The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Jan 10-12, 2025

Jan 08, 2025

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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 …

Palaver Strings (photo Titilayo Ayangade/courtesy artist)

PALAVER STRINGS BRINGS POPULIST APPROACH to NORTH ADAMS

Palaver Strings, a musician-led string ensemble from Portland, Maine, spends a two-day performing residency at Tourists in North Adams, Mass., on Friday, January 10, and Saturday, January 11, at 8pm. Friday night’s show will showcase Palaver members solo and in small chamber ensembles. Saturday night’s concert will feature the full Palaver Strings ensemble and special guests jazz pianist Chris Pattishall and South African vocalist Vuyo Sotashe. (Fri-Sat, Jan 10-11)

VISIONARY GUITARIST GARY LUCAS RETURNS to SPENCERTOWN

Guitarist-composer Gary Lucas returns to Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, N.Y., on Saturday, January 11, at 7:30pm. The acclaimed guitarist and Grammy Award-nominated songwriter will perform a program of original compositions, blues, tributes to Lucas collaborators Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley, covers of 1930s Chinese pop, Wagner, Rolling Stones, electronic soundscapes, and more. In my review of Lucas’s concert at the Academy last winter, I wrote: “In Gary Lucas’s musical world, genre doesn’t exist. A classical transcription hints at country-blues and 1930s Chinese pop has overtones of jazz.... No matter what he plays, it all comes out in his unique musical language called Gary Lucas music.” Lucas has released over 50 acclaimed albums as a leader or co-leader to date and toured in over 40 countries worldwide since his days as a featured soloist and member of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. (Sat, Jan 11)

AUSTRALIAN CIRCUS ARTISTS JOIN VIOLINIST at PS21

Artists from the Australian contemporary circus company Circa will join forces with violinist Miranda Cuckson for What Will Have Been at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Saturday, January 11, at 2pm. Created by Yaron Lifschitz, the piece is described as “a sublime display of interlocking bodies, awe-inspiring movement and pure physical beauty [that] will challenge your perceptions of what the human body is capable of, performed to a fusion of the music of Bach played by Cuckson and spine-tingling electronica.” (Sat, Jan 11

ROBERT BURKE WARREN and FRIENDS PAY TRIBUTE to DAVID BOWIE in WOODSTOCK

Singer-guitarist Robert Burke Warren brings his annual Bowie Birthday Bash back to the Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday, January 11, at 7pm. Warren will be joined by a seven-piece band, vocalists, and special guests in a concert paying tribute to the late, great David Bowie (who died nine years ago this week), re-creating numbers from throughout Bowie’s expansive career, including 1969’s “Space Oddity,” selections from his 1970s heyday, numbers from his Berlin trilogy, Serious Moonlight-era cuts, and tunes from his final album, 2016’s Blackstar. (Sat, Jan 11)

ALSO OF NOTE:

New-folk singer-songwriter Dar Williams performs solo at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday, January 11, at 8pm.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra holds forth at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., on Saturday, January 11, at 7:30pm, and Sunday, January 12, at 3pm, for a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, and Forgiveness, Suite for Spoken Word & Orchestra.

Violist Laura Sacks will join pianist Steven Beck for a free concert of works by Bach, Glazunov, Liebestraum, and Reinecke, plus the Piano Sonata No. 14 by Beethoven, at Saugerties United Methodist Church in Saugerties, N.Y., on Sunday, January 12, at 3pm, in a concert presented by Saugerties Pro Musica.

Drummer-composer Bobby Previte and his Quartet A -- featuring saxophonist Keith Pray, bassist Otto Gardner, and pianist John Esposito, perform at the Avalon Lounge in Catskill, N.Y., with a free concert on Sunday, January 12, at 6pm.

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