The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview
Mar 1-7, 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 …
MIRYAM COPPERSMITH BRINGS SOLO PERFORMANCE ABOUT YIDDISH LANGUAGE to BRIDGE STREET THEATRE
Philadelphia-based performance artist Miryam Coppersmith brings Mirele Lernt Zich Yiddish (Mirele Learns Yiddish), her solo, semi-improvised dance/theater piece, to Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, N.Y., for three performances, Friday through Sunday, March 1-3, kicking off Bridge Street’s annual Solofest. Mirele uses interaction with the audience, dancing, song, and puppetry as Miryam attempts to reclaim a small bit of her Jewish heritage, struggling to learn a language that persecution and assimilation squeezed out of Ashkenazi Jewry in the first place. The Saturday night program is immediately followed by a klezmer dance party featuring legendary klezmer clarinetist Margot Leverett. (Fri-Sun, Mar 1-3)
NICHOLAS BROOKE BRINGS NEW EXPERIMENTAL THEATER PIECE to MASS MoCA
Nicholas Brooke brings his latest piece, Ten Transcendental Etudes, to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., on Friday, March 1, at 8pm and again on Saturday, March 2, at 8pm, for a work-in-progress showing. Ten Transcendental Etudes is an evening-length piece for six performers that melds sampling, sound design, and physical theater, and looks at how songs dominate how we talk about each other. The 10-movement theater piece begins with a phonemic breakdown of a single Elvis phrase (“I can’t help falling”), then blooms into dense fugues of text, song fragments, and visceral movement, using familiar pop and recorded sources while recursively sampling itself, creating a work that is “operatic in scope, unfolding in layers that constantly reveal new meanings,” according to Culturebot. (Fri-Sat, Mar 1-2)
BALLET HISPÁNICO BRINGS LATINE CULTURE to MAHAIWE
Ballet Hispánico brings its celebration of Latine and Hispanic dance culture to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., for two shows on Saturday, March 2, at 3pm and 8pm. Ballet Hispánico is the largest Latinx/Latine/Hispanic cultural organization in the United States, breaking stereotypes and celebrating the beauty and diversity of Hispanic cultures through dance. (Sat, Mar 2)
TRUMPETER SEAN JONES BRINGS JAZZ QUARTET to HUDSON HALL
Trumpeter-composer Sean Jones brings his jazz quartet to Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, March 2, at 7pm. A former member of the SFJAZZ Collective and first-chair trumpeter of Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Jones is a musical chameleon who draws from a rich history of musical influences. Jones has been prominently featured in recordings and performances with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, and Marcus Miller. (Sat, Mar 2)
ZVIDANCE BRINGS NEW WORK to KAATSBAAN
ZviDance brings excerpts of its newest evening-length work, The Field – set to premiere in New York City in two weeks – to the Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, N.Y., on Thursday, March 7, at 6pm. Artistic director/choreographer Zvi Gotheiner, in collaboration with seven dancers, composer Scott Killian, and lighting designer Mark London, created the new piece, which aims to “continue and deepen Gotheiner’s thematic exploration of the collisions between humanity and nature.” (Thu, Mar 7)
Also of note:
Aztec Two-Step 2.0 with Rex Fowler & Friends is at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Friday, March 1, at 8pm.
Political satirist and TV talk-show host Jon Stewart is at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for two shows on Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, both nights at 7:30pm.
The Helm Family Midnight Ramble featuring Pieta Brown is at Levon Helm Studios on Saturday, March 2, at 8pm.
James Felice and Belle-Skinner perform at Park Theater in Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, March 2, at 8pm.
Joan Baez will attend a special screening of the new documentary, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise, at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, March 2, at 4pm.
The Crescendo music series features solo violin music of Bach and Paganini performed by Edson Scheid at Trinity Church in Lakeville, Conn., on Saturday, March 2, at 4pm, and at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, March 3, at 4pm.
The Orchestra Now featuring Yilin Li performs Schumann’s Piano Concerto at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, March 3, at 3pm. Also on the program is the world premiere of Species of Motion by retiring music department chair Larry Wallach.
The Taj Mahal Quartet and Sona Jobarteh, the world’s first female professional kora virtuoso, are at the Egg in Albany, N.Y., on Thursday, March 7, at 7:30pm.
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Seth Rogovoy
Editor, The Rogovoy Report
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