Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown says he will play every song he has ever written in chronological order at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., tonight at 8pm. Brown’s musicals include Mr. Saturday Night, Parade, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, and The Last Five Years. He will be accompanied by his “excellent pal” and local hero Todd Reynolds on violin and electronics. (Fri, Sep 1)
Soprano Whitney Morrison stars in the Berkshire Opera Festival’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., tonight at 7:30pm. The opera will be sung in Italian with projected English translations. The opera festival promises “an exciting, new adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s timeless love story from 1896.” (Fri, Sept 1)
Texas guitar-slinger, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Wonderland, who three years as lead guitarist in blues legend John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, will give a free performance at Riverfront Park in Athens, N.Y., on tonight at 7pm. Wonderland’s latest release, Tempting Fate, was produced by famed roots musician Dave Alvin and features Wonderland's signature, blistering six-string and lap steel playing, her soulful vocals and her original songs melding blues, rock and Americana. (Fri, Sep 1)
Trombone Shorty brings his band, Orleans Avenue, and his eclectic style of groove-based music to the Egg in Albany, N.Y., on tonight at 8pm. The multi-instrumentalist has worked with some of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip hop, including Bo Diddley, Lenny Kravitz, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Foo Fighters, Zac Brown, and Ringo Starr. (Fri, Sep 1)Husband-and-wife folk duo Robin and Linda Williams bring their considerable catalog of songs that have been recorded by the likes of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, Mary Black, the Seldom Scene, and Emmylou Harris to the Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, on tonight at 8pm. Perhaps best known for their hundreds of performances on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, the two have been performing together since 1973. (Fri, Sep 1)
The Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark in Williamstown, Mass., on Saturday at 4pm, with works by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg paired with traditional Nordic folk songs, inspired by the Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth exhibition currently on display. The program also features an original composition by Knights artistic director Colin Jacobsen and a newly imagined orchestration of a classical staple, Antonín Dvořák’s “Toward America” quartet for strings. (Sat, Sep 2)
Canadian indie pop band Alvvays brings its dreamy, sophisticated sound to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. The group’s ethereal vocals float above jangle-pop guitars, woozy keyboards, and propulsive rhythms. (Sat, Sep 2)
Grammy Award-winning pianist Bill Charlap brings his jazz trio to Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm. Joining Charlap are bassist Peter Washington and the (unrelated) drummer Kenny Washington. Then on Sunday at 4pm, the Ames Piano Quartet performs works by Schumann, Brahms, and Ulster County resident George Tsontakis, the distinguished Bard College composer-in-residence, who has received multiple Grammy nominations, was honored with the “Academy Award” in 1995 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a recipient of the Ives Living Fellowship in 2007. (Sat-Sun, Sept 2-3) Twelve-time Grammy Award-winner John Legend performs a rare solo concert featuring intimate reimaginings of his greatest hits, including “All of Me,” “Ordinary People,” and “Tonight,” at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on Sunday at 7pm. The soul-pop singer-songwriter will share stories and songs from throughout his career. (Sun, Sep 3)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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