Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual winter lecture
Great Barrington — Berkshire Botanical Garden will mark the 20th year of its annual winter lecture with a presentation on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. by landscape architect Thomas Woltz at Monument Mountain Regional High School. A reception will follow the lecture.
Woltz, who is known for his subtle and sensitively detailed designs that take in the essence of beauty and function, will share his design philosophy and sense of plantsmanship in an illustrated talk titled “Earthly Delights: Landscape Pleasures for the Mind and Body.” The presentation will feature with ideas for professionals and home gardeners alike, focusing on elements used in creating northeast landscapes in private gardens throughout New York state and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
Trained as a fine artist, an architect and a landscape architect, Woltz is a principal at the Nelson Byrd Woltz landscape architecture firm in Charlottesville, Virginia, and New York City. The firm’s projects create models of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture within areas of damaged ecological infrastructure and working farmland, yielding hundreds of acres of reconstructed wetlands, reforested land, native meadows and flourishing wildlife habitat. Woltz was invested into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows and, in 2013, was named Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal magazine.
Tickets are $45 general admission and $35 for Garden members. Discounted tickets are available for groups of six or more. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call (413) 320-4794. The snow date for the lecture is Sunday, Feb. 12, at 2 p.m.
–E.E.
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‘Lenox Through the Years’ documentary film screening
Lenox — In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the town of Lenox, the documentary film “Lenox Through the Years” will be shown at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School’s Duffin Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m.
Produced by full-time Lenox resident Judy Seaman, the one-hour film was several years in the making and presents the town of Lenox through funny and moving anecdotes, serious descriptions of significant times and events, archival film footage and award-winning photography. More than 60 townspeople were interviewed for the feature, many of whom are second- and third-generation Lenox residents.
The event is free and open to the public. The snow date for the screening is Sunday, Feb. 26, at 3 p.m. For more information, contact (413) 637-3375 or lenox250th@gmail.com.
–E.E.
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Dead of Winter Jam to celebrate music of the Grateful Dead
Pittsfield — Berkshire Theatre Group will welcome Rev Tor’s Dead of Winter Jam, featuring the Rev Tor Band and friends and celebrating the music of the Grateful Dead, to the Garage on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m.
The show will be a mid-winter celebration of the music of the Grateful Dead featuring a multitude of local guest artists. Special guests will include members of Rebel Alliance, the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow, Misty Blues, Hotshot Hillbillies and Dead Collective with Gina Coleman, Tom Corrigan, Tory Hanna, Mark Kurber, Ed Moran, Mike Sacco, Jennifer Schultheis, Dave Vittone, Wendy Walz and Mike Wood. There will be a food drive at this event for local pantries in need.
Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact the Colonial ticket office at (413) 997-4444. Attendees are asked to bring a nonperishable food item to be donated to local food pantries.
–E.E.
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Author Robert D. Kaplan to speak at Stockbridge Library
Stockbridge — The Stockbridge Library Museum & Archives will welcome back to its Speaker Series author Robert D. Kaplan on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 4 p.m. to discuss his new book “Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America’s Role in the World.”
In “Earning the Rockies,” Kaplan undertakes a cross-country journey to recapture an appreciation of American geography often lost in the jet age. Traveling west in the same direction as the pioneers, Kaplan witnesses both prosperity and decline and paints a bracingly clear picture of America today.
Kaplan is the best-selling author of 17 books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including “In Europe’s Shadow,” “Asia’s Cauldron,” “The Revenge of Geography,” “Monsoon,” “The Coming Anarchy,” and “Balkan Ghosts.” He is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a senior advisor at Eurasia Group. His work has appeared in the Atlantic for three decades. He held the national security chair at the United States Naval Academy and was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.
For more information, contact the Stockbridge Library at (413) 298-5501 or info@stockbridgelibrary.org.
–E.E.
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Violinist Eugene Drucker, cellist Roberta Cooper to perform at Camphill Ghent
Chatham, N.Y. — World-renowned violinist Eugene Drucker and cellist Roberta Cooper will return to the Concerts at Camphill Ghent chamber music series on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m. “Brahms and the Spirit (Specter) of Beethoven” is the theme of the concert which is under the direction of pianist and series artistic director Gili Melamed-Lev. The trio will perform Brahms’ Violin Sonata in G Major No. 1 Op. 78, Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor No. 1 Op. 38, and Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Major No. 2 Op. 87. A reception with the artists will conclude the performance.
Drucker is the founder and first violinist of the Emerson String Quartet and is also an active soloist. He has appeared with the orchestras of Montreal, Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Hartford, Richmond, Omaha, Jerusalem and the Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Chamber Symphony. Cooper won the Artists International Competition, which sponsored her Carnegie Hall debut. She is a member of the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio and is the assistant principal cellist of the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra and the Westchester Philharmonic. Melamed-Lev is a multi-faceted pianist who enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborative artist. She has been a member of the Lev-Evans Duo since 2013 and is a co-founder of the Music Coalition of Columbia County.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors over age 55, $5 for students and $55 for families. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (518) 392-2760.
–E.E.
