The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include chamber music, folk music, old-timey music, jazz, dance … plus a whole lot more.
Dewey Hall’s TapRoot Sessions Outdoors Concert Series, which features a variety of traditional styles, continues tonight in Sheffield, Mass., with The Bad Penny Pleasuremakers. The husband-and-wife team of Matt Bell and Joy Patterson from New Orleans perform music from Tin Pan Alley, the Roaring 20s, and the early Swing Era. Patterson handles her share of the lead vocals, plays horn-like solos on the kazookaphone – a kind of bugle-shaped kazoo with plunger mute -- and keeps the rhythms jumping on washboard and a table full of small percussion
and sound effects, while Matt Bell plays guitar, Hawaiian guitar, and sings.
This Sunday, the Close Encounters with Music series presents back-to-back chamber concerts at 4 and 6pm at the Mount in Lenox. Featuring soprano Sonja Tengblad, contralto Emily Marvosh, and pianist Joseph Turbessi, the program includes songs of nature, summer, flowers, and weather by composers including Schumann, Handel, Vaughan Williams, Cole Porter, Aaron Copland, and Tom Lehrer. Visit cewm.org for more details.
Eavesdrop entertains the crowd tonight at 8pm, live at the Egremont Barn in South Egremont, Mass. Originating as an acoustic trio, Kara Wolf, Laura Buchanan and Kerrie Bowden maintain their vocal roots and continue to shape their sound through collaborative songwriting. Imagine an organic vocal blend of intricate harmonies, contagious melodies, and moving rhythms.
Exquisite Ella, starring legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, was filmed at Boston’s Symphony Hall in July 1976 as part of WGBH’s Evening at Pops series. Now streaming at bso.org, the concert features Ella Fitzgerald performing songs by Gershwin, Porter, and Ellington, accompanied by conductor Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
The inaugural Kaatsbaan Spring Festival kicks off this weekend at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, N.Y., with a dynamic program of leading artists from the worlds of dance, music, poetry, sculpture, and the culinary arts. Taking place this weekend and next, the festival will feature 16 presentations on two outdoor stages, including performances by American Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dorrance Dance, legendary rock poet and author Patti Smith, and indie-rock avatars Yo La Tengo. Visit kaatsbaan.org for more details.
A dozen regional musicians will take part in Holocaust Survivors: A Concert of Resilience and Hope, which will be livestreamed from the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock, N.Y., on Sunday at 4pm. Performers include Elizabeth Clark, Michael Veitch, Jen Clapp, Vicki Russell, Bonnie Meadow, Elise Pittelman, and Judy Kass. Musical director is Julie Last, and Lori Wilner will host the event. Visit bearsvilletheater.com to register for the free livestream.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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