The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include new music, avant-garde music, folk music, classical, jazz, dance…plus a whole lot more.What used to be known as Bang on a Can’s Summer Marathon, or unofficially as Banglewood, has been rebranded as the LOUD Festival and takes place today and tomorrow at MASS MoCA in North Adams. This year’s festival of non-stop new music – not necessarily loud in volume but undoubtedly forceful in impact – includes special guests the Kronos Quartet as well as the Bang on a Can Allstars and the Bang on a Can summer fellows performing an eclectic mix of minimal, experimental and electronic music, featuring world premieres by new-music avatars Frederic Rzewski and Terry Riley. The marathon kicks off today at 3:30 p.m., runs late into the night, and picks up again on Saturday morning beginning at 10:30 and running through about 11 Saturday night.
One of the most exciting events on the Berkshire’s summer theater calendar is the East Coast premiere of David Mamet's new play, The Christopher Boy's Communion, staged by Great Barrington Public Theater starting tonight and running through Sunday, August 8, at the Daniel Arts Center at Simon’s Rock College. The “Christopher Boy’s Communion” is said to address today’s questions about deep-rooted hatreds, the fault-lines in our justice systems, the abusive power of wealth, and the place and price of a human soul. Nothing more and nothing less from one of the leading playwrights of our time – and my personal favorite.
Also Treat Williams plays Ulysses S. Grant in a one-man show he wrote next Monday and Tuesday and Leigh Strimbeck portrays Isabella Stewart Gardner in her one-woman show, The Queen of Fenway Court, on Wednesday , all taking place at Simon’s Rock College at 7:30 p.m.
Singer-songwriter Susan Werner kicks off “Bobbie’s Summer Series” outside on the great lawn at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge tonight at 7 p.m. While primarily a folk singer-songwriter who you will often find at folk festivals, Werner has always brought an inordinate level of musicality to her songs, stretching far behind the conventions of folk-rock to embrace Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, gospel, country, and chamber music. Hence, her songs have been recorded by the likes of Tom Jones, Michael Feinstein, Betty Buckley and Christine Ebersole.
Bernice Lewis, Cliff Eberhardt, and Cosy Sheridan headline the 18th Annual Folk Festival in Dalton, Mass., on Sunday taking place from noon to 7 p.m. at the Dalton Community Recreation Center. The festival culminates with a 4 p.m. concert featuring the headliners.
The Harlow Chamber Players and Emily Braden are at the Foundry in West Stockbridge this weekend. The Harlow ensemble is spearheaded by Berkshire native Hannah Lynn Cohen on violin, and perform tonight at 7. On Saturday at 7 p.m., Emily Braden performs her jazzy, bluesy repertoire of standards.
Jacob’s Pillow presents the world premiere of a new work by legendary club dancer Archie Burnett entitled “Life Encounters” today through Sunday. “Life Encounters” explores New York City Club Dance styles, drawing on a cast of illustrious dancers including Ephrat Asherie.
At Tanglewood tonight, a couple of players named Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma collaborate with Leonidas Kavakos in an all-Beethoven chamber music program featuring the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor and a piano trio version of the Symphony No. 2.
And BSO cellist Ronald Feldman and violinists Victoria Wolf Lewis and Noah Krauss perform Haydn’s String Duo in D major and works by others on Saturday at 5 p.m., under a tent in the Studio Garden at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Mass.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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