The highlights of the cultural weekend in our region include funky original pop; Dutch dance combined with Romanian music; jazz, new classical, folk, theater … plus a whole lot more.
Inventive avant-pop singer-songwriter Caroline Rose brings her quirky, eclectic sounds to MASS MoCA in North Adams on Saturday at 8pm. Rose has been turning heads with her synth-heavy, critically acclaimed 2018 release Loner, which veered from her earlier folk sound into darkly funny, danceable pop. I like to think of her as a 21st century mashup between Laura Nyro and Todd Rundgren. Zenizen opens the evening with its singular blend of R&B, soul, indie-rock, and jazz.
Didy Veldman brings Dutch dance and Romanian music to Jacob’s Pillow this weekend. Didy Veldman launched her company Umanoove in 2016 with The Happiness Project, a choreographic investigation of western society’s endless search for fulfillment. The London-based company makes its U.S. debut at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass, with this intricate, physical, and theatrical full-length work for four dancers, made in collaboration with celebrated Romanian violinist and composer Alexander Balanescu, who performs live. Also this weekend at the Pillow – nothing less than the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Jazz fans take note. New York-based Canadian singer, trumpeter and songwriter Bria Skonberg brings her bold horn melodies and smoky vocals to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., tonight. Skonberg sings with the rootsy allure of Norah Jones and then answers her own vocals with her sultry, moody trumpet playing. She’s as likely to perform a tune by Joni Mitchell or Leonard Cohen as she is a jazz standard or one of her own adventurous compositions.
It’s another busy weekend at Tanglewood in Lenox, where the Boston Symphony Orchestra is in residence throughout the weekend. For my money, the most interesting program looks to be on Saturday night at 8pm, when Renée Fleming premieres “The Brightness of Light,” a new song cycle by Kevin Puts, inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe, and based on written correspondence between O’Keeffe and her husband, the photographer and curator Alfred Stieglitz.
The Aston Magna Music Festival continues this weekend with a program of works by Henry Purcell, with concerts tonight at Time and Space in Hudson, N.Y., at 7:30pm and on Saturday night at 6pm at St James Place in Great Barrington, Mass. Remember, it’s early music, so don’t be late.
The aptly-named, Philadelphia-based folk trio The End of America brings its three-part harmonies and original songcraft to Phoenicia’s Flying Cat Music series at the United Methodist Church on Saturday at 7:30 pm. Named after a line from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” The End of America performs compelling original songs recalling the sound of Crosby, Stills and Nash alongside such beloved covers as Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” and the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
In the theaters this weekend, Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., presents “Gertrude and Claudius,” a new play by Mark St Germain based on the novel by John Updike; Shakespeare & Copmany in Lenox, Mass., presents “The Taming of the Shrew”; Berkshire Theatre Group presents “Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story” at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield; and Williamstown Theatre Festival presents the world premiere of “Grand Horizons” by Bess Wohl, an intimate, funny, and painful look at the nature of love over time.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com