Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center presents singer-songwriter Amanda Pascali at Indigo Room
Great Barrington– On Saturday, March 21st from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center presents Amanda Pascali at the Indigo Room.
Amanda Pascali embodies the complexity of modern identity. Born to a mother from Cairo who grew up in France and an Italian father raised in Romania, she’s a mixed-race, bilingual Gen Z troubadour perpetually caught between worlds. Quoting poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo, she says, “I’m often ‘too foreign for here, too foreign for home, and never enough for both.'” Rather than lamenting this displacement, Pascali has transformed it into her artistic superpower.
As the rising voice of America’s most ethnically diverse generation of young people, singer-songwriter Amanda Pascali writes music that speaks to the experience of growing up as a first-generation American. After her songs went viral on social media, she amassed hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe. Now, her long-awaited new record, “Roses and Basil” has been praised by NPR, the Bluegrass Situation, and numerous international outlets.
The concert is on Saturday, March 21st from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Indigo Room, located at 20 Castle Street in Great Barrington. There will be general admission cocktail table seating. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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MASS MoCA presents rising R&B star Yaya Bey
North Adams– On Saturday, March 21st at 8 p.m., MASS MoCA presents rising R&B star Yaya Bey.
Rising R&B star Yaya Bey’s music contains multitudes — at once celebratory and deeply personal, sophisticated and full of visceral grooves, with a voice to melt hearts soaring above it all. Her wide-ranging sound is rooted in classic R&B, but brings in everything from hip-hop to soca to jazz and beyond. Fans of The Roots, Ravyn Lenae, and Phony Ppl will feel right at home.
The concert is on Saturday, March 21st at 8 p.m. at MASS MoCA, located at 1040 MASS MoCA way in North Adams. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Tanglewood Learning Institute and Berkshire Bach Society present ‘In the Key of Bach,’ a celebration of Bach’s birthday at the Linde Center for Music and Learning
Great Barrington– On Saturday, March 21st at 3 p.m., the Tanglewood Learning Institute and Berkshire Bach Society present ‘In the Key of Bach,’ a celebration of Bach’s birthday at the Linde Center for Music and Learning.
The program, celebrating Bach’s 341st birthday, will open with Artistic Director and violinist Eugene Drucker, who will play excerpts from Bach’s “Partita No. 1 in B minor for solo violin, BWV 1002.” The live performance will be followed by a screening of the film “In the Key of Bach” by Emmy Award-winning film director Hilan Warshaw, with a post-screening conversation hosted by Eugene Drucker, all to be followed by a sweet surprise.
“I’m sure Bach never imagined that his life and music would continue to be celebrated more than three centuries after he died or that we would prize his works for their complexity, stylistic perfection, and profound expressivity,” said Terrill McDade, Executive Director of the Berkshire Bach Society, “but that’s exactly what we’re doing in 2026 for an artist who strides among us as a colossus.”
The event is on Saturday, March 21st at 3 p.m. at the Linde Center for Music and Learning, located at 3 West Hawthorne Road in Lenox. There is free admission for children and students under the age of 25. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Valley Classical Concerts closes season with Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry
Northampton– On Saturday, March 21st at 3 p.m., Valley Classical Concerts closes its season with Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry.
A Far Cry is a conductor-less chamber orchestra whose mission is to ignite a love for music and utilize its power to bring people together locally and across the globe. Described as “a refreshing corrective to classical music’s rigid hierarchies” (WBUR), A Far Cry was founded on the belief that every voice deserves to be heard. Instead of one artistic director, the collective of musicians (“criers”) curate and submit program ideas inspired by individual curiosities, the greater musical community, and what is happening in the world at large.
The diverse program will open with “SAY” by Shelley Washington, a searing examination of what it means to be of mixed race in contemporary America, followed by Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” in its original instrumentation. The program will close with Beethoven’s 6th “Pastoral” Symphony, but in a version for six solo strings arranged by Beethoven’s contemporary Michael Gotthard Fischer.
Dedicated to the memory of Valley Classical’s President Dr. William Harbison, the concert is on Saturday, March 21st at 3 p.m. at Smith College’s Sage Hall,, located at 144 Green Street in Northampton. At 2 p.m., there will be a pre-show conversation with the artists and longtime NEPM host John Montanari. There is free admission for students up to age 18 and Mass. Card to Culture holders. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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Congregation Knesset Israel presents renowned Trio Sefardi for a weekend of music and Sephardic culture
Pittsfield– This weekend, March 20th through the 22nd, Congregation Knesset Israel presents the renowned Trio Sefardi.
The trio will offer a selection of Sephardic musical settings of traditional prayers and songs during the Friday night Shabbat service, which will be followed by a Shabbat dinner. On Saturday evening, they will perform a concert filled with Purim and Passover songs of love, loss, and hope. On Sunday morning, join the trio for a brunch-and-learn on Sephardic history, culture, and language.
Trio Sefardi performs traditional songs of the Sephardim, the descendants of Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. Their repertoire draws on the song traditions of Sephardic communities from the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and North Africa, with a special emphasis on traditional and original songs they learned from their mentor, Bosnian-born singer/composer Flory Jagoda, best known for her Chanukah song “Ocho Kandelikas.”
Trio Sefardi programs provide audiences with an opportunity to hear songs sung in Judeo-Espanyol (commonly known as Ladino) that have been passed down through the generations as well as newer songs composed by Flory that celebrate the memory of now-lost communities of the Balkans. Before her death in 2021, Flory said of the trio, “Trio Sefardi’s beautiful harmonies and skilled accompaniment movingly translates the joy and soul of the lost world I remember so well.”
The events are this weekend on March 20th at 5:45 p.m., March 21st at 8:45 p.m., and March 22nd at 10 a.m. at Congregation Knesset Israel, located at 16 Colt Road in Pittsfield. Regulation and more information can be found online.
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Solarium Plant Shop presents ‘What Lies Beneath,’ an exhibit featuring the work of Lucie Castaldo and Melissa Matsuki Lillie
Pittsfield– On Thursday, March 19th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Solarium Plant Shop celebrates the opening of “What Lies Beneath,” an exhibit featuring the work of Lucie Castaldo and Melissa Matsuki Lillie.
Offering an opportunity to explore art and plants at the same time, Solarium Plant shops new gallery space. Solarium’s Atrium Gallery’s newest installation was curated by Michael Carty.
The opening reception is on Thursday, March 19th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Solarium Plant Shop, located at 46 West Street in Pittsfield. More information can be found online.
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Lenox Memorial High School presents its spring musical production of Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’
Lenox– From March 20th through March 28th, Lenox Memorial High School presents its spring musical production of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Go on an enchanted journey to a magical underwater kingdom where the young mermaid Ariel longs to leave her ocean home behind and live in the world above. But first she’ll have to defy her father King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch Ursula, and convince the charming Prince Eric that she’s the girl whose captivating voice he’s been seeking.
The performances are on March 20th, 21st, 27th, and 28th at 7 p.m., and March 28th at 2 p.m. at Lenox Memorial High School, located at 197 East Street in Lenox. Children attending the March 28th 2 p.m. performance are encouraged to dress up as their favorite character to receive a free ticket plus a meet-n-greet and photo opportunity with the cast! Tickets may be purchased in advance by emailing rbannen@lenoxps.org or calling/texting 518-567-4731.
