The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Aug 15-22, 2024

Aug 13, 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 …

Nona Hendryx (photo Hollis King/courtesy artist)

NONA HENDRYX BRINGS DOWN CURTAIN on SPIEGELTENT SEASON

Nona Hendryx and the Mamafunk Band close out the summer season at the Spiegeltent at Bard’s Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, August 17, at 8pm, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the mega worldwide hit “Lady Marmalade” by Hendryx’s former band, Labelle. After Labelle split up in 1976, Hendryx went on to a thriving solo career making revolutionary art-rock as a new-wave goddess recording her own albums and collaborating with the likes of Prince, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, and Laurie Anderson, resulting in top 10 hits and a Grammy Award nomination for “Rock This House,” featuring Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. (Sat, Aug 17)

SIMI STONE BRINGS ALL-STAR BAND to COLONY CAFE in WOODSTOCK

Soul-rock singer-songwriter Simi Stone brings her all-star band and her self-styled “Mountain Motown” music to the Colony Cafe in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday, August 17, at 8pm. Joining Stone, a dynamic singer and performer who doubles on guitar and violin and who also is an accomplished visual artist, are multi-instrumentalist Danny Blume, bassist Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz, Gang of Four), drummer Ben Perowsky, pianist Travis Shook, Storey Littleton, and Philip Marshall. (Sat, Aug 17)

FESTIVAL of NEW JEWISH PLAYS at PITTSFIELD’s COLONIAL THEATRE

The Festival of New Jewish Plays, an immersive, three-day experience celebrating the depth and diversity of Jewish theatre featuring works by Deborah Zoe Laufer and Ari’el Stachel and performances by Joshua Malina, Ella Stiller, Mimi Lieber, and Thom Niemann, takes place at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., on Thursday-Saturday, August 15-17. The festival includes Out of Character (Sat, Aug 17, at 7pm), a solo comedy written and performed by Tony Award winner Ari’el Stachel -- best known for his role in The Band’s Visit -- drawn from his own life as an Israeli-American of Yemeni Jewish descent growing up in Berkeley. (Thu-Sat, Aug 15-17)

Bonnie Whiting (photo Titilayo Ayangade/courtesy artist)

ANNUAL ‘HOUSE BLEND’ SERIES BRINGS OLD & NEW CHAMBER MUSIC to PS21

House Blend, PS21’s annual series of classical and contemporary chamber music, takes place Sunday-Wednesday, August 18-21, in Chatham, N.Y. The series features four adventurous programs, including Conor Hanick playing Brahms and Galina Ustvolskaya (Aug 18, 6pm); a double-bill of Skylighght, featuring Gelsey Bell (voice) and Erin Rogers (saxophone) plus composer/multi-instrumentalist Patrick Higgins (guitar, drums, electronics) (Aug 19, 8pm); Miranda Cuckson (violin) & Conor Hanick (piano) playing Xenakis, Bach, Ives, and Copland (Aug 20, 8pm); and a double-bill featuring Bonnie Whiting performing Wang Lu’s Stages for solo speaking/singing percussionist and Frederic Rzewski’s To the Earth for speaking percussionist and four flower pots, plus a recital by bass-baritone Davóne Tines. (Sun-Wed, Aug 18-21)

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (photo Stephanie Girard/courtesy artist)

BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL CONCLUDES with BERLIOZ’s ‘FAUST’

The annual Bard Music Festival at the Fisher Center at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., concludes on Sunday, August 18, at 3pm, with a performance of La Damnation de Faust, Berlioz’s adaptation of Goethe’s Faust, the classic tale of the scholar who sells his soul to the devil. Touching on a host of Romantic themes, Berlioz’s retelling inspired music by some of the most important composers of the era, including Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt. The epic work features British-American tenor Joshua Blue as Faust, two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Marguerite, bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Méphistophélès, and bass Stefan Egerstrom as the student, Brander. (Sun, Aug 18)

COOPERSTOWN MUSIC FEST ENDS SEASON WITH BACH

The curtain comes down on the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival’s season with Bach Again, an evening dedicated to the timeless works of Johann Sebastian Bach, on Tuesday, August 20, at 7pm, at Christ Episcopal Church in Cooperstown, N.Y. Violinist Rachell Ellen Wong, a rising star in Baroque music and winner of a prestigious Avery Fisher Grant, will join cellist Wolfram Koessel, harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire, and flutist Linda Chesis, festival founder and artistic director, to sample a cross-section of the composer’s varied instrumental sonatas, including the monumental Chaconne in d minor and the Trio Sonata from The Musical Offering. (Tue, Aug 20)

Also of note:

New York-based flamenco artists Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca perform in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., from Wednesday, August 14, through Sunday, August 19. The program features their newest work, Searching for Goya, inspired by the transformative art of Spanish romantic painter Francisco de Goya.

Modern orchestral collective The Knights and world-acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax perform Ortiz and Mozart in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on Thursday, August 15, at 8pm. The BSO performs Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with violinist Midori in the Shed on Friday, August 16, at 8pm.

Voloz Collective brings The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much to the Adams Theater in Adams, Mass., on Saturday, August 17, at 7:30pm and Sunday, August 18, at 2pm. The play is described as “a Hitchcock-meets-Spaghetti-Western intercontinental, inter-genre, cinematic caper of accusations, accidents and accents.”

The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, vocalist Samirah Evans, and guitarist Luke Franco headline the third annual Bousquet Jazz Festival in Pittsfield, Mass., on Saturday, August 17, from 4 to 8pm.

Boston-based Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) brings its fusion of modern technique and Haitian folkloric dance to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., on Saturday, August 17, at 4pm.

Blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Emanuel Casablanca performs at Park Theater in Hudson, N.Y., on Friday, August 16, at 8pm, in a concert to benefit Perfect Ten After School.

The Wildwoods, a folk/Americana trio based in Lincoln, Neb., bring their rootsy sound, wistful fiddle, and close vocal harmonies to the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Saturday, August 17, at 7pm.

William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors takes over Shakespeare & Company’s outdoor mainstage in Lenox, Mass., now through Sunday, August 18.

The world premiere of The Islanders by Carey Crim runs at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., now through Sunday, August 25.

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