The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Mar 15-17, 2024

Mar 12, 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 …

MAKARIS BRINGS CELTIC BAROQUE to MAHAIWE

Celtic baroque band Makaris brings its singular Irish-accented twist on the music of J.S. Bach to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, March 17, at 4pm, in a presentation by Close Encounters With Music. Scottish music proved creatively productive and financially lucrative for several composers during the 18th century. Haydn and Beethoven alone arranged hundreds of these traditional songs for home performance. Makaris shows why this repertoire proved so popular with audiences and artists. (Sun, Mar 17)

COMEDY RETURNING to THE CATSKILLS

New York Comedy Club and the Borscht Belt Museum are joining forces to create a new stand-up comedy series at Shadowland Stages in Ellenville, N.Y., a Catskills resort town once home to some of the region’s most storied hotels and nightclubs, among them the Nevele, the Fallsview, the Granite, and the Homowack, which regularly presented comedy greats for a good part of the 20th century. For the series debut on Saturday, March 16, at 7pm and 9pm, some of the country’s best-known comedians, among them Michael Hirsch, Jesse Eigner, Rachel Williams, and Eitan Levine, will update Borscht Belt comedy for the 21st century. (Sat, Mar 16)

BACK PORCH FESTIVAL BRINGS ROOTS MUSIC to NORTHAMPTON

Richard Thompson, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, the Mammals, Laura Cantrell, Peter Case, Tarbox Ramblers, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band are just a handful of the fifty-plus artists taking part in the 10^th annual Back Porch Festival, at ten different venues in Northampton, Mass., from Friday, March 15 through Sunday, March 17. The festival kicks off with an all-star tribute to Willie Nelson at the Academy of Music on Friday, March 15, at 8pm, featuring Mark Erelli, Kris Delmhorst, Jeffrey Foucault, the Deep River Ramblers, and many more. (Fri-Sun, Mar 15-17)

The Takács Quartet (photo Amanda Tipton/courtesy CRC)

TAKÁCS QUARTET to PERFORM NEW WORK by NOKUTHULA NGWENYAMA at UNION COLLEGE

The Takács Quartet returns to Union College’s Memorial Chapel on Sunday, March 17, at 3pm, to perform a new work written for them by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, between masterworks of Haydn and Beethoven. Flow was written for the Takács as a meditation on the theme of climate change, commissioned by nine concert presenters throughout the U.S., including Capital Region Classical. (Sun, Mar 17)

Also of note:

South African-based Ladysmith Black Mambazo return to Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., on Tuesday, March 12, at 7:30pm. The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble was introduced to the world when they appeared on Paul Simon’s 1987 Graceland album.

Amy Crossman brings her one-woman play The Great Divide to Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, N.Y., Friday, March 15, through Sunday, March 17.

Alt-country band Loose Cattle bring their blend of outlaw country and rootsy punk rock to WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio The Linda on Friday, March 15, at 8pm.

Sweden’s Lena Jonsson Trio brings its blend of Swedish folk music, pop, rock and American roots music to the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, N.Y., on Friday, March 15, at 7pm.

Every Brilliant Thing, called “the funniest play you will ever see about depression” by The Guardian, will be peformed by Scott Barrow at Park Theater in Hudson, N.Y., on Friday-Sunday, March 15-17.

Blues rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Samantha Fish will perform at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, March 16, at 8pm.

Folk royalty Lucy Wainwright Roche brings her literate, wry observations to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Saturday, March 16, at 8pm.

The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck presents a modern staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet now through Sunday, March 24.

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Editor, The Rogovoy Report

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