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Rogovoy Report 8/23/19

The highlights of the cultural weekend in our region include New Orleans funk, cabaret, modern dance, Beethoven, R&B, cutting-edge guitar music … plus a whole lot more.

It will be Mardi Gras in North Adams when the Grammy Award-nominated New Orleans funk-brass band Cha Wa lays down the sounds of a Big Easy street party at MASS MoCA on Saturday at 8 p.m. Also at MASS MoCA tonight at 8, avant-garde vocal group Roomful of Teeth presents new works commissioned by the American Composers Forum alongside a retrospective of the group’s first ten years.

Broadway star and cabaret legend Karen Mason shares her love of the music of songwriters Kander & Ebb at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., on Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m.

New York City-based Parsons Dance is back for its 14th season at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Parsons Dance is known for its energized, athletic, ensemble work and its collaborations with iconic artists across many disciplines. This weekend’s program will feature a performance of Paul Taylor’s “Runes” and Trey McIntyre’s “Eight Women,” set to songs by Aretha Franklin.

At Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra brings down the curtain on this summer's season with the traditional closing performance of Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven on Sunday afternoon at 2:30. Next Wednesday, Tanglewood begins a run of popular artist concerts, kicking off with Gladys Knight and the Spinners, continuing on Thursday with English new wave group Squeeze, with warmup sets by country-rockers the Mavericks and indie-rocker KT Tunstall, whom I tend to think of as Scotland’s answer to Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

The Miró Quartet plays Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ in the Tannery Pond Concert Series at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon, N.Y., on Saturday at 9. Also on Saturday evening, the wacky and always entertaining singer-songwriter Nellie McKay brings her cabaret act to Hancock Shaker Village as part of the venue’s Shaker Barn Music series at 7:30 p.m. Actor/pianist Hershey Felder brings his one-man show, “Gershwin Alone,” in which he renders an intimate portrait of George Gershwin’s personal life and artistic genius, to the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and running for a week through next Saturday night.

Boston Ballet and Urban Bush Women bring the curtain down on the summer season at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass., this weekend. The program celebrates Urban Bush Women’s 35th anniversary by performing “Walking with 'Trane,” inspired by the musical life and spiritual journey of legendary composer and saxophonist John Coltrane. Berkshire Opera Festival begin its run of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday afternoon at 1. Subsequent stagings take place on Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. and next Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The Hudson Eye, a new multi-venue series presented by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation, kicks off this weekend and runs through Labor Day Weekend. The artist-driven 10-day public program and urban showcase features visual and performing arts by the likes of Laura Gutierrez, Elena Mosely, Tony Orrico, Timothy Stanley, J.M. Tate, Alexander Turnquist and others. The festival kicks off tonight at Basilica Hudson at 7:30 p.m. with an interdisciplinary performance installation featuring Jonah Bokaer Choreography and visual art by Rachel Libeskind. On Sunday, experimental music artist Patrick Higgins brings his unique blend of classical acoustic and electric guitar in genre-bending contexts to Club Helsinki Hudson at 8 p.m.

Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.com