North Adams — Alto sax phenomenon Grace Kelly will appear at Venable Hall on the campus of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in North Adams on June 15 at 7 p.m.
When I wrote about Grace Kelly last August, I hurled such epithets as “preposterously talented” and “effervescent force of nature.” I stand by those words, but they do insufficient justice to the truth of the matter, which is that Ms. Kelly plays the alto saxophone with the “verve and authority of an old soul.” In other words, her playing is strongly redolent of the great jazz men of yore.
What? The diminutive woman is just barely in her 30s!
That’s true but irrelevant. All that matters is whom she studied as a child and the people she studied with, people like her mentor, the late Phil Woods. Whoever it was, they obviously made an indelible impression. And you can hear their influence as soon as she begins to play. It all comes rushing out in a torrent of hard-driving melodic elegance. (My claim is easily verified here, and the musician standing next to Kelly onstage can be seen verifying it in real time.)
I spoke last week with the man who arranged for Ms. Kelly’s MCLA appearance, Jeremy Winchester, Director of MCLA’s newly expanded arts programming arm, the “community-facing, public serving” MCLA Arts & Culture (MAC). I wanted to know how Grace Kelly’s appearance at Venable Hall fits into MAC’s summer programs. Among other things, I learned that Grace Kelly’s appearance is the first public event since Venable Hall’s renovation. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Jeremy, what is MCLA Arts & Culture all about?
We are looking to find ways to connect our students to professional arts and professional artistry around the county. The program is public focused all year, but during the summer it is almost exclusively public focused, because school is not in session.
In the past, the program has been focused mainly on visual arts. My background is in performing arts, however, and with the pandemic now in the rearview mirror, we’re opening up again, and we think it’s a great time to re-introduce performing arts programming to the northern Berkshire County community, specifically the kind of work where we can partner with the MCLA campus.
Grace’s show is one of several performances that are happening this summer. And what’s particularly exciting about it (in addition to how wonderful Grace is) is that it’s happening on MCLA’s campus here in North Adams, in Venable Hall, which has undergone some pretty extensive renovation in the last couple of years, most of it during the pandemic. And so it’s also an opportunity to re-introduce that space, and the MCLA campus as a venue, to our community.
Where exactly is Venable Hall?
It’s on the Church Street side of campus directly behind Murdock Hall. It’s where most of the theater classes are held and where all the theater performances are held during the school year. It has new seating, a new lobby, new accessible restrooms, a new stage, and new lighting and sound equipment. It’s really a much different place now, and we’re really excited to invite the community to re-experience our campus and to re-experience performing arts events and Grace, specifically, just given the tremendous dynamics of her show and her artistry. She’s the first event.
I think you made an excellent choice, considering Grace’s ability to motivate students and get people excited about jazz music.
Ed Bride recommended her to me, and when I looked her up, I was blown away. So, yes, she’s the perfect choice.
The other things we’re doing this summer involve visual and performing arts events that are happening around the county. We just did a staged reading of a play at MASS MoCA. There will be a dance theater piece at the Adams Theater in July, and we also partner with Greylock Works in North Adams to produce the Moxie Monday’s Live Music series.
We’ve got a lot going on that is meant, certainly, to be entertaining but to also have some real artistic heft and depth to it, the kinds of things we felt a college campus that’s looking to dig deep would be excited to present and that would provide the wider community with an opportunity to experience these kinds of things in settings that they might not otherwise get to enjoy.
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Hear Grace Kelly at MCLA’s Venable Hall, 375 Church Street, North Adams, on June 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.
