Weekend Preview July 23-August 2

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on July 27, 2010 - 11:21pm

 

MONICA BILL BARNES and CND2 at JACOB'S PILLOW
 
Monica Bill Barnes brings her trademark blend of theatricality, intelligence, humor, and physicality to the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow Dance, July 28-August 1. Barnes and her dancers will perform excerpts from Another Parade, set to a varied score including music by J.S. Bach, Burt Bacharach, and James Brown. The program also features mostly fanfare, a world premiere inspired by the music of Nina Simone, and here we are, a 2009 solo choreographed and performed by Barnes herself.
 
Barnes and filmmaker/company member Celia Rowlson-Hall have collaborated to create eight short companion films for mostly fanfare, designed for a limited time internet showing, and intended to serve as “windows into the choreographer's imagination." The films may be viewed online.
 
Another Parade, a work for four dancers including Barnes, celebrates the experience of being onstage. Barnes’s signature movement style, full of large, sweeping phrases as well as intimate, theatrical gestures and expressions, is at the forefront of this work, Set to Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 4” in addition to popular music by artists such as James Brown and Burt Bacharach, this exploration of performers and performing utilizes humorous theatricality interwoven with Barnes’ innovative choreography.
 
While at Jacob’s Pillow, Monica Bill Barnes will lead a Master Class on Sunday, August 1, 10-11:30am. Sunday Master Classes are open to intermediate/advanced dancers and pre-registration is required (call 413.243.9919 x5). Master Classes are $15 per class or $8 for dance instructors with proper identification. Observation is free and open to the public.
 
On Thursday, July 29, Barnes will screen and comment on film clips of classic comic dancers such as Lotte Goslar, Iva Kitchell, and Myra Kinch during a discussion on the use of humor in concert dance. The talk, part of Jacob’s Pillow’s free PillowTalks series, will take place at 5pm in Blake’s Barn.
 
Performance Information for Monica Bill Barnes
Wednesday, July 28 – Saturday, July 31, 8:15pm
Saturday, July 31 & Sunday, August 1, 2:15pm

 

Madrid-based contemporary dance company CND2 (Compañía Nacional de Danza 2) performs in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow July 28–August 1, in their final engagement under departing founder and artistic director Nacho Duato. Duato announced in April of 2010 that by the end of July he would step down as artistic director of both CND2 and the parent company CND after founding both companies and twenty years at the helm. For this very special engagement, CND2 will perform the U.S. premiere of Insected by co-artistic director Tony Fabre, and acclaimed dancemaker Duato’s movingly spiritual works Kol Nidre and Gnawa.

 
Ella Baff, Jacob’s Pillow Executive Director, comments, “This is an important event in the dance world, and in dance history, as these are the final performances under Nacho Duato’s direction and we do not know if the company will exist after he leaves. Anyone who has not seen CND2 must see this choreographer’s works and the exceptional dancers who perform them. I am also so pleased that Tony Fabre has held the U.S. premiere of his new work, Insected, for the Pillow. These performances are also a bittersweet occasion for us, as the Pillow presented the U.S. debut of CND2 in 2003 as well as in 2004 and 2006. Nacho is one of the world’s most important choreographers and we feel proud to have introduced his work to U.S. audiences.”
 
Insected is set to an eclectic score that creates a full and intriguing atmosphere, with music by Hans Werner Henze, the tribes of northern Ghana, André Klenes & Sébastien Walnier, Spontus, Siegrid Palm, Lydia Torea, and Ruben Romero. Choreographed by Toby Fabre, the dance explores maturation and learning through experience, self and community, with a wide movement vocabulary from intimate gestures to demanding technical feats. Insected also employs a structural set which the dancers climb on and around at certain points to further the ideas and imagery of the work.
 
Nacho Duato named his work Kol Nidre for the phrase that is recited in the synagogue at the beginning of the evening service for Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Kol Nidre is set to music by John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, and John Zorn, and the movement is sweeping, luscious, and generous, but also introspective and spiritual.
 
In Gnawa, Duato uses strong, interconnected sequences to suggest the vibrancy and spirituality of the Moroccan landscape and people. Gnawa is the name of members of mystic Muslim brotherhoods of sub-Saharan origin, known for the use of song and dance as a means to reach ecstasy. With an evocative musical score of Spanish and North African rhythms, Gnawa includes “passages of fast-paced unity for six couples, with sensuous duets” (Los Angeles Times).
 
LOS ANGELES PIANO QUARTET at THE CLARK
 
The Clark’s summer chamber music series kicks off with a performance by the acclaimed Los Angeles Piano Quartet, a group that enjoys international stature as the premiere ensemble of its kind, on Tuesday, August 3 at 8 pm. The concert features the Beethoven Piano Quartet in E-Flat major, Opus 16; Mendelssohn’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in F Minor; and Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Opus 60.
 
