The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include jazz, chamber music, orchestral music, folk, blues … plus a whole lot more.
The Prism Quartet brings its bold and brassy saxophone-based sound to TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Mass., on Saturday at 5pm, performing its popular program, Hit Parade, featuring a cross-section of traditional and contemporary music, in a concert presented by the Close Encounters with Music chamber series. The program includes adaptations of works by Schumann, Bach, Scarlatti, George Gershwin, and others.
Paul Huang and Helen Huang team up for a duo concert in the Tannery Pond Concert series taking place at St. James Church in Chatham, N.Y., on Saturday at 6pm. The program features works by Mendelsohn, John Corigliano, and Cesar Franck.
Jeewon Park and Edward Arron perform works by Samuel Barber, Amy Beach, Franz Schubert, and Beethoven, with narrator Ben Luxon, at New Marlborough Meeting House on Saturday at 4:30pm.
At the Mount in Lenox, Mass., author Molly Rideout – who is this year’s Writer-in-Residence at Edith Wharton’s one-time home – will be joined by the ever-popular Matt Tannenbaum, proprieter of Lenox’s beloved bookshop called, simply, The Bookstore, for a conversation in which they discuss Rideout’s public writing installations at The Bookstore and The Mount.
The Misty Blues Band performs at HiLo in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. Led by vocalist Gina Coleman, Misty Blues pays homage to the blues made popular in the early 20th century by the bold and brassy women of its time, as well as that of the classic bluesmen of the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.
Hudson Hall kicks off its fall concert series on Saturday at 7pm with a performance by the Brandee Younger Trio, as part of the venue’s A Love Supreme: Celebrating the Legacy of Alice & John Coltrane concert series. Harpist Brandee Younger infuses her music with jazz, soul, and classical influences, digging deep into the harp tradition pioneered by Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby.
The Orchestra Now continues its fall concert season at the Fisher Center at Bard College this weekend with a Brahms-centered program conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Concerts take place on Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2 and include works by Brahms, Cindy McTee, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in a new arrangement by Slatkin.
Folk music fans will flock to Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife sanctuary in Easthampton, Mass., on Sunday for the Arcadia Folk Festival, featuring a powerful lineup of folk music talent headlined by Suzanne Vega, Lori McKenna, and Chris Smither. Performances take place on two stages and begin at 10:20 in the morning and conclude with Suzanne Vega’s set starting at 5:15.
Swiss clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg, American violinist Stephanie Zyzak, Korean American violist Halam Kim, and pianist Sophia Zhou join forces under the auspices of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Sunday at 4. The musical menu features dance-oriented music including ancient Chinese dances by living composer Yi Chen; Mozart's Kegelstatt trio for piano, viola, and clarinet in the Viennese tradition; John Corigliano’s Irish-tap-dance-inspired violin solo; and Paul Schoenfeld's klezmer-influenced trio for clarinet, violin, and piano.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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