The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include chamber music, folk, blues, a virtual film festival … plus a whole lot more.
On Saturday at 5 p.m., Clarion Concerts presents flutist Anthony Trionfo and pianist Albert Cano Smit in a concert featuring works by Bartók, Gaubert, Doppler, Schulhoff and others. The virtual event also features guest artist Eugenia Zukerman on flute. Information on how to stream the concert, which will be available online for the next six months, is available at clarionconcerts.org.
Spencertown Academy Roots & Shoots Streams presents a virtual folk concert by Taylor Ashton and special guests on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Ashton, a Canadian singer-songwriter living in Brooklyn, says he draws inspiration for songs from the primeval crookedness of traditional old-time music, the humor and heartbreak of Randy Newman, the cosmic emotionality of mid-career Joni Mitchell, and the sage vulnerability of Bill Withers. But what really caught my eye was the claim that Ashton is influenced by the ways that traditional folk, pop, and R&B can live together on the clawhammer banjo. Which reminds me of a joke, but I’ve been instructed not to tell any banjo jokes, at least not here.
Images Cinema in Williamstown, Mass., presents its annual Fresh Fest: A Food and Farming Film Festival, today through Thursday, May 13. Fresh Fest explores the ways farming and food culture impact our lives and makes links to local farmers and food producers. This year’s film fest will be virtual, and all films are free to view and will be available for the full week. The festival includes the World Premiere of “Finding Hope in Farmland,” a short film by Williamstown-based filmmaking team of Dave Simonds and Sarah Gardner, about a Somali Bantu community starting a farm in upstate New York. The festival also includes The Long Coast, about Maine’s changing fishing industry; Fruits of Labor, a documentary about a Mexican American high school student who supports her family harvesting and processing strawberries; and Gather, a film about Native American food traditions. For more details visit imagescinema.org.
"FALLEN," a new site-specific art installation by nationally renowned artist Jean Shin, is now open at Olana, just outside of Hudson, N.Y. Despite efforts to save it, a beloved hemlock tree on Olana’s East Lawn died last year of natural causes. In response to the unfortunate loss of this majestic tree, Jean Shin has created a new artwork celebrating its life while reflecting on loss and the broader history of environmental impact in the Catskill region. The art installation is already garnering national coverage, so get on over to Olana now before the crowds of summer descend on this beautiful gem of a state park.
And finally, the Joe Louis Walker Band brings its unique blend of gospel, blues, rock and jazz to the outdoor stage at the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., tonight at 7. NPR Music has called Walker “a legendary boundary-pushing icon of modern blues.”
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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