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Culture to Do: Oct. 12, 2022

Swing Caravan and the GCC Music Revue
Hawks & Reed, Greenfield
Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Swing Caravan is a Greenfield-based trio that plays interpretations of “jazz manouche," vocal jazz standards, and alt-jazz improv originals. The band has played at the Green River Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, Brooklyn Djangology Festival, and other festivals throughout the Northeast. The concert will include guest musicians associated with the Greenfield Community College Music Department, where bandleader Matthew Shippee is faculty and chair of the contemporary music studies program.

Archguitar Duo - Peter Blanchette & Mané Larregla
The Drake, Amherst
Friday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.
Since the early 1980s, Peter Blanchette has been known around the world as the inventor of the 11-string archguitar. Archguitar Duo performs music from the medieval, renaissance, and baroque period, world music, new music, pop music, and original works. At the Drake, Blanchette and Spanish guitarist Mané Larregla, will perform works from their new album, “The Big Sound / El Gran Sonido.”

Westfield on Weekends: PumpkinFest
Amelia Park, Westfield
Saturday, Oct. 15 from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Westfield on Weekends (WOW) is pulling out all the stops to present a fantastic family event with music, food, crafts, a photo station, crafts, pumpkin carving and more. From 3 – 7 p.m., head to the Arena Park Arena for skating in the “Haunted Rink.” There’s also “Drive by Haunted Houses” through Oct. 31. Scan the map, take the tour and vote for your favorite!

Mummenschanz: 50 Years
Tillis Performance Hall, UMass Amherst
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m.
Mummenschanz has been dazzling audiences of all ages in theaters across the globe for five decades. For the company's 50th anniversary production, the legendary visual theater troupe invites audiences on a journey through their history and into their future. Filled with imagination and poetry, the production features such legendary characters as the Clay Masks, the Toilet Paper Faces, the air-filled Giants, and the Pipe Creature, along with an abundance of other bizarre objects and shapes that spring to life on stage.

Illuminati Vocal Arts Ensemble: In Illo Tempore / At That Time
Our Lady of the Valley, Easthampton
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
The renowned local choir starts its ninth season under the interim direction of conductor Dr. Arianne Abela, director of choral activities at Amherst College and founder and artistic director of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, a professional ensemble focused on early and new music with dedicated to the intersection of racial, ethnic and gender diversity, and the intersection of arts and social justice. The program of Monteverdi, Victoria and Bach will blossom in the superb acoustical space of the Our Lady of the Valley church.

Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares: Reggie Nicholson Brass Concept
Community Music School of Springfield
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
You’re probably familiar with farm shares where you pay a local farmer up front, and they give you a share of their harvest. Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares extends the concept to music! Their upcoming concert — partially funded by jazz shares — will feature Chicago-born percussionist Reggie Nicholson performing with Reggie Nicholson Brass Concept featuring James Zollar, Marshall Sealy, Steve Swell and Joseph Daley.

Josh Simpson: Visionary Explorations in Glass
Springfield Museums
Opens Saturday, Oct. 15
This new exhibit presents a 50-year retrospective of one of the most innovative glass artists of our time. Based in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, Josh Simpson has long been captivated by the fickle properties and phenomenal possibilities of red-hot molten glass. Drawn from the artist’s archives, the Springfield Museums’ holdings, and from private collections, this exhibition showcases the expansive range of Simpsons’ vision in the form of planets, platters, vessels, goblets, sculptures, copper baskets, and unique surprises.

Justina Golden and Sharon Saline: In Concert
Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity, Florence
Sunday, Oct 16 at 3 p.m.
Head to Bombyx for an afternoon of superb musicianship and heartfelt laughter. In this unique collaboration, Justina Golden and Sharon Saline join forces to explore life, love and the pursuit of sanity in these unpredictable times. Justina will present a set of new works entitled “The Wisdom of Women.” Drawing from local history, myth and the poetry of Heinrich Heine, her songs are tributes to strength, hope and transformation. Sharon will perform songs from jazz standards to Broadway hits to rock and roll adaptations while weaving in stories to present a creative commentary on contemporary life.

The President's Own U. S. Marine Band
Springfield Symphony Hall
Sunday, Oct 16 at 3 p.m.
The Spirit of Springfield, the folks who bring us Bright Nights and the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast, present a free concert by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. The band’s 50 musicians will fill the historic hall with selections by John Phillip Sousa, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, as well as the traditional “A Salute to the Armed Forces of the United States of America” and more. The concert is a part of the band’s fall tour in the Northeast.

Carol's Jazz Night: Evan Arntzen Trio
CitySpace, Easthampton
Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 7 pm.
Local jazz diva Carol Abbe Smith is reviving her monthly series exploring the many sides of jazz from blues, latin, bebop, traditional, and swing in CitySpace's Blue Room in Old Town Hall. Evan Arntzen is a 3rd generation jazz musician. Originally from Vancover, he moved to New York City in 2014 and immediately started playing at venues like Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. You may have caught him playing earlier this month at the Northampton Jazz festival with El La Bas!

Edward Albee’s Seascape
The Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge
Thursdays – Sundays through Oct. 23
Winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize, Edward Albee’s “Seascape” brings true eloquence to its compelling yet subtle examination of the very meaning and significance of life itself. Told with Edward Albee’s signature ironic wit, Seascape finds Nancy and Charlie, a middle-aged couple, on a deserted stretch of beach, talking idly about home, family and their life together. Suddenly, they are joined by two lizards who have decided to leave the ocean and come ashore. Initial fear, and then suspicion of each other, are soon replaced by curiosity and, before long, the humans and the lizards are engaged in a fascinating dialogue.

NEPM Kids Day!
Court Square, Springfield
Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Meet Curious George and Rosie from the brand-new PBS Kids Show “Rosie’s Rules.” There will be PBS Kids activity stations, a Rag Shag costume parade with a prize, live music by Zara Bode, a pop-up book shop with Odyssey Bookshop, local author and illustrator signings and a free kids size Friendly’s ice cream with every admission! PLUS! The first 500 families to register get a free NEPM Kids Day T-shirt!

NEPM Book Club: We Ride Upon Sticks
Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
Just in time for Halloween, we'll be talking about “We Ride Upon Sticks” by Quan Barry. In the town of Danvers, Massachusetts, home of the original 1692 witch trials, the 1989 Danvers Falcons will do anything to make it to the girls field hockey state finals — even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. Against a background of irresistible 1980s iconography, Quan Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season. Read the book soon, then join us on Oct. 27.