Music & Dance

Arts

The Queen of Arts: Kim Taylor Joins the President's Committee

By Nichole Dupont When President Obama calls, Kim Taylor answers. The Lenox resident and longtime trustee and employee (some 30 years) of the Boston Symphony has just been appointed to the president’s committee on the Arts and Humanities. Taylor joins a powerhouse gang that includes actor Sarah Jessica Parker,

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Arts

"First Flight" at Shakespeare & Co: Berkshires Duo Takes Off

By Robert Burke Warren We live in a noisy, often dissonant age. Harmony is all too rare, so when we happen upon it, we’re captivated, especially if it emanates from the up-and-coming Tyringham, MA, duo (and devoted couple) Oakes & Smith. They’re bringing that sweet sound to Shakespeare

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Arts

Dramatic, Ecstatic Klezmatics Bring Danceable Joy to the Mahaiwe

By Robert Burke Warren When trumpeter-composer Frank London formed the Klezmatics in the East Village in 1986, he and his bandmates sought to revitalize and update klezmer music, the Yiddish folk/American jazz amalgam popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the band’s first gigs, the

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Arts

Songbird Returns to the Valley: Allison Moorer Graces Helsinki Hudson

By Robert Burke Warren When this writer last saw Grammy-and-Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, she lit up a 2011 Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm’s barn, an act she intends to repeat at Helsinki Hudson on Friday, November 15 at 9 p.m.. Back at that Ramble, Hurricane Irene had just

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Arts

Fellowship of the Five-String: Béla Fleck NY Banjo Summit at the Mahaiwe

By Robert Burke Warren The ongoing saga of the banjo is uniquely American: enslaved Africans bring a deceptively humble instrument from their homeland, whites appropriate and Victorianize it, the burgeoning multi-ethnic folk culture seizes it, mid-20th-century protestors wield it, and, finally, an urban kid – Béla Fleck –hears it on the

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Arts

Happening on the Hudson: Lit Lions and Pop Provocateurs at Basilica Soundscape

By Robert Burke Warren “Anything can happen here," says Melissa Auf der Maur, former Smashing Pumpkins/Hole bassist, and rising Upstate arts maven.  “This place is a shape shifter, a beast." She’s speaking of Basilica Hudson, the multi-purpose venue she and her filmmaker husband, Tony Stone, opened

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Arts

Legacy Act: Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion Celebrate New CD, New Sound at Helsinki

By Robert Burke Warren Some legacy-bearers follow directly in their ancestors’ footsteps, keeping to tradition, and carrying on in a predictable vein. Others, like Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, challenge expectations, a more risky prospect; she is Arlo’s daughter, he is John Steinbeck’s grandnephew, and, since 2004,

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Arts

From Bach to Bawdy, Sonnets to Sonatas, Shakespeare to Schubert: Music and More in the Berkshires

By Robert Burke Warren Attendees of the 2013 Music and More Festival in New Marlborough, Massachusetts enjoy the unique experience of walking into history, both literally and figuratively; the impeccably performed chamber music, jazz, Renaissance reels, and Elizabethan poetry take place in the township’s circa 1839 Meeting House, home

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Arts

Thriving On the Outskirts of Fame: Shawn Mullins Returns to Infinity Hall

By Robert Burke Warren You cannot keep a good troubadour down. While naysayers bemoan the difficulty of convincing couch potatoes to invest in live music, a dedicated breed of singer-songwriters still grace stages in small-to-medium sized venues, connecting with appreciative audiences as if the Internet and basic cable never happened.

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Arts

Where the Wild Things Are: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Live at MASS MoCA

By Robert Burke Warren When Ronen Givony, director of New York City’s Wordless Music Orchestra, saw Beasts of the Southern Wild, a mythic tale of devotion and loss that was nominated for four Academy Awards this year, he knew the majestic, Cajun-inflected, occasionally edgy score belonged onstage, fleshed out

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Arts

A Broadway Star Glistens at the Litchfield Jazz Festival

By Sarah Ellen Rindsberg It’s summertime and the living is easy. The opportunity to hear top quality jazz is also easy, thanks to the presence of the Litchfield Jazz Festival. From August 9 - 11, notes of bebop, flamenco, gospel, and a slew of other styles will fill the

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Arts

Risky Russians: Stravinsky & Company at Bard

By Robert Burke Warren “We try to inform listening without guiding it," says Bard president and resident Renaissance man Leon Botstein. Botstein’s Bard Music Festival, inaugurated in 1990, offers top-notch performances of a selected composer’s works — many conducted by Botstein — while also enticing audiences with lectures and

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