Violinist Joshua Bell joins the BSO for a performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, in the Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., tonight at 8pm. Colombia native Andrés Orozco-Estrada wields the baton for the concert, which also includes a rendition of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. (Fri, Aug 8)
Comedian Julio Torres brings his blend of comedy and performance art to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., tonight at 8pm. Torres’s award-winning work has taken the El Salvador native from Saturday Night Live staff writer to co-writer and showrunner of Los Espookys on HBO to writer-director of the 2023 surrealist comedy Problemista to creator and star of HBO’s Fantasmas. (Fri, Aug 8)
Funk band Galactic brings its New Orleans-style party music to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm. For over 30 years, Galactic has been a powerhouse of New Orleans music, fusing funk, jazz, rock, and soul into a sound that’s unmistakably their own. Joining Galactic is lead vocalist Jelly Joseph. (Sat, Aug 9)
The legendary Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., for the fourth year in a row, performing a selection of the company’s modern dance repertory tonight and Saturday at 8pm. The ensemble will perform Cascade (1999), a kaleidoscope of bright, golden choreography and darker, cooler undercurrents, echoed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard concerti; 3 Epitaphs (1956), danced to early New Orleans jazz; Tablet (1960), an alien duet with set and costumes designed by Columbia County’s own Ellsworth Kelly; and Ulysses Dove’s Vespers (1986).(Thu, Aug 7-Sat, Aug 9)
Meshell Ndegeocello, winner of the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, brings a musical celebration of James Baldwin to the Spiegeltent at the Fisher Center at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 6pm. Ndegeocello will be performing No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, exploring themes of race, sexuality, religion, and class. (Sat-Sun, Aug 9-10)
Also of note:
The Bard Music Festival returns with the first weekend of panels and concerts exploring the music, life, and world of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, at Bard College tonight through Sunday.
The new musical comedy Kafkaesque! gets a concert reading at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm. The musical celebrates Kafka’s body of work by layering the predicaments of most of Kafka’s stories onto one contemporary American family.
Natalia Bernal brings her quartet to the Mount in Lenox, Mass., on Sunday at 3pm. Bernal is a Latin alternative and jazz singer-songwriter and composer. The Chilean native sings in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, in a mixture of traditional Latin American songs, original compositions, pop influences, and jazz standards.
On Sunday at 4pm, violinist Elissa Lee Koljonen and pianist Natalie Zhu perform music by Brahms, Fauré, Clara Schumann, and Ravel, at Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, N.Y.
Shakespeare & Company stages August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson in Lenox, Mass., now through Sunday, August 24.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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