Weekend Cultural Highlights, March 12-15, 2010

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on March 11, 2010 - 5:32pm

 

  
 
Kevin O’Hara is an authentic Berkshire treasure. His recently published book, A Lucky Irish Lad, is an evocative and comical memoir of growing up in Pittsfield during the fifties and sixties.
 
 
 
On Saturday, March 13, at 3, at The Clark in Williamstown, Mass., O’Hara will read from A Lucky Irish Lad as well as from his popular debut, Last of the Donkey Pilgrims, about his 1,800-mile journey around Ireland on foot. O’Hara is also an accomplished art photographer, and images will accompany his readings. A reception with the author will follow, featuring the music of the Celtic trio Dublin Porter. Traditional Irish refreshments will be available for purchase.  
 
 
 
413.458.2303
 
 
 
 
 
Not formally trained as an artist, Paul Graubard worked as a teacher, professor, and a psychologist until abandoning his practice to work full-time as a painter. The mostly self-taught artist – whose work has been called “folk” or “outsider” art – was one of the original downtown Pittsfield artists, before anyone ever heard of “Storefront Artists,” and he has established himself over time as one of the premier artists in the Berkshires, showing his works here and in top galleries across the nation. Graubard’s upbringing in a traditional Romanian household and his interests in music, religion, fantasy and folk stories are the subjects of his paintings. 
 
 
 
Stories from the Bible and Other Places is a show of both recent and older works by Graubard, opens on Saturday, March 13, at Ferrin Gallery in downtown Pittsfield, and runs through May 8th, 2010. There will be a reception for the artist and guests on Wednesday, April 7, at 5:30, followed by an interview and discussion with his wife, the poet, Karen Chase, moderated by gallery co-owner, Donald Clark.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Reed Foehl, formerly of Acoustic Junction and Fool's Progress, has strong friend and family ties to the Berkshires. When he performs on Friday night at the Railway Café in North Adams, his brother Stewart Lewis will be opening for him. Foehl’s new record, Once an Ocean, combines country folk and edgy roots rock. Lewis has warmed up crowds for the likes of Sheryl Crow, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole, Roseanne Cash, and Patty Larkin.
 
 
Railway Café concerts take place at MCLA's Gallery 51, 51 Main St., North Adams, at 7:30. 413.664.6393
 
 
 
Hailed as the “King of Newgrass,” Sam Bush has been considered one of the foremost innovators in acoustic music for over 30 years. He was the driving force behind the hugely influential band New Grass Revival and has collaborated with other progressive artists including Joshua Bell, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Emmylou Harris and David Grisman.
 
Bush’s talents have introduced a new generation to acoustic music and have earned him numerous honors including three Grammy Awards and a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. Bush performs at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Saturday at 8
 
413.997.4444
 
 
 
 
The Berkshire Symphony Orchestra will perform on Friday, March 12, at 8 in Chapin Hall on the Williams College campus.  The free concert features works by Edgar Varèse
Mozart, and Brahms
 
concert hotline: 413-597-3146
 
 
Also at Williams, the final seasonal concert of THE BOX – music by living composers series featuring Continuum, takes place on Monday, March 15, at 8 in the ‘62 Center at Williams . The new music ensemble directed by pianists Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs will be joined by soprano Mary Mackenzie; clarinetist Moran Katz; violinist Renée Jolles, and cellist Christopher Gross. The program includes works by Conlon Nancarrow, Ursula Mamlok, Ana Sokolovic, Roberto Sierra and others.
 
This free event is open to the public, however tickets are required.
 
concert hotline: 413.597.3146
 
 
 
On Saturday, March 13, at 4 p.m., The Mount will present a special performance of Edith Wharton’s Parisian salon, featuring the Cantilena Chamber Choir. The concert is similar to those given by Edith Wharton in her Parisian salon to raise money for the Belgian war relief effort in World War I. Inspired by the autographed manuscript score of a choral section of The Legend of St. Christophe by French composer Vincent d’Indy from The Book of the Homeless, the choir has chosen to perform works by d’Indy and other French composers of the time, several of whom were involved in Wharton’s concerts. 
 
 
 
The musical evenings and The Book of the Homeless, a compilation of prose, poetry, music and art printed in 1916, were only a few of Wharton’s many charitable endeavors during the war, for which she was honored by both the French and Belgian governments.
 
 
 
The program on Saturday features all a cappella music, including the Sept Chansons by Francis Poulenc, the Trois Chansons by Maurice Ravel, and rarely heard works for choir by Camille Saint Saëns and Vincent d’Indy. Narration by Molly McFall, The Mount’s librarian, will provide background information about Wharton’s connections with the composers and her admirable fundraising efforts during World War I.
 
 
 
The Choir is in residence at Trinity Church in Lenox and is under the artistic direction of Andrea Goodman who is also the Director of the Northern Berkshire Chorale in Williamstown and the Saratoga Choral Festival, an annual summer concert series for chorus and orchestra in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
 
 
The concert takes place in The Mount’s drawing room on Saturday, March 13, at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.
413.551.5111
 
 
 
 
Allium Restaurant + Bar of Great Barrington, Mass., will host an art opening featuring works of Berkshire-based artist Mark W. Mulherrin on Thursday, March 18, from 5 to 7 pm. The art event is free and open to the public, with light snacks and a cash bar.
 
