Klezmatics and KCB Headline International Festival of Yiddish Music and Dance at Yiddish Book Center
(AMHERST, Mass.) – The Klezmatics and the Klezmer Conservatory Band – widely considered to be the two greatest modern klezmer groups – headline Yidstock 2014: the Festival of New Yiddish Music at the Yiddish Book Center from Thursday, July 17, through Sunday, July 20, 2014. The third annual Yidstock Festival features an international cast of musicians, an expanded lineup of workshops, and a pre-Shabbat concert on Friday afternoon by the Nigunim Trio, featuring Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London of the Klezmatics.