Blues guitarist and vocalist Selwyn Birchwood celebrates the release of his new album, Exorcist, at the Stationery Factory in Dalton, Mass., tonight at 7:30pm. Birchwood’s sound is a mix of deep blues; blistering, psychedelic-tinged rock; infectious funk; and sweet Southern soul. (Fri, Jul 7)
Roomful of Blues, the world-renowned, horn-powered, house-rocking blues band, will perform live at The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, in Albany, N.Y., tonight at 8pm. The Rhode Island-based group, now led by guitarist Chris Vachon, has earned five Grammy Award nominations and a slew of other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards. (Fri, Jul 7)
Queens, N.Y., native Emily Duff boasts a sound that combines the hard-edged punk-rock sounds of the New York City streets blended with Southern rock and soul, which is probably why she has recorded two of her five albums at the famed recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Duff brings her band and her rootsy blend to the Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm, as part of the academy’s Roots & Shoots concert series. (Sat, Jul 8)
Grammy Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman, pianist Timothy Long, and reciter Wheelock Whitney star in Proust & Hahn: A Love Affair, a program featuring songs by Fauré, Chausson, Poulenc, and Hahn, highlighting the love affair between poet Marcel Proust and composer Reynaldo Hahn, as part of Capital Region Classical’s next Tannery Pond concert at the Darrow School in New Lebanon, N.Y., on Saturday at 7:30pm. Karim Sulayman’s debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus, won the 2019 Best Classical Solo Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards. (Sat, Jul 8)
The Boston Symphony Orchestra officially opens its summer season at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., tonight at 8pm, when music director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in a concert featuring music by Wynton Marsalis and Tchaikovsky. In addition, the internationally acclaimed pianist Daniil Trifonov is guest soloist for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Then on Saturday at 8pm, Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops Orchestra in Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert, a semi-staged production directed by Jason Danieley, featuring a cast of Broadway talents. On Sunday at 2:30pm, the BSO presents the world premiere of Zhiân, a BSO commission by Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi, and Freedom Sings, a BSO co-commission by Jessie Montgomery, with classical singer Julia Bullock in her Tanglewood debut. Hilary Hahn joins as guest soloist for Brahms’s Violin Concerto. (Fri, Jul 7-Sun, Jul 9).
Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music kicks off next Thursday, July 13, with a concert by the Grammy Award-winning modern klezmer outfit The Klezmatics, and packs in a dozen concerts, workshops, talks, and films through the following Sunday, July 14, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. Among the many highlights of the 11th annual Yidstock festival are a concert by clarinetist/composer Sam Sadigursky, performing The Solomon Diaries, his song cycle inspired by Marisa Scheinfeld’s photographs of the crumbling, abandoned Catskills resorts, on Friday, July 14, at 2pm, as well as a Saturday night blowout by David Krakauer’s Mazel Tov Cocktail Party, a kind of global mashup featuring funk, hip-hop, Celtic and dance rhythms from around the world. Other performers include klezmer hip-hop pioneer Socalled, Yiddish vocalist Eleanor Reissa, and world-renowned klezmer clarinetist Merlin Shepherd. Full disclosure requires me to note that I am the artistic director of the Yidstock festival. (Thu, Jul 13-Sun, Jul 16)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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