Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

A grand finale for Crescendo’s 22nd season

A grand finale for Crescendo’s 22nd season

Christine Gevert, artistic director, brings together international and local musicians for a season of rare works.

Stephen Potter

Crescendo, the Lakeville-based nonprofit specializing in early and rarely performed classical music, will close its 22nd season with a slate of spring concerts featuring international performers, local musicians and works by pioneering composers from the Baroque era to the 20th century.

Christine Gevert, the organization’s artistic director, has gathered international vocal and instrumental talent, blending it with local voices to provide Berkshire audiences with rare musical treats.

“The biggest event of this part of our season is our April 25 and 26 concerts, with the US premiere of ‘A Jewish Cantata’ and the iconic ‘Misa a Buenos Aires,’” said Gevert. “The composer, an internationally renowned musician, will come and share the podium with me.”

Among the other season highlights are concerts showcasing the works of two trailblazing female musical innovators, Francesca Caccini, the early Baroque composer, poet and singer; and Wanda Landowska, the 20th-century virtuoso who single-handedly brought the harpsichord back from obscurity. Also not to be missed is the May 30 concert, Bach’s Motets in Concert, featuring all six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s surviving motets, sung by four eight-part double choruses and accompanied by period instruments, widely considered the pinnacle of Baroque choral music.

For a schedule of concerts and tickets, visit crescendomusic.org

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less

A feast of cookbooks in Wassaic

A feast of cookbooks in Wassaic

Erika DaSilva at Ten Mile Table.

D.H. Callahan

On Nov. 7, Ten Mile Table, the independent wine and spirits shop in the hamlet of Wassaic, will host its first Cookbook Fest and Swap. Erika DaSilva, the shop’s owner, is a big fan of cookbooks. While most people will flip to a recipe that piques their interest, she reads them cover to cover like novels. She’s already published two volumes of her community-based cookbook, “The Corner Table,” featuring recipes and writings from cooks and foodies all hailing from Wassaic and the surrounding towns. For DaSilva, community is half the reason for the event.

Spend any amount of time at Ten Mile Table, located in Wassaic’s old candy shop, and one thing will becomes obvious: Community comes first. DaSilva stops to talk with local residents as they pass by her open door, asking about health updates or letting them know she has something they requested back in stock. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that, as publisher of the hyperlocal newspaper the Hamlet Gazette, DaSilva knows more or less everything about everybody in town. But despite having all that knowledge, she doesn’t treat it like gossip. She holds it with care until the story is ready to be told — or kept forever as a secret.

Keep ReadingShow less

Ancram Play Lab explores the wars that follow soldiers home

Ancram Play Lab explores the wars that follow soldiers home
Composer and lyricistStephanie Salzman
Provided

In 2020, the Ancram Center for the Arts launched Play Lab in response to the challenges facing live theater during the COVID-19 pandemic. It continues today as a thriving residency program where artists develop original work and experiment with new forms of performance. Community connection is central to the Play Lab mission, with audiences invited to share in the creative process through interactive workshops, open rehearsals, discussions and more.

The next Play Lab work-in-progress presentation, “Be Safe, I Love You,” is a new musical theater piece based on Cara Hoffman’s acclaimed 2014 novel. It follows Iraq war veteran Lauren Clay as she returns home to Watertown, New York, where post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) drives her to protect her family from an enemy only she can see. It is a story about class, loyalty and the wars that follow soldiers home.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.