The cultural highlights for our region this weekend include chamber music, Broadway favorites, marching bands, dance, experimental sounds, theater … plus a whole lot more.
Special guests Jon Batiste and Mavis Staples, the Six-String Soldiers of the U.S. Army Field Band, and the United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants join Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra at Tanglewood in Lenox on the Fourth of July in a program of patriotic favorites, culminating with the 1812 Overture.
Broadway musical star Norm Lewis performs songs from roles that have brought him critical acclaim, including Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Porgy & Bess, The Little Mermaid, plus unique personal takes on musical theatre standards, as part of the Outside Under the Big Tent series in the Parking Lot at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., tonight at 7pm.
The live dance season at Jacob's Pillow is finally underway in Becket, Mass., this weekend featuring Dorrance Dance, led by modern-day tap visionary Michelle Dorrance along with Josette Wiggan-Freund and Nicholas Van Young, in a roving, site-specific performance featuring live music around the Pillow campus today through Sunday.
Speaking of dance, choreographer and poet Ian Spencer Bell and company perform his original work, Banderole, at the Mount in Lenox, Mass., tonight at 6:30 p.m. Audience members will stroll from the stables to the mansion’s forecourt and gardens as dancers in this free program unfurl, wave, and whip throughout the pristine 50-acre Berkshire property.
At Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., previews of the long-awaited production of “King Lear,” starring Christopher Lloyd in the title role, begin tonight. The play is scheduled to run throughout the summer on the outdoor stage of the New Spruce Theatre.
At MASS MoCA in North Adams on Saturday at 8:30pm, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and producer L’Rain performs her richly layered compositions weaving guitar, synthesizers, and delay effects into a swirl of free jazz and heartfelt, personal songs.
Guitarist Steve Katz performs at Dewey Hall in Sheffield, Mass., in its Outdoors Back Yard series on Saturday, playing two shows at 5 and 7pm. Katz has an amazing musical lineage: The guitarist, singer/songwriter and producer was a member of the famed 1960s Blues Project alongside Michael Bloomfield and Al Kooper, and then went on to record three albums with Blood, Sweat, & Tears. Later, Katz produced albums for Lou Reed, became an executive at Mercury Records, and was managing director of Green Linnet Records, the premier Irish music label in the U.S. He’s like a one-man walking encyclopedia of modern music.
The Tannery Pond Concert series presents cellist Inbal Segev and the Aizuri Quartet on Saturday at 6, performing quintets by Boccherini, Schumann, and Glazunov, at Saint James Church in Chatham, N.Y.
PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., kicks off its House Blend music series on Monday at 8pm with violinist Miranda Cuckson, cellist Matt Haimovitz, percussionist Matthew Gold, and pianist Geoffrey Burleson performing works by Ralph Shapey, Billy Jim Layton, David Sanford and others.
House of Belonging, an exhibition of new paintings by Ron Ronan, opens on Saturday at Lauren Clark Fine Art in Great Barrington, Mass., with an artist’s reception next Saturday, July 10. The exhibit remains on view through July 18.
At 8pm on the Fourth of July, the Stagecoach Tavern at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., plays host to Dominican ensemble Yasser Tejeda & Palotré, performing a musical voyage through the various musical landscapes of the Dominican Republic conveyed through rock and jazz.
And tonight at the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., at 7pm, a mini Asleep at the Wheel reunion features guitarist Johnny Nicholas, steel-guitar player Cindy Cashdollar, and violinist Katie Shore in a concert of American roots music.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com
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