Community Calendar

"Step into the cosmic conversation with Theater Mitu’s latest creation. Inspired by the 1977 NASA Voyager mission, which launched a vinyl recording of natural sounds found on Earth into space, as well as the uncertainty and isolations surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, this experimental performance begs the question: if we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send?

Part vinyl recording and part live performance, Utopian Hotline uses real voicemails left on a public hotline and to create a moment of community, while inviting audience members around a communal table to re-imagine our shared future.

This collaborative performance, done in partnership with SETI Institute, Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle School, is a call for audiences to join together and leave an offering of hope for mankind’s future."

Pioneer Valley Ballet presents Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, a reimagined tale of Aladdin's journey to win the love of "Princess Jasmine". This modern reimagining of Aladdin, filled with fantastical characters, beautiful scenery and exquisite choreography, features Pioneer Valley Ballet dancers and guest artists along with community performers from across Western MA. Showing on May 10th for two performances only: 1:00pm and 4:30pm. Join us for a spectacular tale of love, magic, and determination at Aladdin and His Magic Lamp!

Based on the novel, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, by Michael Butterworth, Lucky Stiff is an offbeat, hilarious murder mystery, complete with mistaken identities, six million bucks in diamonds and a wheelchair-bound corpse. The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman who is forced to take the embalmed body of his recently murdered uncle on vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, Harry Witherspoon stands to inherit $6,000,000. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn…or else his uncle’s gun-toting ex! EHS Drama students present this musical farce that will leave you dying of laughter!

May 10 at 7 pm
May 11 at 2 pm

“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 first 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 Brenda Moore Miller, pianist and guitarist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., and soprano Junko Watanabe.

“Heinrich Heine Far and Near,” the first concert in a series of four spanning the remainder of 2025, features sixteen recently-composed songs by thirteen composers who hail from as far away as Germany and as close at hand as the Pioneer Valley. Organized by long-time Valley vocalist Peter W. Shea, who is also the principal performer, the series presents a wide variety of songs, ranging in style from cabaret to classical, in mood from witty to tragic, and in tonality from Baroque to twelve-tone. All of the songs are musical settings of the great 19th-century German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, whose verses have been set to music more than any other poet, and 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. Nearly all of the songs display some aspect of the poet's characteristic irony, and several will be sung in English translation. Peter will be joined by mezzo-soprano and guitarist Justina Golden, pianist Brenda Moore Miller, pianist and guitarist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., and soprano Junko Watanabe. Further programs are scheduled for July 6, September 13 and December 13 (Heine's 228th birthday).

The concerts include early compositions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn, Lili Boulanger, Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, and three Renaissance female teenage superstars: Vittoria Aleotti, Francesca Caccini and Maddalena Casulana. Highlighted will be the premier of "Whispering to the Waves" by contemporary teenage composer, Lilian Pope of Amherst, who won Da Camera Singers' call for new choral compositions from high school students in Western Massachusetts.

"Step into the cosmic conversation with Theater Mitu’s latest creation. Inspired by the 1977 NASA Voyager mission, which launched a vinyl recording of natural sounds found on Earth into space, as well as the uncertainty and isolations surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, this experimental performance begs the question: if we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send?

Part vinyl recording and part live performance, Utopian Hotline uses real voicemails left on a public hotline and to create a moment of community, while inviting audience members around a communal table to re-imagine our shared future.

This collaborative performance, done in partnership with SETI Institute, Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle School, is a call for audiences to join together and leave an offering of hope for mankind’s future."

Based on the novel, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, by Michael Butterworth, Lucky Stiff is an offbeat, hilarious murder mystery, complete with mistaken identities, six million bucks in diamonds and a wheelchair-bound corpse. The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman who is forced to take the embalmed body of his recently murdered uncle on vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, Harry Witherspoon stands to inherit $6,000,000. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn…or else his uncle’s gun-toting ex! EHS Drama students present this musical farce that will leave you dying of laughter!

May 10 at 7 pm
May 11 at 2 pm

Cello and Chocolate...does it get any better? This will be our next installment. Each time, Jeremy and Dave surprise us with a new theme and new compositions.

Join us for a lovely multi-sensory experience that will feature the (mostly) soothing sounds of the Harman/Haughey Cello Duo paired with the delicious flavors of Ana Bandeira Chocolates of Northampton. Who better to curate both sounds and tastes other than the Valley's favorite cellist/chocolateer Dave Haughey? Dave is both the owner of Ana Bandeira Chocolates as well as a stellar multi-genre cellist who has performed internationally with the Paul Winter Consort and is joined by Jeremy Harman, Artistic Director of the New Directions Cello Festival and professor of cello at the Berklee College of Music.

This event is part soundbath and part concert. Please bring cushions, yoga mats, and blankets to make yourselves comfortable. Naturally, we will also have folding chairs for those who prefer not to sit on the floor.

Card to Culture tickets available.

"Step into the cosmic conversation with Theater Mitu’s latest creation. Inspired by the 1977 NASA Voyager mission, which launched a vinyl recording of natural sounds found on Earth into space, as well as the uncertainty and isolations surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, this experimental performance begs the question: if we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send?

Part vinyl recording and part live performance, Utopian Hotline uses real voicemails left on a public hotline and to create a moment of community, while inviting audience members around a communal table to re-imagine our shared future.

This collaborative performance, done in partnership with SETI Institute, Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle School, is a call for audiences to join together and leave an offering of hope for mankind’s future."