In a rapidly changing world, in the midst of Covid-19 and political unrest, music and musical theater is evolving quickly — and musician and composer Jacob Kerzner is experiencing the evolution firsthand.
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Avery Sharpe’s 400 explores African American history
“Can you imagine 400 years of your history, 400 years of you – where you come from?” composer Avery Sharpe’s niece, Sofia Rivera, speaks her own words aloud in Sharpe’s newest album 400: An African American Musical Portrait. “I can only go back to 1619 in America. As a Black […]
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Song and Survival: Bernice and Mariah Lewis perform in national folk festival
Berkshire singer/songwriter Bernice Lewis has performed nationwide since she first came to the Kerrville Folk Festival four decades ago. This year, in Covid-19, she and her daughter Mariah have returned to festival — online.
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Parable of the Sower — science fiction feels current
Octavia Butler wrote The Parable of the Sower as a novel set in a world on the edge of collapse, in 2024, and Toshi Reagon has written an opera based on the book. I remember the nnight her music came here.
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Local shops and makers are moving online
At the holidays, my sister and I were talking about the challenges of finding local businesses online— but we didn’t expect this kind of trial by fire. The coronavirus pandemic has suspended local shops in the Berkshires, but they are adapting.
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Runa plays Celtic music with roots and blues at Dewey Hall
Runa, a broadly recognized Celtic roots band founded Irish and Scots music, with influences in jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues, performs at Dewey Hall in Sheffield.
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10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival warms up downtown
The 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival is in town, and Pittsfield is at play. Every year in late February, downtown Pittsfield holds a weeklong celebration with art and music, new plays, independent film and more.
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Contra dance is alive and growing in the Berkshires
The tradition of contra dancing stretches from coast to coast and back more than 400 years. A caller teaches a series of simple moves, and dancers join in to live music with a beat and a quick melody.
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The Foundry gathers independent and generous souls in West Stockbridge
In its first year, the Foundry has become the kind of place where musicians from Pittsfield High School may play informally on the patio, or a cast of New York and local actors may share a potluck and talk late.
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National Arab Orchestra’s Takht Ensemble performs ecstatic music
The ecstasy musicians feel as they play is tarab in Arabic, says Michael Ibrahim, founder and director of the National Arab Orchestra. The NAO’s Takht ensemble will perform at Williams College with strings, wind and rhythm.
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