Soyeon Kate Lee
HUSBAND-AND-WIFE PIANO DUO PERFORM HOLIDAY-THEMED RECITAL at MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Husband-and-wife piano duo Soyeon Kate Lee and Ran Dank will perform a holiday-themed concert at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, December 12, at 6pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music chamber music series. Works on the two- and four-handed program include Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” Debussy’s Preludes, Barber’s “Souvenirs,” Mozart’s Four Hand Variations in G Major K. 501, and Scriabin’s mystical Fantasy in B minor.
Gingger Shankar
MULTIMEDIA PIECE EXPLORES ROLE of WOMEN in SHANKAR INDIAN MUSIC DYNASTY
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – “Nari,” a multimedia performance piece based on the story of the women of the famed Indian musical family of Ravi Shankar, who with George Harrison of the Beatles helped bring Indian music to the West in the 1970s, will get a work-in-progress showing in the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Saturday, December 12, at 8 pm. Among the artists is musician Gingger Shankar, whose mother and grandmother, Viji and Lakshmi Shankar, collaborated with her great-uncle, Ravi Shankar.
Chief ‘liar’ Andy Christie
THE ‘LIAR SHOW’ VISITS THE MOUNT
(LENOX, Mass.) – A special holiday-themed edition of New York City-based storytelling troupe The Liar Show will hold court in the Drawing Room at The Mount on Saturday, December 12, at 7pm. Seasoned storytellers Andy Christie, Tara Clancy, Martin Dockery, and Andy Ross will share personal stories about the trials and tribulations of the holiday season. But the audience must listen closely, as only three of them will be telling the truth. After the storytelling, listeners will have a chance to interrogate the cast and expose the liar, in the hopes of winning a prize. In the words of creator and host Andy Christie, “Seek the truth, win a T-shirt.”
Elvis Perkins
ELVIS PERKINS BRINGS HIS PSYCHEDELIC FOLK HOME to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Hudson’s own psychedelic-folk singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins helps Club Helsinki Hudson celebrate its 20th anniversary with a performance on Thursday, December 10, at 8pm, just two days after completing a two-month European tour. Kinsey, featuring Perkins’s bandmate and collaborator Nick Kinsey, will warm up the crowd for Perkins, who will be bringing a new batch of songs from his recent, critically acclaimed album, “I Aubade.”
Pankaj Challa
PANKAJ CHALLA READS at THE MOUNT
(LENOX, Mass.) – Author Pankaj Challa will read from his work at The Mount on Sunday, December 13, at 3pm. Challa has been working on a novel and a collection of short stories at The Mount as this fall’s Stone Court Writer-in-Residence. Challa’s new work is based on his dissertation, called “The Happiness of Wandering Beings,” about love, livelihood and identity in the New India. Steven Barthelme, author of “Hush, Hush: Stories,” says, “Pankaj Challa’s stories have a Chekhovian simplicity; that is, a simplicity, like that of all great fiction, which grows more and more complex the more you stare at it, until you become unsure about, well, practically everything you thought you knew.”
‘Papadelic’ Everett Bradley of Holidelic
HOLIDELIC BRINGS HOLIDAY FUNK-TACULAR to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Once again the holiday-funk spectacular Holidelic – the brainchild of Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, producer, actor and dancer Everett Bradley – will usher in the holiday season at Club Helsinki Hudson, this year with a two-night stand celebrating the club’s 20th anniversary season, on Friday and Saturday, December 11 and 12, at 9pm. Part dance party, part funk concert, part comedy show, the Yuletide-themed event features original holiday songs as well as loose, funk-infused adaptations of Tchaikovsky, “Frosty the Snowman,” “Little Drummer Boy” and the like.