The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include chamber music, orchestral music, jazz, swing, folk … plus a whole lot more.
On Sunday at 7pm, Chris Smither, Samirah Evans, Peter Mulvey, John Medeski and many others will take part in a streaming benefit concert called Berkshire Sounds: A Bash to Bring Back Music to Western Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley. Hosted by the Signature Sounds record label, the show will feature an eclectic mix of musicians from across western Massachusetts and New York’s Hudson Valley. All proceeds will go to the New England Musicians Relief Fund (NEMRF), an organization that provides grants to working musicians facing financial difficulties. In addition to the aforementioned, artists performing include Aston Magna, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians Rebecca Gitter and Julianne Lee, Pamela Means, Robin O’Herin, Ruby Mack, Todd Reynolds, and Adam Rothberg. The show will also feature special messages from Arlo Guthrie and Tanglewood Festival Chorus conductor James Burton. Berkshire Sounds will stream Sunday, \ at 7 at signaturesounds.com/homesessions
Spencertown Academy’s Roots & Shoots Streams continues on Saturday at 7:30pm with The Lucky 5, performing live on the Spencertown stage, coming to you via the miracle of YouTube. The Lucky 5 is a hard-swinging jazz band that blends swing and gypsy jazz to create a unique, foot-stomping blend of music. The Lucky 5 features Kip Beacco on guitar and vocals, Jonathan Talbot on violin and vocals, Carolyn Dufraine on vocals and trombone, Matt Downing on bass and vocals, and Tom Parker on drums. Band members have variously worked with The Hunger Mountain Boys, Lauren Ambrose & The Leisure Class, Neko Case, Iris Dement, Bobby Previte, Del McCoury, and Jim Lauderdale. Visit www.spencertownacademy.org for more details.
Saugerties Pro Musica’s 25th season continues with a string trio concert featuring the Adaskin String Trio on Sunday at 3 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. at Saugertieslighthousetv.com. The trio will perform Beethoven's String Trio Opus 9, No 1 in G major, as well as string trios by Lenox Berkeley and Alexis Roland, and the Intermezzo by Zoltan Kodaly.
Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Leslie Mendelson brings her soulful, sultry brand of original folk poetry to the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Saturday at 7pm. Think Carole King crossed with Norah Jones, but also realize that artists as various as Jackson Browne, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, and the Who have all sought out Leslie for her soft, jazzy vocals.
This week’s BSO Now Online Pathways of Romanticism virtual performance features BSO music director Andris Nelsons conducting the BSO in Brahms’s Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120; plus a chamber music performance featuring Marti Epstein’s Komorebi, with BSO musicians John Ferrillo on oboe; William R. Hudgins on clarinet; and Elita Kang on violin. The program will remain available online through May 15 at www.bso.org/now
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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