Anna & Elizabeth at Dewey Hall
Sheffield — Anna & Elizabeth will play a concert at Dewey Hall in Sheffield on Tuesday, March 17 at 7
p.m. Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle are gifted storytellers and visual artists reviving the lost art of “crankies,” scrolling storyboards of sewn fabric or cut paper. Master musicians steeped in knowledge of Appalachian mountain tunes, ballads and stories, Anna & Elizabeth’s show is a captivating mix of ballads, foot-stomping dance tunes, stories and visual art. They have toured across the country, playing in living rooms and art museums, the Lexington Opera House and Brooklyn Folk Festival, The Watermelon Park Festival in Virginia, and as far abroad as Uzbekistan.
“LaPrelle’s shimmering resonance has been compared to that of Emmylou Harris, her ornamental trill to the church-influenced work of Ralph Stanley and Iris DeMent,” said Beth Macy of Garden & Gun Magazine. “Roberts-Gevalt is an acclaimed musician in her own right … energetic and rangy.” as Uzbekistan. Their travels have led them to work with Eamon O’Leary, Jefferson Hamer, Tim Eriksen, Wayne Henderson, Riley Baugus, and Alice Gerrard.
“There’s something truly inspiring about this collaboration,” Sing Out Magazine said in 2013. “A very special treat for lovers of pure traditional singing and playing, aficionados of the great ballad, and anyone that gets excited witnessing culture carried forward with mastery, love and a profound and real understanding of what makes old material great.”
Anna Robert-Gevalt is a blue-ribbon fiddler and banjo player, a native New Englander who has apprenticed with Kentucky master fiddlers such as Bruce Greene, John Harrod and Paul David Smith and master banjo players Lee Sexton and Earl Thomas. She was one of 25 musicians from around the world chosen in 2014 for OneBeat, an international music fellowship. She is an in-demand producer of music videos, most recently for Kristin Andreassen and Rachel Ries, and has co-produced a compilation album of young traditional musicians called The New Young Fogies.
Elizabeth LaPrelle, a native of Rural Retreat, Va., has won awards for her powerful voice since she was 11. At age 16, she was the first recipient of the Henry Reed Award from the Library of Congress. She has recorded three solo albums, and her singing has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Prairie Home Companion. Roots Magazine has named Elizabeth “quite simply the best young appalachian ballad singer to emerge in recent memory.”
“These young women follow in the footsteps of many of our idols and mentors who’ve gone before…. And they do them proud.” Grammy Nominee Alice Gerrard.
Tickets are available for purchase at the door, $10 for students and $15 for adults. BerkShares are welcome, as well. Dewey Hall is located at 91 Main Street, Sheffield, MA. A social with beverages and treats will precede the show, starting at 6:30 pm. More info about Anna & Elizabeth, and videos of their crankies, can be found at www.annaandelizabeth.com.
— H.B.
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Rudolf Steiner School Circus this Sunday
Great Barrington — Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (GBRSS) presents “Around the World in a Circus,” starring 7th and 8th graders in an extravaganza of juggling, tumbling, jumping, balancing, clowning and twirling fun for the whole family, on Sunday, March 8 at 2 p.m. in the Kilpatrick Athletic Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington.
“Circus arts are part of the physical education curriculum at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School,” said GBRSS Athletic Director and circus creative director Krista Palmer. “Through activities like tumbling and acrobatics, children are encouraged to feel comfortable moving their bodies as well as extending into the space around them, and they become aware of their strength both physically and emotionally. The adult capacities of being flexible, leading a balanced life, helping and supporting others and juggling life’s tasks are exercised in childhood through circus arts.”
Tickets are $5 child, $10 adult or $25 per family at the door; children under 2 free. All proceeds benefit the athletic program at the school. To learn more, visit gbrss.org or call 413-528-4015.
— H.B.
