The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Dec 12-15, 2024

Dec 10, 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 …

A scene from ‘Unsilent Night’ (photo Taylor Davidson)

PHIL KLINE’s ‘UNSILENT NIGHT’ BOOKENDS REGION

Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night – a “mobile sound-sculpture” that has become a holiday cult classic -- kicks off in North Adams, Mass., at the North Adams Public Library on Thursday, December 12, at 5:30pm, marking the tenth anniversary of the “walking symphony” taking place in northern Berkshire. Now in its 32nd year, Unsilent Night was first performed in New York City’s Greenwich Village as a one-time, 45-minute composition. Since then, the pioneering work of public sound art – performed by whomever shows up with a boombox or amplified digital music player (such as a smartphone) – has grown into a beloved annual event performed in communities around the world during the winter holiday season. Unsilent Night will return to the region in Kingston, N.Y., on Friday, December 20, at 6pm. (Thu, Dec 12; Fri, Dec 20)

‘SELECTED SHORTS’ RETURNS to MAHAIWE with JANE CURTIN

Selected Shorts, the popular public radio program featuring actors reading works of contemporary literature, returns to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., with an all-new holiday-themed episode, featuring Jane Curtin, Joanna Gleason, Michel Gill, and Bhavesh Patel, on Saturday, December 14, at 1pm. Curtin will read Jeanette Winterson’s “The Silver Frog,” Gleason will read “Raised by Wolves” by Simon Rich, Gill will read “The First Hanukkah” by Andy Borowitz, and Patel will read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Present for Big Saint Nick.” (Sat, Dec 14)

QUARTET to PLAY MOZART, HANDEL, ENESCU at THE CLARK

Pianist Jeewon Park and cellist Edward Arron, artistic directors of the Clark’s Performing Artists in Residence program, are joined by violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti and violist Che-Yen Chen for a program of works by Handel, Enescu, Mozart, and Fauré, at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., on Sunday, December 15, at 2pm. (Sun, Dec 15)

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA to PLAY WORKS by TCHAIKOVSKY, GRIEG, BRITTEN, BOCCHERINI, BARBER at MAHAIWE

The Vivace Chamber Orchestra will join forces with Close Encounters With Music artistic director and cellist Yehuda Hanani to perform works by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Britten, Boccherini, and Barber at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, December 15, at 4pm. The concert’s centerpiece is Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, which is said to “channel solemnity and joy into one perfect package.” Also on the musical menu are Barber’s iconic Adagio and Grieg’s Holberg Suite, offering chorale-like harmonies, joyous and lilting rhythms, and hints of a rural fiddle player. (Sun, Dec 15)

New York City rocker Clare Maloney brings her powerful vocals – think Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, and Ann Wilson of Heart -- and her hard-rocking backing band, the Great Adventure, to the Egremont Barn in South Egremont, Mass., on Thursday, December 12, at 7:30pm.

Singer-songwriter Vance Gilbert brings his pointed and humorous observations-in-song to Studio 9 at Porches in North Adams, Mass., on Friday, December 13, at 7:30pm.

Banjo wizard Tony Trischka brings his of a winter’s night program to WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio the Linda in Albany, N.Y., on Friday, December 13, at 8pm.

Upstate New York husband-and-wife folk duo Kim & Reggie Harris and fellow upstate couple Magpie (Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner) join forces for their annual quartet concert, Sing Solstice!, at 8th Step at Proctors in Schenectady, N.Y., on Sunday, December 15, at 7pm.

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