Eugene Drucker, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, will be joined by pianist Gili Melamed-Lev and cellist Roberta Cooper for a chamber program entitled “From Mozart to Piazzolla: A Panorama of Musical Expression,” at the Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Saturday at 4:30pm. The award-winning, internationally renowned electroacoustic duo Arkai -- featuring violinist Jonathan Miron and cellist Philip Sheegog -- performs on Saturday, September 21, at 4:30pm. (Sat, Sep 14; Sat, Sep 21)
Composer, saxophonist and singer Stephanie Chou brings her 80-minute concert piece/chamber opera Comfort Girl to the Adams Theater in Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 7:30pm. The work, performed by a chamber ensemble, is inspired by true stories of Asian women abducted into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during World War II. Chou’s signature style blends influences from her Chinese heritage with Western jazz and pop to create a bracingly original sound. (Sat, Sep 14)
Ensemble Chamarré will perform Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at West Stockbridge Congregational Church in West Stockbridge, Mass., on Saturday at 7pm. The piece was composed during an excruciatingly difficult time while Messiaen was captured and held in a German POW camp during World War II. The Quartet for the End of Time draws its inspiration from the Book of Revelation, birdsong, and the colors of the northern lights. (Sat, Sep 14)
Jeffrey Lependorf’s American Terror: An Opera will receive a work-in-progress performance and discussion at Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 5pm. American Terror transforms the 1969 “Firing Line” debate between host William F. Buckley, Jr. and guest Noam Chomsky on America’s involvement in the Vietnam war into a chamber opera. Excerpts from the opera will be performed by tenor Jonathan Lawlor and soprano Sarah Nalty. Lependorf's chamber opera appropriates and reconfigures music by Haydn and Scriabin. (Sat, Sep 14)
The Orchestra Now kicks off its 10th anniversary season in a concert featuring works by Mahler, Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss at the Bard Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm, and again on Sunday at 2pm. Featured vocalist is soprano Jana McIntyre. The concert begins with Gustav Mahler’s mystical Fourth Symphony, features Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and also includes Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra. (Sat, Sep 14; Sun, Sep 15)
Also of note:
Author Francine Prose will read from her latest memoir, 1974: A Personal History, and discuss her work at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm.
The Ani Kalayjian Trio will perform works by Beethoven and others at Saugerties United Methodist Church in Saugerties, N.Y., on Sunday at 3pm, as part of the free Saugerties Pro Musica series.
Blonde Redhead, Fruit Bats, Slaughter Beach, Dog, Deer Tick, Laura Stevenson, Daddy Long Legs, and Joan Shelley headline the second annual, three-day Meadowlark Festival of indie, roots, and countercultural music that benefits farmers in the Hudson Valley and nationwide at Stone Ridge Orchards in Stone Ridge, N.Y., today through Sunday.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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