The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Feb 7-18, 2024

Feb 07, 2024

The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview will very likely be taking a hiatus for one week while I recharge my batteries. The next Report will likely bear the date February 20. Thank you in advance for your understanding and support.

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 …

BRITISH CULT FILM ‘BRONCO BULLFROG’ to GET SCREENING, DANCE PARTY at RACE BROOK LODGE

Bronco Bullfrog, a 1969 British film depicting youths in East London searching for identity in the post-war industrial wasteland of the British working class of the 1960s, will be screened at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., on Saturday, February 10, at 8pm. Following the film, a classic of British social realism that was shot in a run-and-gun style, with non-actors improvising their dialogue, will be a dance party featuring live music featuring songs by groups including the Small Faces, the Knickerbockers, the Kinks, and the Who, whose recordings provided the live soundtrack of the Mod subculture. (Sat, Feb 10)

Renée Anne Louprette (photo Geoffrey Silver, Acis Productions/courtesy artist)

RENÉE ANNE LOUPRETTE PLAYS 19^th CENTURY ORGAN in HOUSATONIC

Renée Anne Louprette performs works by J.S. Bach, César Franck, Felix Mendelssohn on the 1893 Johnson Organ at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Housatonic, Mass., on Saturday, February 10, at 2pm, in a concert presented by Berkshire Bach. The Johnson organ has been called a hidden gem of the Berkshires for its sweet voice and musicality. Louprette maintains an international career as recitalist, conductor, collaborative musician, and teacher. She is director of the American Guild of Organists’ National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Her recording of J. S. Bach’s “Great Eighteen Chorales” on the Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, was named a classical music Critics’ Choice 2014 by the New York Times. Louprette has performed on many of the world’s great organs, including the one at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris before the great fire. (Sat, Feb 10)

CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT with THE ORCHESTRA NOW at BARD

The Orchestra Now will perform ‘The Sound of Spring: A Chinese New Year Concert,’ featuring contemporary symphonic music from China, will take place at the Bard Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday, February 10, at 3pm. This year’s program presents festive Chinese music specially selected to welcome the lunar new year, including solo performances by virtuosos Zhang Haiyue (erhu) and Feng Tianshi (dizi) from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Also on the program is famed winds master Guo Yazhi, performing a world-premiere suona concerto composed by Bard faculty member Xinyan Li. (Sat, Feb 10)

A.J. CROCE BRINGS ‘CROCE PLAYS CROCE’ TOUR to TROY

Singer-songwriter and pianist A.J. Croce will pay tribute to the memory of his late, legendary father -- hitmaker singer-songwriter Jim Croce (“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “Time In A Bottle,” “Operator,” “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”) in concert with his band at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., on Saturday, February 10, at 8pm. The show will include a moving, multimedia experience in which A.J. will perform his own songs in addition to tracks from his father’s mega-successful albums. Over the past three decades, A.J. Croce has established his reputation as a piano player and vocal stylist who pulls from a host of musical traditions and anti-heroes — part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul. A virtuosic piano player, A.J toured with B.B. King and Ray Charles before reaching the age of 21, and over his career he has performed with legendary musicians including Willie Nelson, the Neville Brothers, Béla Fleck, and Ry Cooder. (Sat, Feb 10)

Avalon String Quartet (photo by Todd Rosenberg/courtesy artist)

AVALON QUARTET BRINGS STACY GARROP’s ‘FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS’ to GREAT BARRINGTON

The Avalon String Quartet will perform the Berkshire premiere of Stacy Garrop’s For Such a Time as This, a retelling of the biblical Book of Esther for string quartet and vocalist from a feminist perspective, at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday, February 11, at 4pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music concert series. Composer Garrop's intent with the piece is to remind us “we each possess agency to make changes happen in our lives, to act upon injustices, and leave the world a better place.” Mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley takes on the role of narrator, alternatively playing Queen Vashti, King Ahasuerus (identified as the historical Xerxes,) Queen Esther and her guardian Mordecai from the 5th century BCE scroll, as well as the villain Haman, who seeks to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Persia. The program also includes Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 and Puccini’s verismo-style “Chrysanthemums.” (Sun, Feb 11)

Also of note:

Wilco guitarist Nels Cline brings his Concentrik Quartet to the Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Wednesday, February 7, at 7pm. (Wed, Feb 7)

Visual artist Phillip Schwartz’s Shoah: A Meditation on The Holocaust is one view at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson, N.Y., through Sunday, February 11. (Now through Sun, Feb 11)

Rock singer-songwriter Willie Nile, often compared to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan with a bit of Lou Reed thrown in for good measure, brings his unique brand of folk-rock to the Towne Crier Cafe in Beacon, N.Y., on Saturday, February 10, at 8pm. (Sat, Feb 10)

The 2024 Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare will stage The Course of True Love: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., on Saturday, February 10, at 3pm. (Sat, Feb 10)

The Ghent Playhouse opens its 2024 season with All My Sons, the Tony Award-winning drama by iconic American playwright Arthur Miller. This tense family drama was Miller’s second and established him as a leading voice in American theater. All My Sons runs Friday, February 9-Sunday, February 11 and February 16-18, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sunday matinee at 2pm. (Feb 9-18)

Violinist Jamecyn Morey and pianist Noah Palmer perform mid-20th century Romantic Modernism, perfected by composers like Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, with splashes of Gershwin and early-20th century female composers, at Trinity Lenox in Lenox, Mass., on Sunday, February 18, at 3pm. The program concludes with Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy dances from West Side Story. (Sun, Feb 18)

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Seth Rogovoy
Editor, The Rogovoy Report

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