The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include classical music, indie-rock, dance, theater, neo-Benshi … plus a whole lot more.
Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline of Wilco play the first concert on Joe's Field at MASS MoCA since 2019 on Saturday at 8 p.m. in North Adams. Short of a full-fledged Solid Sound Festival, this concert serves as a tribute to founding director Joe Thompson, and all proceeds from the concert directly benefit MASS MoCA’s Joe Thompson “Yes” Fund, supporting the museum’s mission to champion artists and art-making in all forms.
At Tanglewood, on Saturday at 8 p.m., pianist Daniil Trifonov joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of music director Andris Nelsons to perform Brahms’s piano concerto No. 1. Symphony No. 1 by Prokofiev is also on the program. Then on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., violinist Gil Shaham will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, with the BSO serving as his backup band. Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, Reformation, is also on the Sunday program.
On Saturday at 6 p.m., classical saxophonist and composer Steven Banks and pianist Xak Bjerken perform works by Mozart, Creston, Decruck, and Banks himself as part of the Tannery Pond Concerts series taking place this summer at Saint James Church in Chatham, N.Y.
Roots-music singer and multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm, daughter of the late, legendary singer-drummer Levon Helm of The Band, performs at the Egremont Barn in South Egremont, Mass., on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
At PS21 in Chatham, visionary flutist and MacArthur fellow Claire Chase takes the stage tonight in the Modern Opera Fest, leading an ensemble of community members to engage in collective music making as they explore the myth of the demigod Pan. Composed by Marcos Balter, the piece uses seven tableaux to narrate the life of Pan, one of only two Greek deities said to have been put to death. The piece figuratively and literally explores how storytelling and music can bring people together.
Ballet Hispánico, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is in residence at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Mass., this weekend, performing tonight through Sunday.
BECOMING OTHELLO: A Black Girl’s Journey is a multimedia theatrical production with lyrical language, soulful songs, and the music that shaped the life of a resilient girl growing up in Spanish Harlem. This one-woman autobiographical drama, written and performed by Debra Ann Byrd, starts previews tonight at Shakespeare & Company's Outdoors at The Roman Garden Theatre in Lenox, Mass., and officially opens on Sunday.
Flow Chart Cabaret Cinema returns to Hudson Hall on Saturday at 7 p.m. with A Night of Neo Benshi, featuring Davon, Brandon Downing, Michael Gottlieb, Jeffrey Lependorf, Stephin Merritt, Marianne Shaneen, Edwin Torres and others. Neo-benshi gives poets and performers the opportunity to remove the dialogue from movie clips and replace it with their own—singing, dancing, reading right out loud in front of the screen. The Flow Chart Foundation is dedicated to exploring the interrelationships of various art forms as guided by the legacy of John Ashbery, who called Hudson home for many years.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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