The cultural highlights in our region this weekend include all varieties of chamber music, rock, jazz, pop, folk … plus a whole lot more.
Belgian-born cellist, singer, composer Helen Gillet has been described as a "whirling dervish of the cello." Gillet brings her diverse, eclectic sounds to the Foundry in West Stockbridge, Mass. on Saturday at 7:30. Gillet calls herself a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds, texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. Her music ranges from French chanson of the 1940s, to Belgian folk tunes sung in Walloon, to a mix of rock and punk from the likes of PJ Harvey and X-Ray Spex, plus her own, compelling compositions. (March 5)
Then on Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Foundry, Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik and pianist Max Levinson will play works by Brahms, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and others, in celebration of Yevgeny’s newly released album of the music of Prokofiev and other Russian folk songs, “The Death of Juliet and Other Tales.” (March 6)
Organist Renee Anne Louprette -- hailed by The New York Times as “splendid” and “one of New York’s finest organists” -- performs works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, and Robert and Clara Schumann, on the historic Johnson Organ at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, in Housatonic, Mass., on Saturday at 2 p.m., in a Berkshire Bach program called “The Organ Masters.” Musicologist George Stauffer will be on hand to offer play-by-play commentary. (March 5)
American trombonist Ryan Keberle and French pianist Frank West explore how jazz and classical have influenced each other over the last 120 years at Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall at Williams College on Saturday at 7:30, when the two perform as Reverso. The duo is heavily influenced by composers including Maurice Ravel and Darius Milhaud. (March 5)
Seamus Egan, one of the top names in traditional Irish music, brings his suitcase of instruments, including the Irish flute, tenor banjo, guitar, mandolin, tin whistle, and low whistle, plus his band, to WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio The Linda in Albany tonight at 8. (March 4)
Long Island hard-rockers Blue Öyster Cult bring their 50th anniversary tour and classic hits including “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and “Burnin’ For You” to the Egg in Albany tonight (March 4) at 8. Then on Saturday night at 8 (March 5), folksinger Aoife O’Donovan quiets things down at the Egg when she performs music from her new album, “Age of Apathy,” followed on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. when the Cowboy Junkies ride back into town to perform songs off their brand-new album, “Songs of the Recollection,” a covers album featuring numbers by David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, Gordon Lightfoot and others. (March 6)
The Hudson Valley Philharmonic presents “Underground Figures,” a program celebrating Harriet Tubman, with guest conductor Dr. Anne Lundy, with works featuring all-female composers and soloists, at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on Saturday at 8. Works to be performed include Florence Price’s Symphony No.1 in E Minor; Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields; and Nkeiru Okoye’s Songs of Harriet Tubman, four arias performed by soprano Kishna Fowler. (March 5)
And over at UPAC in Kingston, N.Y., on Sunday at 7, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, still going strong after 60 years – not unlike myself – will draw from their catalog of pop hits including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” (March 6)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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