This week’s cultural highlights in our region include classical, avant-garde, folk-rock, contemporary art, and a whole lot more…..

 

 

 

Tanglewood Recitalists Stream Music by Beethoven, Debussy, Duke Ellington, David Lang

(LENOX, Mass.) – Members of the BSO will perform a diverse array of horn-heavy works ranging from Bach to Beethoven, Debussy, and Duke Ellington on Friday, August 14, at 8pm, in an online concert in the BSO Musicians in Recital from Tanglewood series. Performers include trombonist Toby Oft, bass trombonist James Markey, violinist Alexander Velinson, trombonist Stephen Lange, and Mike Roylance on tuba.

Pianist Conrad Tao will be featured in an online recital featuring music by Beethoven, Ruth Crawford Seeger, David Lang, the pianist himself, and Brazilian composer Felipe Lara’s Injust Intonations, a response to the Black Lives Matter movement commissioned by Tao, on Saturday, August 15, at 8pm, as part of the Great Performers in Recital series.

 

 

 

 

Johnny Irion Brings Folk-Rock to Hancock Shaker Village

(HANCOCK, Mass.) – Folk-rocker Johnny Irion and friends will perform an intimate concert at Hancock Shaker Village on Friday, August 14 at 7:30 pm, as part of the Back Porch series.

The show will include the debut of the “Inside the Endless Om” video on a large screen, followed by a short discussion with filmmaker Justin Allen and actor Ken Cheeseman (Shutter Island, Mystic River) on making art during a pandemic. Band members Don McAulay (drums) and Jacob Roach (bass) will accompany Irion.

 

 

 

 

 

Conor Hanick to Play Russian Piano Sonatas at PS21

(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Pianist Conor Hanick will tackle 20^th century Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonatas No. 4, 5, and 6 live at PS21 on Saturday, August 15, as part of PS21’s Modern Music Fest.

Seating in PS21’s 350-seat outdoor Pavilion Theater will be distanced and limited to 50. Each concert will run approximately one hour. The concert will be livestreamed free of charge:

Conor Hanick is a concert pianist living in Brooklyn. He performs music new and old, on his own, and with others. Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master.” (New York Times)

 

 

 

 

Billy Keane Brings Folk-Rock to BTG

(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – Folk-rocker Billy Keane – a member of popular Berkshire rock band Whiskey Treaty Roadshow — brings his folk-rock solo act, “Alone But Together,” to the Unicorn Theatre Patio on the Stockbridge campus of Berkshire Theatre Group on Saturday, August 15, at 7pm, as part of Bobbie’s Summer Series.

Keane, called “defiant and driven” by Rolling Stone magazine, will perform old favorites and dreamy new songs, including “Never Give Up,” a rock ballad of hope and community. A singer-songwriter hailing from Pittsfield, Mass., Keane was discovered by James Taylor. With a gritty emotional tenor, he sings about freedom, love, peace, and solidarity. The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow’s protest song about the Dakota Access Pipeline, “Don’t Cross My Land,” was named by Rolling Stone one of the 10 Best Country/Americana Songs to Hear Now in 2019. Keane’s “Close to the Edge” was called “sidewalk poetry [that] ties simplicity into nuance and insulates with hope” by roots music magazine No Depression.

 

 

 

 

‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’ to Be Screened with Live Band Soundtrack at MASS MoCA

(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – The Adventures of Prince Achmed – the oldest surviving animated feature film – will be screened before a live audience in Courtyard D at MASS MoCA on Saturday, August 15, at 8:30pm. A live, horn-heavy band, featuring Sam Bardfeld (Bruce Springsteen) on violin and Steven Bernstein (Sexmob) on slide trumpet, will perform vibraphonist and composer Bill Ware’s North African- and Middle Eastern-inflected score to this beautiful 1926 silent film by pioneering silhouette animation filmmaker Charlotte Reiniger, based on “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.”

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The silent movie used a silhouette animation technique Reiniger invented, which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique Reiniger used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though Reiniger’s were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action.

 

 

 

‘Pattern Play’ Group Show Opens at Carrie Haddad Gallery

(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Pattern Play, a group exhibit featuring new works by Donise English, Bruce Murphy, Vincent Pomilio, Susan Stover, and Stephen Walling, is on view at Carrie Haddad Gallery from Wednesday, August 12, through October 11. This exhibit examines a range of gestural and graphic pattern variations in abstract painting and sculpture.

 

Opening receptions are canceled until further notice. Masks are required to visit the gallery and visitors are requested to maintain a social distance of at least 6 ft. from others.