The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include a folk-pop singer-songwriter, an exhibition of emerging and rising artists from the area, an avatar of Americana, a concert of protest songs, a wild and wacky trombone recital, and a whole lot more.
Barrington Stage Company concludes its seventh annual 10X10 New Play Festival - featuring ten, 10-minute plays as part of the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival in downtown Pittsfield – tonight through Sunday. Directors are Julianne Boyd and Michael Penn.
"30under30:2," a multimedia exhibition featuring works by 30 young artists hailing from or currently living in or around the Berkshires, is on view now through April 20 at No. Six Depot Gallery in West Stockbridge, Mass. Artists represented include Dana Piazza, Fiona McTeigue, Wes Elliot, Erin Potter, Fiona Wood, Olivia Wade, Lee Blackmer, Sam Backhaus, and Ruslan Sprague, among nearly two dozen others. The exhibition is curated by Mika Mintz.
Singer-songwriter Emily Mure brings her original folk-pop to the Barn at the Egremont Village Inn in South Egremont, Mass., on Saturday, at 8 p.m. Mure combines nakedly transparent vocals, classical training, a diverse musical background, and a gift for vulnerable, heartfelt songwriting into a highly personal, alluring sound.
A recital of American music for trombone, featuring Ronald Barron, retired principal trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will take place at Richmond Congregational Church in Richmond, Mass., on Sunday, at 3 p.m. The concert, which will benefit the Richmond Emergency Fuel Assistance Fund, also includes pianist Larry Wallach, trumpeter Allan Dean, and organist Nancy King, performing a cross-section of American musical culture. The trombone section of the Eagles Band of Pittsfield will be featured in an arrangement Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair." The program also includes a reworking of the famous "Variations on America" by Charles Ives, with the trombone playing selected lines from the original organ composition, while the organ plays the balance of the piece. Rounding out the program are four shorter compositions: "Fireside Tango" by Steven Winteregg; "Folksong" by Bruce Broughton; "Reflective Mood" by Sammy Nestico; and "Fandango" by Joseph Turrin.
Americana singer-songwriter Shannon McNally brings her rootsy songs and soulful vocals to Club Helsinki Hudson tonight at 9. Born in New York but simultaneously roughed up and refined by New Orleans and Mississippi, McNally has cut a singular path through the musical landscape - one that includes a Grammy nomination and a place onstage with a who's who of rock, country, and soul, including Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Vince Gill, Levon Helm, Charlie Sexton, Dr. John, Bobby Rush, Luther and Cody Dickinson, and Derek Trucks, among others.
PROTEST, a program of protest songs drawn from the folk, rock, pop, and classical worlds, opens the 2018 Classics on Hudson season at Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm. Devised by Steven Blier, artistic director of New York Festival of Song, the program includes traditional Yiddish and Italian numbers as well as songs by Stevie Wonder, Fats Waller, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Leonard Bernstein, Woody Guthrie, Marc Blitzstein, and Mohammed Fairouz. The cast includes tenor Joshua Blue and soprano Shereen Pimentel of "Lion King" fame.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com