Since its 1977 debut concert in Los Angeles, LAPQ has been in demand for appearances on many of the world’s most prestigious stages. They have been repeatedly engaged by major chamber music presenters in North America, featured at the Cheltenham Festival in England, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and in concert halls throughout Europe.
 
The LAPQ has been an active force in the creation of new works for piano quartet, commissioning from prominent contemporary composers such as Stephen Hartke, Gerard Schurmann, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Stucky. 
 
Tickets are $21, $18 for Clark members and students with ID, and may be purchased at clarkart.edu, 413-458-0524, or at the museum shop.
 
A fixed-price, three-course dinner will be offered at the Clark Café at 6 pm. Cost for dinner is $25 per person (does not include concert, beverage, tax, or gratuity). Dinner reservations are required and seating is limited. Call 413 458 0524 for reservations. In addition the museum shop and galleries will remain open until 6:00 pm giving concert-goers an opportunity to view Picasso Looks at Degas; gallery admission is $15.
 
The Miro String Quartet performs on August 10.   The Claremont Piano Trio performs on August 17. The series concludes on August 24 with the Cavani String Quartet, winners of the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Coleman, Fischoff, Banff International, and the Cleveland Quartet Competition.
 
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm (daily in July and August). Admission June 1 through October 31 is $15 for adults, free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. Admission is free November through May. For more information, call 413 458 2303.
 

COMIC ART at STOREFRONT ARTIST PROJECT
 
Storefront Artist Project continues its Comic Book and Cartoon Art exhibition series this summer with Comic and Cartoon Art Comes Alive: The Art of Mark Martin, on view July 31 – August 29 at the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield, Mass. Martin, an artist based in Williamsburg, Mass., who has worked in and out of the comics field for 24 years, creates many worlds of his own as well as writing and drawing adventures of such well-known characters as SpongeBob SquarePants and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Opening reception is Saturday, July 31, 5-8pm.
 
As a precursor to the exhibit, the Storefront Artist Project will be hosting a special United States Postal Service stamp cancellation ceremony in honor of SAP's Comic and Cartoon Art Comes Alive: The Art of Mark Martin. The cancel was created by Martin with his own characters and will be used by the USPS on July 16, 2010 as part of the "Sunday Funnies" 2010 Stamp Program.
 
A series of related workshops and programs will also be offered to the community in conjunction with the exhibition. On Sunday, August 1, Martin will participate in a day of workshops at the Storefront Artist Project, 124 Fenn Street. Activities include a drawing demonstration, sketch-a-thon, and discussion on art, comics and drawing. Other events will include talks about writing, art, publishing, portfolio reviews and group workshops geared towards children. On Thursday, August 19 during Pittsfield’s downtown 3rd Thursday celebration, Storefront will bring together artists Mark Martin, Joe Staton and Scott Hanna at the Berkshire Bank tent on North Street. All programs are free and open to the public. These kid-centric, family-friendly programs are generously sponsored by Canson and Fanboy™ Papers, Bags Unlimited, Sakura Color Products of America, Berkshire Bank Foundation, Endurance Brewing Company, and the Pittsfield Cooperative Bank.
 
Comic and Cartoon Art Comes Alive: The Art of Mark Martin is curated by Lawrence Klein, Chairman Emeritus and founder of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. A resident of Pittsfield, Klein founded the New York based museum in 2001. “When I founded the museum, it was a way to set an example on how people can give back to the community. Similarly, I became involved with the Storefront Artist Project to give back to the community in which I now live,” said Klein.
 
 
 
TOWER OF POWER BLASTS INTO MAHAIWE
 
In its fifth decade, soul-funk band Tower of Power, known for its crack horn section, is still going strong. This ten-member funk band, led by founding member tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo, has released albums and toured the world since 1968, in addition to backing up hundreds of other renowned artists, ranging from Aerosmith, Elton John, and Phish to Santana, Aaron Neville, and Bonnie Raitt. Originally from Oakland, Calif., the group combines a unique brass rhythm section and an outstanding lead vocalist to generate one of the most dynamic and memorable musical grooves today. Tower of Power pulls into the Mahaiwe on Sunday, August 1 at 7 p.m.
 
 
CLASSIC POP SONGWRITER JIMMY WEBB at the GUTHRIE CENTER
 
Jimmy Webb, the Grammy-award winning writer of “By The Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Up, Up and Away,” and “McArthur Park,” will entertain at the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday and Saturday nights, July 30 and 31, at 8 p.m. Webb is the only performer ever to win Grammy awards in three areas (music, lyrics, and orchestration). His songs have been made famous by many artists, including Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, the Fifth Dimension, Richard Harris and others.
 
