CEWM to present Chamber Orchestra Kremlin
Great Barrington — Embarking on its 25th year of presenting chamber music with lively commentary, Close Encounters With Music (CEWM) will open its 2016-17 season on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with the return of audience favorite Chamber Orchestra Kremlin in a panoramic program of Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich. The grand and lush sweep of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was not lost on the composer himself who said, “I am violently in love with this work and cannot wait for it to be played.” Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C was discovered in a private music collection in Czechoslovakia in 1964 and has since been embraced by cellists as one of the major solo vehicles for their instrument. Carving out a singular niche, the “crème de la Kremlin” tours the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America annually, and has recorded more than 30 CDs.
Tickets are $15-$45. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call the Mahaiwe box office at (413) 528-0100.
–E.E.
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Western Mass. Film and Media Exchange
Springfield — The Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative will produce its third annual Western Massachusetts Film and Media Exchange on Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel. The one-day Exchange is a conference dedicated to helping nonprofits and small businesses become video literate, as well as demystifying the video-making process.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno will make the opening remarks at the Exchange, which will feature workshops led by area filmmakers and video professionals on topics including an explanation of the video production process, how to write a creative brief, how to make a video to fit any budget, and how to use video effectively in social media and marketing efforts. Local filmmakers will have the opportunity to display their reels and make potential business connections. Attendees will leave with an expanded knowledge of video production as well as access to area resources that can help them create their own videos. The keynote speaker will be Michael Hoffman, CEO of Chicago-based See3 Communications, a digital marketing agency for nonprofits.
Tickets to the Exchange range from $45-$100 and include breakfast, lunch and a networking cocktail party. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call (413) 528-4223.
–E.E.
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Political cartoons of Geoffrey Moss to be shown at Lauren Clark Fine Art
Great Barrington — Lauren Clark Fine Art will present “Politics ‘Not’ as Usual: The Art and Politics of Geoffrey Moss” Saturday, Oct. 15, through Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 8. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Early on in his career, Moss was an art restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art while also freelancing for the New York Times’ op-ed pages. At the beginning of the of Watergate investigation, he contacted the Washington Post whose editors were aware of his graphics; however, until then, no captionless art had ever appeared on their editorial pages. Moss’ early days at the Post were eventually celebrated in the paper’s Nixon resignation issue. His Watergate series drawings received a Pulitzer Prize nomination followed by a book “The Art and Politics of Geoffrey Moss” and a contract as a founding member of and the first cartoonist signed with the Washington Post Writers Group, a relationship lasting 23 years.
Moss’s political works have been exhibited worldwide in such venues as the Pompidou, the Kennedy Center, the National Press Club, the Newseum, and the Smithsonian Institution. Moss has also been an essayist on NPR, a panelist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has taught conceptual thinking at Parsons/the New School and the Pratt Institute. His commissions include a conceptual drawing of Norman Rockwell’s studio for the celebration of Rockwell’s 100th birthday and, for the occasion of Martin Luther King’s birthday, the painting “Bus with White Walls,” which travelled to seven major museums including the Smithsonian.
For more information, contact the gallery at (413) 528-0432 or lauren@laurenclarkfineart.com.
–E.E.
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Seventh annual Berkshire Drum & Dance Fest
Pittsfield — The seventh annual Berkshire Drum & Dance Fest to benefit the Tamarack Hollow Nature and Cultural Center will be held on Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. at the Robert Boland Theater of Berkshire Community College’s Koussevitzky Arts Center. The fest will feature more than 75 drumming artists in short performance segments from the Berkshires and beyond including members of Gaia Roots, Namory Keita, Mangue Sylla, Abou Sylla, Youth Alive, Chris Hairston, Tommy Brown, Marafanyi, Berkshire and Valley Rhythm Keepers, Berkshire Pulse, Beat Mob, and Serenity Circles.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. for the Tamarack Hollow Trading world marketplace, silent auction, nature displays, and the showing of the Tamarack Hollow video in the theater. Music will begin at 7 p.m. There is a $10-$20 suggested donation. Proceeds will benefit Tamarack Hollow’s “Raise the Roof” fund to build a sustainable nature and cultural education center and to conserve 32 acres of highland boreal forest in Windsor for future generations. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or contact Aimee Gelinas at aimee@gaiaroots.com.
–E.E.
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Ventfort Hall to present live-action radio drama
Lenox — The East Haddam Stage Company will return to Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum on Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. for “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Speckled Band.” Cake and coffee will be served afterwards.
The live-action radio drama performance will feature Victorian superstar actor and Connecticut native William Gillette’s actual 1930 radio script, sound effects, audience participation and four actors portraying seven characters. Gillette is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage (1,300 times over 30 years) and in a 1916 silent film. His use of the deerstalker cap and curved pipe became enduring symbols of the character. The East Haddam Stage Company was founded in 2002 as a professional theater company producing new works by Connecticut playwrights, established plays, and other spoken word art forms such as poetry and staged readings.
Tickets for the program are $20 for adults and $8 for children under 12. Reservations are recommended as seating is limited. For information or reservations, contact Ventfort Hall at (413) 637-3206 or info@gildedage.org.
–E.E.
