With so much going on culturally speaking in our region, this is my highly selective, curated snapshot of some of the most promising events happening this weekend.
Israel’s renowned Vertigo Dance Company brings its vision of sustainability to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., with “One. One & One,” featuring ten dancers on a soil-covered stage in a piece choreographed by Noa Wertheim and set to an original score for strings and vocals by Avi Belleli, tonight at 8. (July 29).
Bang on a Can’s LOUD Weekend, its annual weekend-long festival concluding its residency at MASS MoCA in North Adams, takes place today and Saturday and features dozens of performances of works by the likes of Steve Reich, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Yuka Honda, Phil Kline, and Igor Stravinsky, among many others. (July 29-30)
Grammy Award-winning opera and concert star Renée Fleming will perform an intimate recital of beloved songs and arias at the Mahaiwe’s 2022 Gala in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 8p.m. (July 30)
Taraka, former frontwoman of the underground cult duo Prince Rama, brings her fusion of outsider-psych, post-edenic grunge, kaleidoscopic punk and post-adolescent angst to the TurnPark Amphitheater in West Stockbridge, Mass., on Saturday at 8 p.m. (July 30)
The nascent Hudson Festival Orchestra makes its public debut at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7 p.m. under the direction of Gwen Gould. The program will include works by Copland and Piazzolla alongside Bangla folk music and the new “Warren Street Rag” composed by Hudson’s own resident musical visionary Tony Kieraldo, arranged for orchestra and performed by the composer. (July 30)
With the help of the BSO under the direction of Andris Nelsons, pianist Paul Lewis will tackle all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., over the course of this weekend, beginning today and running through Sunday. Each program will open with world premiere works by acclaimed women composers, Saturday night’s featuring Caroline Shaw’s Punctum. (July 29-31)
Musician and author Robert Burke Warren presents his “Real Life Revival,” a curated evening of storytelling and music described as a “Catskills-centric cross between ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ ‘The Moth,’ and ‘Mountain Stage,’” to the Orpheum Theater in Saugerties, N.Y., on Sunday at 8 p.m. (July 31)
The 7th annual Oldtone Roots Music Festival in Hillsdale, N.Y., takes place today through Sunday, featuring artists including Roochie Toochie & the Ragtime Shepherd Kings, the Deslondes, Bill & The Belles, Hubby Jenkins, the Daiquiri Queens, Big Jon Atkinson, the Tennessee Stifflegs, Hopalong Andrew, Slinky Armadillo and many more. (July 29-31)
The 34th annual Falcon Ridge Folk Festival takes place today through Sunday at the Goshen Fairgrounds in Goshen, Conn., featuring two dozen performers including the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Nerissa & Katryna Nields, Dar Williams and Mary Gauthier among others. (July 29-31)
Legendary jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, with pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi, brings its delicate, Zen-like sounds to the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Sunday at 7 p.m. (July 31)
Bard SummerScape continues its program of reviving important but neglected operas with “The Silent Woman” by Richard Strauss. Director Christian Räth’s colorful, fast-paced new staging continues its run at Bard’s Fisher Center today and Sunday. The opera, described as “an intricately plotted screwball comedy,” represents the first and only fruit of the composer’s collaboration with celebrated Austrian-Jewish novelist Stefan Zweig. (July 29 and 31)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com.
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