Mark W. Mulherrin is the featured artist of Kolok Gallery's newest installation at Allium. Mulherrin’s imagery asks the viewer to penetrate the meaning without begging for some ultimate one — which, he acknowledges, can be frustrating for some people who look at the paintings like puzzles to be solved rather than questions to be pondered without a set deadline. The paintings are proof that it’s the process of uncovering meaning that is the engine of his artwork.
 
 
Mulherrin was born in Boston, Mass., in 1959 and grew up on the New Hampshire seacoast. He studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he received a B.F.A. in 1992. His early years in New York City following art school were a period of forgetting everything he had learned and crafting his own visual language.
 
 
Mulherrin moved to the Virgin Islands in 1990 and resumed painting as a means of artistic exploration. In 1994 and 1996, he represented the Virgin Islands at the Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Painting in the Dominican Republic and in 1998 he represented the Virgin Islands at the International Biennial of Painting in Cuenca, Ecuador. Among other projects, he was scenic designer for the Caribbean Dance Company when the troupe performed at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, N.C.
 
 
Mulherrin is the exclusive featured artist at Allium, the newest addition to the Mezze Restaurant Group. The exhibited artwork will be available for sale through June 2010, and additional works by the artist may be viewed at the Kolok Gallery in the Windsor Mill in North Adams.
 
 
Kolok Gallery 413.664.7381 for additional information about the work of Mark Mulherrin.
 
For more information or to make reservations for dinner after the opening event, call 413.528.2118 or visit opentable.com.
 
 
 
A smaller-than-life reenactment of the 1914 trans-Antarctic expedition by Earnest Shackleton and 27 brave souls will be played out in 69° South: The Shackleton Project by the exciting young puppet theater company Phantom Limb.
 
 
 
Fresh off a trip to Antarctica, the troupe's founders Eric Sanko and Jessica Grindstaff will be in residence at MASS MoCA prior to this work-in-progress showing of their new work on Saturday, March 13, with two shows at 4 and 8. During the residency they will focus on combining the music composed for the renowned Kronos Quartet with the action in this historical marionette performance.
 
 
Described as "a series of dynamic tableau vivants" this show will take viewers on a journey of adversity, endurance, and camaraderie. In 1914, Sir Earnest Shackleton set out on an expedition to be the first to successfully traverse the continent of Antarctica. This ambitious -- and somewhat reckless -- mission set the stage for one of the best stories of human survival, tenacity, and heroics.
 
 
 
Before even reaching Antarctica's mainland, Shackleton's boat, the Endurance, became trapped in an ice floe. During the next 497 days, Shackleton and his men lived on the ice, converting the ship into a winter station, and patiently waiting to be freed from the ice and attempt an escape for land and survival. All together the performance aims to bring the unknown Antarctica to an audience and reinvigorate the spirit of forgoing individual glory for the sake of collective survival.
 
 
 
This workshop performance focuses on the musical composition performed live, and aims to involve a portion of the theatrical elements being explored in the creation of the work, including puppetry, photography, and film combined with an unconventional acoustic palette to create an artistic and emotional journey.
 
 
69° South: The Shackleton Project is the result of a newly formed puppet theater company Phantom Limb and a chance collaboration with the renowned Kronos Quartet. The two were introduced to each other when Kronos' violinist, David Harrington, asked Phantom Limb's co-founder (and renowned musician) Sanko to trade CDs. The Shackleton Project will be Phantom Limb and Kronos Quartet's second collaboration. For their first collaboration, Dear Mme., Sanko created a marionette stage within a 15-foot tall puppet's chest, where the puppet's romantic dreams were enacted and accompanied by the Kronos performing an original soundtrack composed by Sanko.
 
 
 
Sanko and wife Jessica Grindstaff are relatively new to puppet theater, having created their first marionette play, The Fortune Teller, featuring music by Danny Elfman and narration by Gavin Friday in 2006, and recently premiered their latest collaboration with theatre wizard Ping Chong entitled The Devil You Know. Grindstaff has an established reputation as a creator of haunting, meticulously constructed music box dioramas and paintings in wax and chalkboard, while Sanko has been long admired as a singer, songwriter, and bassist in the experimental-alternative music scene, including 16 years as the bassist of the Lounge Lizards, and leader of his own renowned band, Skeleton Key.
 
 
Sanko emerged in recent years as a talented self-taught puppeteer, and Phantom Limb's first creation, a Gothic horror hit whose characters embody the seven deadly sins, was performed to sold-out houses. The Company was subsequently commissioned to create a score and theatrical presentation for Kronos Quartet, with Sanko authoring a musical composition entitled Dear Mme. and the Company devising a live theatrical presentation. The company has become well-known for using Sanko's zeal for puppetry and Grindstaff's history as an installation artist, painter, and set designer to create and direct memorable marionette puppetry.
 
 
 
413.662.2111

 

 

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