The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Jul 31-Aug 8, 2024

Jul 31, 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 …

Alain ‘Hurrikane’ Lauture in ‘I AM” (photo Whitney Browne/courtesy JP)

CAMILLE A. BROWN BRINGS WORLD PREMIERE to JACOB’S PILLOW

Four-time Tony Award-nominated choreographer and 2016 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient Camille A. Brown brings her company of dancers to Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., this weekend to perform the world premiere of I AM, a work that features dance and music genres of the African Diaspora and is inspired by both the HBO series Lovecraft Country and the rhythms of the movie Drumline. Performances are Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 8pm and Friday-Sunday at 2pm. (Wed, Jul 31-Sun, Aug 4)

MAYA BEISER HEADLINES BANG ON A CAN FESTIVAL at MASS MoCA

A veritable who’s who of performers and composers of avant-garde and new-classical music, including Meredith Monk, John Hollenbeck, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, George Crumb, and the Bang on a Can Allstars, will take part in the three-day Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., from Thursday, August 1, through Saturday, August 3. Of special note is Berkshire resident Maya Beiser, who will be performing her dynamic reinvention of the minimalist manifesto, IN C, by Terry Riley, for solo cello and wordless vocals plus two percussionists, on Saturday at 6pm. (Thu-Sat, Aug 1-3)

Paul Taylor dancers in scene from Promethean Fire (photo John McCoy/courtesy PS21)

PAUL TAYLOR DANCE BRINGS COMPANY CLASSICS to PS21

The Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Friday, August 2 and Saturday, August 3, both nights at 8pm, to perform three of Taylor’s signature works -- Brandenburgs (1988) and Promethean Fire (2002), set to the music of J. S. Bach, and Runes (1975), with music by Gerald Busby. (Fri-Sat, Aug 2-3)

TAYLOR MAC and HEATHER CHRISTIAN EXPLORE ‘CREATIVITY’ in NEW MARLBOROUGH

Two of the top theater artists of our age -- New Marlborough resident and MacArthur “Genius” award-winner Taylor Mac and composer/performer Heather Christian – will join forces to discuss “Creativity” in a program at the New Marlborough Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Saturday, August 3, at 4:30pm. The two will explore their theatrical productions and collaborative ventures and offer a preview of songs from their music theatrical work-in-progress, a consideration of Clarence Thomas entitled Clarence, in a Pause. Taylor Mac was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award. His marathon A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, about American history through the queer eye of marginalized communities, was made into a documentary film for HBO. Singer, playwright and composer Heather Christian is a Drama Desk and a two-time Obie Award winner. (Sat, Aug 3)

ARONE DYER BRINGS ‘stargaze’ to RACE BROOK LODGE

Experimental composer and vocalist Arone Dyer - perhaps best known as one half of the duo Buke and Gase -- brings her stargaze program to the Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., on Saturday, August 3, at 8pm. The performance is a pared-down recontemplation of the Minimalist-tinged music from her most recent solo album, arone x s t a r g a z e, with multi-instrumentalist Matthew Schrieber. (Sat, Aug 3)

Amina Edris (photo Capucine de Chocqueuse/courtesy artist)

MEYERBEER OPERA ‘LE PROPHÈTE’ GETS RARE STAGING at BARD

The first new American production in almost five decades of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s 19^th century opera Le prophète, an all-too-topical grand opera in which religion, politics, and power collide, gets a rare staging at Bard Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., with performances on Wednesday, July 31, Friday, August 2, and Sunday, August 4. Robert Watson, Jennifer Feinstein, and Amina Edris star in an original staging by Christian Räth, featuring the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Bard Festival Chorale under the leadership of festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein, Le prophète (1849) explores the dark world of false prophets and mass hysteria. Addressing the dangers of mixing religion with politics, the rise of demagoguery, and the challenges faced by members of minority groups, like the German Jewish composer himself, the opera raises issues that continue to resonate today. (July 31; August 2, 4).

Also of note:

Rootsy singer-songwriter Lance Cowan brings songs from his terrific new album, So Far, So Good, to Studio 9 at Porches Inn in North Adams, Mass., on Friday, August 2, at 7pm. Cowan will be joined by fellow singer-songwriters Rees Shad and Natalia Zukerman.

The Florida-based piano duo of Paul Posnak and Anita Castiglione will perform jazz classics by the likes of Fats Waller and George Gershwin as well as jazz-inflected compositions by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein at the Berkshire Music School in Pittsfield, Mass., on Friday, August 2, at 7:30pm.

Vermont-based Americana band Saints & Liars bring their rootsy, country-rock originals to Studio 9 at Porches Inn in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday, August 3, at 7pm.

Berkshire Bach marks the appointment of violinist Eugene Drucker as artistic director with a chamber concert featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Hayden, and Brahms, at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, August 3, at 5pm.

Contralto Vira Slywotzky of New York City and pianist David Sytkowski of Saugerties perform Serenading the Summer Moon, a concert/cabaret of classical and popular songs in English, French, and Ukrainian, at The Local in Saugerties, N.Y., on Saturday, August 3, at 7:30pm.

Hartford-based Eight to the Bar brings its blend of swing, boogie-woogie, and Motown to the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., on Saturday, August 3, at 7pm.

Aston Magna concludes its summer festival with English Extravaganza, a program featuring violinist Daniel Stepner with instrumental ensemble and vocal quintet performing works by Purcell, John Eccles, and Charles Alison, at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, August 4, at 3pm.

New York-based Gamelan Yowana Sari, featuring 20 artists performing traditional Balinese music and dance for the Samara Dana gamelan, plus contemporary compositions by Dewa Alit, Michael Gordon, Kyle Miller, and Evan Ziporyn, are at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Sunday, August 4, at 4pm.

Ukrainian-based Kommuna Lux brings its Eastern European blend of brass-band sounds -- what they call “Odessa Gangsta Folk” -- to the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Sunday, August 4, at 7:30pm.

Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Catherine Russell brings her hot trio, her powerhouse vocals, and her deep repertoire of jazz and blues classics to the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Tuesday, August 6, at 7pm.

Singer-songwriter Avi Jacob, whose influences range from gospel to folk to pop, brings his original compositions to Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Mass., on Thursday, August 8, at 7:30pm.

David Ives’s new play, Pamela Palmer, gets its world premiere run at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Mass., now through August 10. The play is said to “put a noir spin on an existential romance.”

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., from Thursday, July 25, through Sunday, August 25.

Night at the Speakeasy, an original production by Great Barrington Public Theater that transports audiences back in time to the Roaring Twenties, featuring Janelle Farias Sando, runs at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass., Thursdays through Sundays, August 1-11.

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The Rogovoy Report