Though best known for the instant classics he provided for such artists as Glen Campbell (“By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Where’s The Playground, Susie”), Richard Harris (“MacArthur Park,” “Didn’t We”), the Fifth Dimension (“Up, Up and Away,” “This Is Your Life”), The Brooklyn Bridge (“Worst That Could Happen”), Art Garfunkel (“All I Know”), Linda Ronstadt (“Easy For You To Say”), Joe Cocker (“The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress”) and so on, Webb continues to write songs that are as carefully crafted and magical as the earlier ones.
 
Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson hit #1 in the late eighties with another Webb standard, “The Highwayman,” a ballad which won him yet another Grammy for Best Country Song of the Year, and a CMA Award for Single Of The Year. Linda Ronstadt, who has recorded a multitude of his songs throughout her recording career, included four of his efforts on her double platinum album, “Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.” With a discography that reads like a “Who’s Who” in the music world, Webb’s songs continue to grace a multitude of major recording artists’ albums, from Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, to Urge Overkill, Reba McEntire, and Shawn Colvin.
 
Ticket prices are $30 for Guthrie Center members and $35 for non-members. For more information on the Guthrie Center, visit www.guthriecenter.org.
 
 
NEW YORK CITY SUBJECT OF GALLERY SHOW
 
An opening reception for Re/Imaging New Yorkat studio21south in North Adams, Mass., takes place on Saturday, July 31, from 3 to 7.  The exhibition, which runs through September 6, features works by Valeri Larko, Eric March, Jaye Fox, and Thor Wickstrom. 
 
Located in an historic mill loft (the perfect setting for the gritty industrial images in this show), studio21south is an exhibition space featuring contemporary realism and formal abstraction, at 189 Beaver St. (Route 8) in North Adams, approximately one mile from Mass MoCA. studio21south is a part of Downstreet Art , a public art project of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
 
 
AVANT-GARDE MULTIMEDIA PROGRAM at SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY
 
Intrigued by the avant-garde work of her artist friends, violinist Eva Ingolf imagined pairing her performance of Bach’s Partita No.2 in D Minor with a visual interpretation of the intense emotion of the piece. The Icelandic musician, who has studied and performed in concert halls throughout the world, ultimately collaborated with her friend, Greek-born visual artist Ektoras Binikos, to create a dazzling multimedia performance incorporating abstract, digital video that references the tragedy that is thought to have inspired the Partita, the untimely death of Bach’s wife. The performance takes place on July 31 at 8 at the Spencertown [N.Y.] Academy Arts Center.
 
To enhance the drama of the performance, Ingolf stands alone on the stage in front of a white backdrop, clothed in a white gown. The projected images engulf her and as the swirling shapes fill the stage and play across her dress, the music and the images seem to coalesce into a powerful, emotional experience. In addition to the Bach Partita, Ingolf will also perform Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Etude, and Abba Labba La, a traditional Icelandic folksong about a forest temptress and an unsuspecting poet.
 
 
NEW PAINTINGS BY MAGGIE MAILER
 
The opening reception for an exhibition of new paintings by Maggie Mailer takes place at Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, Mass., on Saturday, July 31, from 4 to 6. Mailer’s solo show, The Balloonists, present a post apocalyptic world whose beings live above the earth suspended by balloons. The show runs through September 18
 
For The Balloonists, Mailer’s fourth solo exhibition with Ferrin Gallery, Mailer uses her experience as the first resident artist at the Berkshire Museum. During the summer of 2009, Mailer spent two months painting in the museum. Drawing inspiration through interpretation, the paintings in her show incorporate elements from the museum’s collection of 18th century landscape and portrait paintings. Mailer reflects on her 20/21st century life through the narratives related by her choices of subject matter and content.   Portraits of women and children, dreamy landscapes and romanticized views of beauty are offset with symbolic references to distant threats. 
 
The daughter of author Norman Mailer and jazz singer Carol Stevens, Mailer will discuss her artistic heritage during the DISH+DINE @ Ferrin Gallery on Tuesday, August 24th. She will be joined by painter, Nanny Vonnegut, the daughter of Kurt Vonnegut.
 
