Bang on a Can co-founders David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe (photo Peter Serling)
BANG ON A CAN FESTIVAL BRINGS NEW MUSIC to MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – The 12th Annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a utopian residency program dedicated entirely to the creation, study, and performance of the most adventurous music of our time, takes place now through Saturday, August 3, 2013. Featured concerts include the Bang on a Can All-Stars and special guests performing Julia Wolfe’s mesmerizing, evening-length art ballad Steel Hammer on Saturday, July 27, at 8pm; the Composer Premiere Concert on Monday, July 29 at 4:30pm, showcasing brand new works written by the Summer Festival composition fellows; and the 12th annual Bang on a Can Summer Marathon, featuring more than fifty musicians and composers in six hours of non-stop, boundary smashing music, including compositions by Aphex Twin, David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe, closing the festival on Saturday, August 3, from 4 to 10pm.
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Sharon Eyal and Hen Yanni
NEW ISRAELI DANCE COMPANY MAKES U.S. DEBUT at JACOB’S PILLOW
(BECKET, Mass.) – L-E-V, the contemporary dance company founded by Israel-based co-creators and artistic directors Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, will make its U.S. debut in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival from Wednesday, July 24, to Sunday, July 28, 2013. The company performs the U.S. premiere of HOUSE, a hypnotic evening-length work originally commissioned by the Batsheva Dance Company. With a score by the popular composer Ori Lichtik and lighting by acclaimed designer Bambi, the exquisite dancers of L-E-V, including Sharon Eyal herself, perform this compelling and mesmerizing work.
MIRO QUARTET to PLAY SCHUBERT, PUCCINI AND BEETHOVEN at TANNERY POND
(NEW LEBANON, N.Y.) – The Miró Quartet make its Tannery Pond Concerts debut on Saturday, July 27, 2013, at 8pm, when they will perform music by Schubert, Puccini and Beethoven. Founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Miro is considered to be one of America’s most distinguished chamber music groups. The quartet is comprised of Daniel Ching, first violinist; William Fedkenheuer, second violinist; John Largess, violist; and Joshua Gindele, cellist.
ONE-WOMAN PHYSICAL COMEDY SHOW EXPLORES ‘DAY IN LIFE’ of HILARY CHAPLAIN
(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Latter-day vaudevillian Hilary Chaplain brings her award-winning solo show, “A Life In Her Day,” to PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century on Saturday, July 27, 2013, at 8pm, as part of PS21’s comedy-themed program of theater, music, film and dance. Regarded as one of America’s foremost physical comediennes, this quirky actress creates a lifetime in a day as she chases the elusive promises of happily ever after.
BASEBALL MUSICAL EXPLORES CURSE of BAMBINO at WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Johnny Baseball, a quintessentially American musical that unearths the source of the Curse of the Red Sox and the secret to its triumphant end off Big Papi’s bat in 2004, will be presented on the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival from Wednesday, July 24, 2013, through Saturday, August 3. Packed with resonant social history, Johnny Baseball features a book by Richard Dresser (Rounding Third) with music and lyrics by brothers Robert and Willie Reale (WTF’s Quark Victory), who both received Tony Award nominations for their collaboration on the musical A Year with Frog and Toad.
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER and MARC COHN JOIN FORCES for MAHAIWE CONCERT
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Acclaimed singer-songwriters Mary Chapin Carpenter and Marc Cohn will team up for a joint concert featuring their own songs plus personal favorites by other artists when they share the stage at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Thursday, July 25, 2013, at 8pm.
BARD SUMMERSCAPE PRESENTS AMERICA’S FIRST FULL STAGING of TANEYEV’S ‘ORESTEIA’
(ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.) – The production of Oresteia, composed by Igor Stravinsky’s compatriot Sergey Taneyev, at the Bard SummerScape festival, from July 26, 2013, through August 4, marks the first time this towering work will have been staged in its entirety outside Russia. Boasting a predominantly Russian cast, Bard’s new and original production comes courtesy of visionary director Thaddeus Strassberger, winner of the European Opera Directing Prize (2005) and creator of SummerScape’s previous hit treatments of Les Huguenots, The Distant Sound, and The King in Spite of Himself.
Phil Woods and Greg Caputo
PHIL WOODS, FREDDIE BRYANT, GREG CAPUTO HEADLINE JAZZ WEEKEND
(LEE, Mass.) – Freddie Bryant & Kaleidoscope and the Greg Caputo Big Band with special guest Phil Woods headline the weekend-long Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend, in downtown Lee, from Friday, July 25, through Sunday, July 28, 2013. The festival, which includes jazz films, a jazz brunch, an art exhibit, and performances by local jazz musicians, is a co-presentation of Berkshires Jazz, Inc. and Berkshire Gateway Preservation, Inc.