The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include Picasso; Andy Warhol; Norman Rockwell; William Kunstler; 17th-century Dutch painting; a classical music trio playing David Bowie and Prince; and a whole lot more.
Newly commissioned works by Thea Musgrave, Tamar Muskal, and Judith Zaimont celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York state will get their world premieres at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 6pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music series, celebrating its own 25th season in the Berkshires with “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.”
On the surface, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol might seem like an odd couple from two completely different universes, but for the first time the pair will come face to face in “Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol,” opening at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge on Saturday. With 100 works of art, a selection of archival materials, and objects relating to their work and lives, the exhibition will show how both of these internationally celebrated image-makers — among America’s most important visual communicators — created enduring icons and opened new ways of seeing.
It’s always been a mystery to me why the Berkshires own Bobby Sweet is not a huge country star. His terrific new album, “All These Changes,” only deepens the mystery. The country-folk singer-songwriter celebrates the release of his new album at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Sunday at 7pm.
Novelists Emma Smith-Stevens and Jessie Chaffee and essayist Mark Allen will read from their works at Spotty Dog Books & Ale in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm, as part of Volume, the free monthly reading and music series every second Saturday of the month. The readings will be followed by book-signing and a DJ set by Holly Watson.
For the sixth year running, Basilica Hudson hosts (Freak) Flag Day, a visual and performing arts celebration and party following the city’s conventional Flag Day parade, on Saturday starting at 6pm and continuing into the night.
The internationally acclaimed Ahn Trio, known around the world for their performances of works by Ravel, Dvorak, and Shostakovich, will cross to the other side of the street to perform works by David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Pat Metheny, and others at Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday at 7pm. The three sisters of the Ahn Trio (Lucia on the piano, Angella on the violin, and Maria on the cello) were invited by President Obama to perform at the White House for a State Dinner honoring South Korea in 2011. On their latest album, “Blue,” the trio performs innovative arrangements of music from the rock canon, including “Purple Rain” by Prince and “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix.
Singers Amy Helm and Simi Stone top an all-star lineup of regional talent taking part in UNITY NOW! An All American Sock Hop, an anti-bigotry benefit concert at the Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., on Sunday at 7pm. Based around a rollicking set of extraordinary danceable 1950s hits, the event is a celebration of diversity and equality, presented by students from the Paul Green Rock Academy.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com