The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Jan 30-Feb 7, 2024

Jan 30, 2024

With so much going on culturally speaking in our greater Berkshires/Hudson Valley region, this is my highly selective, curated snapshot of some of the most promising upcoming events …

JILL SOBULE BRINGS CONFESSIONAL FOLK to EGREMONT BARN

Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, who made history in 1995 when her song “I Kissed a Girl” became the first openly queer-themed Billboard Top 20 single, brings her extensive catalog of highly personal, confessional new-folk songs to the Egremont Barn in South Egremont, Mass., on Thursday, February 1, at 7:30pm. Sobule entertains, amuses, provokes, and more often than not, takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music, often within the same song. Sobule’s satirical song “Supermodel” was featured in the the hit teen-comedy movie Clueless. Addressing the legacy of the Holocaust, Sobule’s song “Attic” asks that essential question: “Would you have hidden me in your attic … or pack me on that awful train?” Sobule costars with former Saturday Night Live cast member Julia Sweeney in The Jill and Julia Show and has performed with Neil Young, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Warren Zevon, Tom Morello, and John Doe. Ellis Paul warms up the crowd for Sobule. (Thu, Feb 1)

TOUKI DELPHINE COLLECTIVE BRINGS ‘FIREBIRD’ to MASS MoCA

Touki Delphine, an artist collective of musicians, performers, and visual artists, brings its multimedia work FIREBIRD, inspired by composer Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 “Firebird Suite,” to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., with viewings on Wednesday, January 31 and Thursday-Saturday, February 1–3. The “rule-breaking” concert program includes an “orchestra” concepted entirely of light -- over 600 recycled car taillights sourced locally in the Berkshires -- that will illuminate the dance of the firebird. (Wed, Jan 31; Thu-Sat, Feb 1-3)

Umi Garrett (photo Abigail Kralik/courtesy artist)

PIANIST UMI GARRETT PLAYS ECLECTIC CONCERT FEATURING WILLIAMSTOWN COMPOSER STEPHEN DANKNER at THE CLARK

New York-based pianist Umi Garrett performs works by J. S. Bach, Franz Schubert, Clara Schumann, and works composed by Williamstown’s own Stephen Dankner at The Clark in Williamstown, Mass., on Saturday, February 3, at 2pm. Garrett has recorded three solo albums and an upcoming debut chamber album of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Five Sonatas for Piano and Cello with Emily Mantone. (Sat, Feb 3)

Detail from 'Child's Mugshot' by Phillip Schwartz, 2024, upholstery fabric and satin

PHILLIP SCHWARTZ’S ‘MEDITATION on the HOLOCAUST’ EXHIBIT in HUDSON

Visual artist Phillip Schwartz’s Shoah: A Meditation on The Holocaust remains on view at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson, N.Y., through Sunday, February 11. Schwartz’s exhibition is inspired by the Stations of the Cross, the story of the Passion of the Christ told through visual art that has been used for centuries in Christian prayer and meditation. The installation is a combination of egg tempera paintings, icons, and textile works. Many of the images in these works are based on open-source photographs housed in the collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Schwartz is a Hudson-based artist and iconographer whose work has been shown locally and internationally. The exhibit’s opening falls on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a date that is observed as a day of Holocaust remembrance internationally. (runs through Sun, Feb 11)

POLISH QUARTET to PLAY SHOSTAKOVICH, SCHUBERT, and DVOŘÁK at UNION COLLEGE

The Apollon Musagète Quartet will perform works by Shostakovich, Schubert, and Dvořák at Union College’s Memorial Chapel in Schenectady, N.Y., on Sunday, February 4, at 3pm, as part of the Capital Region Classicalseries. The string quartet, based in Poland, received the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2014. (Sun, Feb 4)

Stephanie Blythe (courtesy Bard Fisher Center)

STEPHANIE BLYTHE SINGS BRAHMS at BARD FISHER CENTER

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) launches its 2024 winter/spring season at Bard’s Fisher Center with a concert featuring Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe in an all-Brahms program on Saturday, February 3, at 7pm, and Sunday, February 4, at 3pm. Mezzo-soprano Blythe performs Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, based on a Goethe poem and composed as a wedding gift for the daughter of Robert and Clara Schumann. The program also features tenor Joshua Blue in the cantata Rinaldo, inspired by another Goethe poem about a knight enchanted by a cunning sorceress. Leon Botstein will conduct. (Sat-Sun, Feb 3-4)

Also of note:

Author and journalist Madison Margolin will discuss her new book, Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass & Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground, in conversation with journalist Noah Eckstein, at Time and Space in Hudson, N.Y., on Wednesday, January 31, at 7pm. (Wed, Jan 31)

Singer-songwriter Dan Bern brings his outspoken, original folk-rock songs to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Saturday, February 3, at 8pm. (Sat, Feb 3)

Crescendo presents a program of Renaissance motets at Trinity Church in Lakeville, Conn., on Saturday, February 3, at 3pm, and at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, February 4, at 4pm. (Sat-Sun, Feb 3-4)

Wilco guitarist Nels Cline brings his Concentrik Quartet to the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Wednesday, February 7, at 7pm. (Wed, Feb 7)

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