Rogovoy Report 7/12/19

The highlights of the cultural weekend in our region include orchestral music, dance, early music, chamber music, rock music, klezmer music, jazz … plus a whole lot more.

This weekend at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to celebrate their 50th anniversary with Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Harlem on My Mind, alongside works by Christopher Wheeldon, George Balanchine, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Also in residence this weekend, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group unveils the world premiere of POWER, imagining what Black Shaker worship may have looked like, developed through two residencies at the Pillow Lab and at Hancock Shaker Village.

Two-time Grammy-nominated violinist and fiddler Jeremy Kittel, formerly of the Turtle Island Quartet, brings his original music and a phenomenal group of players to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Saturday at 8pm to pla their unique fusion of classical, pop, groove, Celtic, old-time and bluegrass styles with lots of room for jaw-dropping improvisation. Their debut album, “Whorls,” debuted at number 1 on the Billboard bluegrass chart. Yee-haw.

Blues singer and guitarist Buddy Guy – one of the last few electric-blues pioneers of his generation – returns to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday at 7pm. Buddy Guy has always been my favorite performer in this line of work. To me, Buddy Guy is all about storytelling, using blues conventions as his tools.  He is never flashy or showy – if anything he is a minimalistm economical and dynamic, knowing that often and foremost, the less you say, the more powerful it speaks.

At Tanglewood tonight the BSO performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto featuring young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki and two works by Aaron Copland. On Saturday night the BSO will be joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for a complete rendition of Verdi’s monumental Requiem.

Then on Sunday afternoon the BSO lightens up a bit with works by Beethoven and Richard Strauss.

The period music players from Aston Magna will perform a program of music inspired by the painter Peter Paul Reubens at Wethersfield Garden in Amenia, N.Y., tonight at 7:30pm. Works by composers from from Holland, Italy, England, and Spain will be performed to a backdrop featuring projections of paintings by Rubens. Keep in mind this is early music, so be sure to arrive on time.

Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, N.Y., is staging a full scale musical this weekend and next called “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World”, which recounts the true sister of three sisters from rural new Hampshire whose father forced them to form a rock band, and who recorded an album back in 1969 which has since become a cult classic - either because the sisters were avant-garde geniuses decades ahead of their time - or because they made the absolute worst album ever recorded in the history of the world. Even I can’t decide which.

Other events in our region include Stephen Petronio Company paying tribute to Merce Cunningham at Hudson Hall; Ephrat Asherie Dance at Lumberyard in Catskill, and Michael Gordon’s opera ‘Acquanatta’ at Bard SummerScape.

And finally, the annual YIDSTOCK: The Festival of New Yiddish Music, is underway at this very moment, with concerts this afternoon by Hankus Netsky and Vira Lozinsky, all the way from Israel, and by Nigunim Trio later today, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. The festival continues on Saturday and Sunday with a host of concerts, workshops, film screenings, talks, and artist Q&As. There are still a few seats available for Sunday’s concerts by Daniel Kahn and Sarah Gordon at noon, and by the Aviva Chernick Ensemble from Toronto at 3pm.  More info is available at yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock. Full disclosure requires that I inform you that I am the artistic director of Yidstock – and I hope to see you there.