Ferrin Gallery was established 1979 in Northampton, MA. From 2002 -2007, the gallery was located in Lenox, Mass.   The gallery specializes in American ceramic art and sculpture from throughout the country and hosts changing exhibits of contemporary art, photography and sculpture featuring emerging and established regionally based artists.  
 
photo caption:
The Balloonists, 2010, 40 x 30 in., Oil on canvas

 
BANG ON A CAN SUMMER MARATHON
 
On Saturday, July 31 the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival wraps up its residency at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., with the Bang on a Can Summer Marathon, six hours of contemporary music, mixing pieces written last week with mind-expanding performances of well known experimental work, beginning at 4 p.m. Concert includes music by Steve Reich, Arvo Part, Julia Wolfe (with film by Bill Morrison), Nik Baertsch, Evan Ziporyn, Christine Southworth, Tom Johnson, and others.
 
More than 30 performers and composers from around the world will team up for a six-hour concert ranging from classical, contemporary, and jazz, to rock and experimental music. This concert includes Steve Reich's Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, Arvo Part's moving avant-baroque concerto Fratres for percussion and string orchestra; Julia Wolfe's blazing Fuel for string orchestra with a film by legendary experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison (Decasia); plus a new work by Swiss post-jazz master and ECM records mainstay Nik Baertsch; Evan Ziporyn's Music from Shadowbang - a Balinese folktale dressed up in ripped jeans; an ensemble of Uzbekis who have come half way around the globe just to shake up North Adams; Christine Southworth's concerto for sampled Van de Graaf generator and ensemble; pattern master Tom Johnson's translation of an ancient Indian math problem into a minimalist masterpiece; and much more. 


FRENCH ARTIST FEATURED at THE MOUNT
 
An opening reception for “Interacting with History: Xavier Veilhan at The Mount” takes place on Thursday, July 29 at 5:30 p.m. at The Mount in Lenox, Mass. Figurative and abstract sculpture, photography, kinetic sculpture, mechanical inventions and dreamlike video installations are the focus of the exhibit, which explores how contemporary works relate to a historical environment. To this end, Veilhan's pieces have been placed to create a dialog between old and new, apparent to visitors moving through the house's public and private spaces to view the thoughtfully sited works.
 
The reception is free and open to the public; reservations strongly encouraged. RSVP to 413-551-5115.
 
Xavier Veilhan, who lives and works in Paris, is one of the most prominent contemporary artists in France. He has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the US, including those at the Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2010), Château de Versailles (2009), Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino (2008), Gering & López Gallery, New York (2007) and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004). His work is part of the collections of several European and American museums, and he has installed public projects throughout France.
 
Interacting with History includes eight works from private collections and the Gering & López Gallery in New York. Veilhan often makes art historical references while maintaining his own distinctive style. He is known for embracing generic or historically identifiable subjects--whether figures or objects--whose details he deliberately strips away using cutting edge, computer-aided technology, resulting in strikingly minimalist, geometric forms. This technique is illustrated in the diminutive statue of Yan (2010), which stands just six inches high but is a masterpiece of an intricate geometry that still remarkably retains a human shape. At a quick glance, Amish Vibration (2009) is a perfectly proportionate horse-drawn carriage. Yet a closer view reveals that the work is surprisingly devoid of any details, and vibrates with an energy that is both compelling and somewhat evasive.
 
Admission to “Interacting with History” is free with general admission to The Mount. The exhibition runs through the end of October.

 
HOW TO DO IT LIKE THE SHAKERS DID
 
On Thursday, July 29, at 2, Gladys Montgomery, editor of Berkshire Living Home+Garden presents Integrating Shaker Style into Your Home at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass. The Shakers were famous in the 19th century for their creativity, design, simple style and quality craftsmanship, and the Shaker aesthetic is still appealing to the World’s People today. Not only are original Shaker artifacts highly sought after in the antiques marketplace, but a wide variety of replicas, reproductions, and adaptations of Shaker design are available as well. The session will discuss various approaches and ways to incorporate Shaker design and style into your home. 
 
 
JULIA GOTTLIEB and BLUE RIBBON BOYS at HELSINKI HUDSON
 
What began as a bluegrass band, with members of Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops, and The Hunger Mountain Boys, morphed into The Blue Ribbon Boys. Mix in Manhattan based jazz singer, Julia Gottlieb, a few line-up changes, a few years, and a few too many influences; from 20's and 30's swing jazz to 80's underground pop, and you have a band winding down an eclectic crossroad. If the Cowboy Junkies or Lone Justice did twang and swing it would sound like the Blue Ribbon Boys, performing at Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday, July 30.
 
405 Columbia Street, Hudson, N.Y.
518.828.4800
 
 
FATHER AND SON NAUGHTONS in WTF CABARET
 
Father-and-son duo James and Greg Naughton team up for a special one-night only Williamstown Theatre Festival Main Stage benefit cabaret on Monday, August 2, at 7. The two have been performing together for decades. They started singing together at the 1896 House in the 1980s; they sang together at the White House in the 1990s.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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