Close Encounters With Music begins its season
Great Barrington — Close Encounters With Music will open its season on Saturday, October 24 at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with works by Brahms and Dvořák, whose lives intersected and were nurtured by the traditions of Central Europe. Brahms’ G minor Piano Quartet Op. 25, with its animated Hungarian idioms and whirlwind coda, and the Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major Op. 87, one of Dvořák’s most sublime works, are symphonic in scope with unbuttoned, folksy finales. The two composers, friends and fellow admirers during their lifetime, stand side by side with these powerful masterpieces that display the seemingly endless inventiveness of both in architecture, melody, instrumental interplay, and sheer sonic beauty.
Joining Artistic Director and cellist Yehuda Hanani will be pianist Walter Ponce; violinist Ara Gregorian, who made his orchestra debut with the Boston Pops; and violinist/violist Xiao-Dong Wang, who has appeared as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
For more information and tickets, which are $45 and $25, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Mahaiwe box office at (413) 528-0100.
–E.E.
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‘One Love’ benefit for Kala Gresser & breast cancer awareness
Pittsfield — In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness will be hosting a “One Love” benefit for Kala Gresser & breast cancer awareness on Saturday, October 24 to help raise awareness and funds for its yoga instructor Kala Gresser during her fight against breast cancer.
The benefit will include a variety of yoga, dance, and fitness classes from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health staff member, oncology nurse, and breast cancer survivor Sudha Carolyn Lundeen will give a talk from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. entitled “Facing Cancer with Courage.” From 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. there will be a cocktail party with live music by contemporary jazz artist Matt Cusson and acoustic rock duo Kollin Koslowski & Mike Clark and, at 8 p.m. a Latin dance night with a Salsa dance lesson and Latin dancing until 10 p.m. There will also be a raffle, silent auction, chair massage, reflexology, refreshments throughout the day donated by local businesses, materials on hand promoting breast cancer awareness, and “One Love” shirts for sale designed especially for Kala.
All proceeds from the event will go directly to Kala and her family to help defray her unexpected expenses. For more information to purchase tickets, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or the event website. Tickets are also available at Kelly’s Package Store, Plaine’s Bike Ski Snowboard, Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, and at the door.
–E.E.
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Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Berkshire Symphony
Williamstown — Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will join the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra in concert on Friday, October 23 at Williams College’s Chapin Hall. The concert will be the first event in Chapin Hall since it underwent extensive renovations that began May 18, 2015. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Chapin Hall, built in 1912, is used as a concert hall and auditorium space for major events on campus. The renovations include all new seating and a new configuration to main floor seating, as well as universally accessible routes for persons with disabilities. Also included in the renovation work was a full restoration of the hall’s original teak flooring, a new lift on stage to raise and lower a piano from a new storage area under the stage, new performance and architectural lighting, and some audiovisual improvements. The walls and ceiling of the hall have been restored and repainted with the historical colors.
One final phase of the project, the installation of an acoustical canopy, will take place in summer 2016.
–E.E.
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‘My Father, Victor Borge: Concert Pianist/Comedian’
Lenox — Frederikke “Rikke” Borge has been heard to say, “I had the best childhood that could ever be had. It’s been downhill ever since,” and will give a talk entitled “My Father Victor Borge: Concert Pianist/Comedian” at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum on Saturday, October 24 at 3:30 pm. She will join her audience afterwards for questions and answers at a Victorian tea.
Using videos and anecdotes, Rikke will share what it was like growing up with Victor Borge in the house, on the road, and as her father. She will also discuss his Danish childhood, upbringing, family, and career. Rikke studied acting at Carnegie Mellon and with Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, and Sanford Meisner, creating her own celebrity on stage and TV and in feature films. As a Berkshire resident, Rikke trains and boards horses.
Tickets for the Tea & Talk are $22 in advance and $27 day of the event. Reservations are recommended as seating is limited. For information or reservations call Ventfort Hall at (413) 637-3206 or email info@gildedage.org
–E.E.
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Temple Anshe Amunim to host ‘Read Hebrew America’
Pittsfield — During the months of October and November, members of Berkshire County’s Jewish community will gather at Temple Anshe Amunim to participate in the only continent-wide campaign aimed at teaching North American Jews to read the Hebrew language. Conceived and orchestrated by the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) in 1998, Read Hebrew America and Canada is expected to reach 12,000 affiliated and unaffiliated Jews in the United States and Canada this year.
Opening its doors to all members of the Berkshire Jewish community, Temple Anshe Amunim will be one of 600 Jewish institutions across the continent to host Read Hebrew America and Canada. Led by Esther Benari-Altmann, the five-week Hebrew Reading Crash Course will focus on teaching the Hebrew alphabet and basic reading skills to Jews with little or no background in Hebrew. Classes will meet Sundays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on October 25, November 1, 8, 15, and 22
For more information about Read Hebrew America and Canada, call the Temple office at (413) 442-5910.
–E.E.
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MASSPIRG’s Subway Day of Action
North Adams — On October 20, MASSPIRG announced that the campaign to convince Subway to save antibiotics from its meat supply has been successful. The events slated for Thursday are still scheduled to take place but they will instead be celebratory in nature in order to bring attention to the commitment Subway has made and continue the momentum on the larger campaign to stop overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
–E.E.
