The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire and Hudson Valley Cultural Preview
July 19-24, 2023
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 …
DARLINGSIDE BRINGS HARMONIES to THE CLARK
Darlingside, formed in the early oughts when the band members were students at Williams College, returns to the town of its birth when they bring their literary-minded, baroque folk-pop to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., for a free concert on Wednesday, July 19, at 6pm. (Wed, Jul 19)
CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT BRINGS JAZZ VOCALS to MAHAIWE
Composer, singer, and visual artist Cécile McLorin Salvant brings her unique vocals and her genre-defying repertoire to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Thursday, July 20, at 8pm. Widely considered a jazz singer, Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010 and received Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for three consecutive albums. In 2020, Salvant received a MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. (Thu, Jul 20)
XIAN ZHANG LEADS BSO in COPLAND and DVORAK PROGRAM
Xian Zhang conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Springand Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in the Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on Friday, July 21, at 8pm. Joining the BSO for the performance is contemporary ensemble Nimbus Dance. (Fri, Jul 21)
SAINT-SAËNS’S OPERA HENRI VIII KICKS OFF BARD SUMMERSCAPE
The 20th annual Bard SummerScape Festival presents the first major new American production of Camille Saint-Saëns’s grand opera Henri VIII at the Fisher Center at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Friday, July 21 at 6:30pm, Sunday, July 23, at 2pm; Wednesday, July 26, at 2pm; Friday, July 28, at 4pm; and Sunday, July 30, at 2pm. The original staging by visionary French director Jean-Romain Vesperini features bass-baritone Alfred Walker with the American Symphony Orchestra and Bard Festival Chorale led by festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein. (Fri, Jul 21; Sun, Jul 23; Wed, Jul 26; Fri, Jul 28; Sun, Jul 30)
DORRANCE DANCE BRINGS INNOVATIVE TAP BACK to JACOB’S PILLOW
Dorrance Dance returns to Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., from Wednesday, July 19, through Sunday, July 23, to perform SOUNDspace — one of the early works that brought choreographer/dancer and company founder Michelle Dorrance to prominence — on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, including never-before-seen elements created specifically for the Ted Shawn Theatre. The program will also feature 45th & 8th, a new work featuring the original compositions of Aaron Marcellus. (Wed, Jul 19-Sun, Jul 23)
ASTON MAGNA BRINGS BAROQUE to HUDSON HALL, ST. JAMES PLACE
Works by Bach, Villa Lobos, and Henry Purcell are on the program for Aston Magna’s Baroque Celebration #2 at Hudson Hall in Hudson, N.Y., on Friday, July 21, at 7pm, and at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, July 22, at 6pm. Performers include Kristen Watson, soprano; Deborah Rentz Moore, alto; Jason McStoots, tenor; David McFerrin, baritone. (Fri, Jul 21)
NANNA BRINGS ICELANDIC INDIE-FOLK to COLONY CAFE
Icelandic singer-songwriter Nanna brings her moody musical landscapes to the Colony Cafe in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday, July 22, at 8pm. Some of her gorgeous music was recorded right here in the Hudson Valley, produced by Aaron Dessner at his Long Pond studio. (Sat, Jul 22)
BERKSHIRE OPERA PRESENTS 300 YEARS of ARIAS
Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2023 summer season with Breaking the Mold: Baroque, Bel Canto, and Beyond, a concert of arias and ensembles spanning 300 years, at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, July 22, at 2pm. The program traverses a vast range of musical eras and styles, from Handel to Heggie. Performers include soprano Jacqueline Piccolino, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, tenor Alex McKissick, baritone Ethan Vincent, and pianist Travis Bloom. (Sat, Jul 22)
MANHATTAN CHAMBER PLAYERS BRINGS STRAVINSKY to MAVERICK
The Manhattan Chamber Players with special guest pianist David Fung will perform works by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and Schumann at Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, N.Y., on Sunday, July 23, at 4pm. (Sun, Jul 23)
AIMEE MANN BRINGS BRILLIANT FOLK-POP to THE EGG
From her work in the 1980s with MTV favorite ‘Til Tuesday and her acclaimed solo discs in the 1990s to her Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to Magnolia in the 2000s, Aimee Mann is one of the most celebrated and insightful singer-songwriters of her generation – not mired in the traditional business of strictly writing love songs, but more prone toward diving into the vast majority of human interactions that almost never get a song written about them. She is also a generous and compelling performer, as she will demonstrate when she plays the Egg in Albany, N.Y., on Monday, July 24, at 7:30pm. (Mon, Jul 24)
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Roll Call: Founding Members
Anne Fredericks
Anonymous (6)
Erik Bruun
Benno Friedman
Richard Koplin
Steve and Helice Picheny
Rhonda Rosenheck
Elisa Spungen and Rob Bildner/Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook
Julie Abraham Stone
Mary Herr Tally