Oct 26 Sunday
Celebrate the anniversary of Yiddish: A Global Culture with a full day of free events for all ages. Visit our website soon for the full schedule of activities.
“New Songs for an Old Poet” is a series of four concerts that will span the remainder of 2025. Organized by long-time Valley vocalist Peter W. Shea, who is also the principal performer, the series presents a very wide variety of songs, all of them musical settings of the great nineteenth-century German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, whose verses have been set to music more than any other poet. All are works that Peter has in some way helped to bring into the world, either by suggestion, commission, or premiere, as part of his thirty-year project on Heine and the music he continues to inspire. All but one of the sixty-plus songs have been composed since the turn of this century, with two-thirds of the composers being from New England.
This concert, “Heinrich Heine, Far and Near,” features sixteen songs by thirteen composers who hail from as far away as Germany and as close at hand as the Pioneer Valley. The songs range in style from cabaret to classical, in mood from witty to tragic, and in tonality from Baroque to twelve-tone. Nearly all display some aspect of Heine’s characteristic irony, and several will be sung in English translation. Peter will be joined by mezzo-soprano and guitarist Justina Golden, pianist and guitarist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., and soprano Junko Watanabe.
Oct 27 Monday
The Norman Rockwell Museum is honored to present a rare series of early twentieth century lighting advertisements by Norman Rockwell and fellow Golden Age illustrators Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, Stanley Arthurs, Worth Brehm, and Charles Chambers created for Edison Mazda Lamps, a division of the General Electric Company. These luminous, richly painted works were widely circulated in published advertisements through the 1920s and are on loan to the Museum for the first time through the generosity of GE Aerospace.
The Northampton Scrabble Club prides itself on being a welcoming group where the priority is on FUN, not strict competition. Come in at any point in the evening and we'll get you in a game! Some players stay for one game, others for multiple games. We have a wide variety of skill levels represented, so come join the fun!
Oct 28 Tuesday
Oct 29 Wednesday
Oct 30 Thursday
The award winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord are a leading force in Québec’s exciting and progressive Francophone folk movement. The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while their highly rhythmic and soulful music, rooted in the Celtic diaspora, is enhanced with a broad range of global influences.
The band exhibits great finesse and flexibility, appearing regularly on Canadian, American, French, and UK television and radio, and participating in a wide variety of special musical projects. They’ve collaborated and performed with a diverse range of artists including: Harry Manx, Väsen, Dervish, The Chieftains, Breton musical pioneer Yann-Fañch Kemener, Québecois roots legend and master storyteller Michel Faubert, the Scottish folk band Breabach (a Bombyx favorite), singer Julie Fowlis, and the trans-Mediterranean ensemble Constantinople.
Not content with standard approaches to tradition, Le Vent du Nord has also created a symphonic concert that, according to Voir Montreal, “puts all traditional folk naysayers to shame.”
On stage these friends create intense, joyful and dynamic live performances that expand the bounds of tradition in striking global directions. This is the modern sound of tradition, a music of the here and now.
The 4th Witch is a fantastic new tale, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and seeks protection from three witches. They agree to take her on as an apprentice with only one condition: she must never use her powers for revenge. Consumed by grief and rage, the girl comes to realize that it was Macbeth who killed her parents. Now she must choose between reconciliation or vengeance.
Told through inventive practical effects executed in plain sight, the troupe brilliantly employs shadow puppetry, live music and actors in silhouette, to create an entire new world in The 4th Witch. Manual Cinema has built a devoted fanbase in Boston over the course of their thrilling past productions at ArtsEmerson including Ada/Ava and Frankenstein. Do not miss their triumphant return this fall!
Oct 31 Friday