Rogovoy Report For January 8, 2016

This weekend’ s cultural highlights in our region include a festival of contemporary music, an album release concert by a jazz trio, a reading by three authors, an art opening, and a nightclub show by an up-and-coming riot grrrl.

I/O Fest, the annual three-day festival of new music at Williams College, began yesterday and runs through Saturday. The contemporary music festival will feature performances exploring works by composers including Steve Reich, David Lang, Terry Riley, Coleman, Frederic Rzewski, and John Cage. The festival includes concerts, a lecture, several world premieres, performances by the I/O Ensemble and IOTA, and the featured act. New York City-based contemporary music quartet. All events are free and open to the public. Neither tickets nor reservations are required. They really want you to go, and you should.

The Michael Musillami Trio with Special Guests performs at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, tonight at 7pm. Veteran jazz guitarist and composer Michael Musillami and his flagship trio, featuring bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, will perform music from their new Playscape Recordings album, “Zephyr,” released last October 6. The trio will be augmented by pianist Peter Madsen, tenor saxophonist and 2016 Grammy nominee Jimmy Greene, alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, and soprano saxophonist, Jason Rigby.

Out of the Studio, an exhibition featuring works by eight local painters, sculptors, and burlesque dancers, opens at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield tonight, with a reception at 4pm. The reception features live music and an appearance by Gypsy Layne Cabaret & Company, Pittsfield’ s own burlesque outfit. The exhibition features works by visual and performing artists Mario Calouri, Peg Dotchin, Julio Granda, Jim Horsford, Sean McCusker, Nicole Rizzo, Michael Rousseau, and Stefanie Weber. Bully, the Nashville-based rock quartet that is the brainchild of Alicia Bognanno, is already earning comparisons to 1990s pop-punk bands like Hole, the Breeders, and Veruca Salt.

Bully brings its melodic hardcore confessionals to Club Helsinki Hudson tonight at 9pm. Bognanno is being touted as her generation’ s answer to Courtney Love and Liz Phair, and the band has already appeared on the Conan show and knocked ‘ em dead.

Authors Mimi Lipson, Andrew Amelinckx, and Samantha Hunt will read from their works at Spotty Dog Books and Ale in Hudson as part of the Volume Reading & Music Series on Saturday at 7pm.