Springfield Symphony: Mardi Gras!
Springfield Symphony Hall
Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Celebrate the spirit of Mardi Gras with a night of hot, steamy New Orleans jazz. The good times will roll under the direction of conductor, trumpet player and vocalist Byron Stripling with music from New Orleans natives like Fats Domino, Mahalia Jackson & Louis Armstrong.
Ashuelot Concerts: The Steinberg Duo
Friday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Park Theatre, Jaffrey
Sunday Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. at Alyson's Orchard, Walpole
Head to New Hampshire for a lovely concert performed by Louisa Stonehill and Nicholas Burns. An early Sonata by Beethoven opens the concert followed by Schubert’s exquisite Fantasie for Violin & Piano. The concert will be brought to a virtuosic climax with the huge Violin Sonata by Cesar Franck.
2023 Banff Mountain Film Festival
The Academy of Music, Northampton
Friday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m.
Get off the beaten path and explore the edge of believable with captivating stories from the 47th Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival. Stand on the highest peaks, ski the steepest slopes, and be a part of gripping adventures.
Crash Test Dummies
Bombyx, Florence
Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.
The Crash Test Dummies are (and were) unique and weird (in a cool way) among '90s pop stars who are still raging. While most of their songs are based around the acoustic guitar, the Dummies are equally apt to jettison rock & roll for country, a funeral dirge, or a Celtic reel.
Cello Temple with Stephen Katz
Karuna Center for Yoga & Healing Arts, Northampton
Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.
This unique event gives you the chance to relax, listen, create and dance. Stephen Katz’s improvised cello music ranges from deep grief to joyful abandon over wild and wooly groovescapes. Beth Fairservis will co-lead the event and arrange art and reflection spaces. As the super-gentle, cello-centric, auditory doses take effect, you’re welcome to dance freely, settle in a space with collage and drawing materials, or just cozy up in blankets.
Mike Dawes
The Drake, Amherst
Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8 p.m.
Mike Dawes is an English guitarist known for composing, arranging, and performing multiple parts simultaneously on one instrument. He is hailed as one of the world’s most creative modern fingerstyle guitarists and has toured with fingerstyle guitarists such as Andy McKee and Tommy Emmanuel.
Arcadia Viols "Musicke's Delight"
Wesley United Methodist Church, Hadley
Sunday, Feb. 19 at 3 p.m.
If you are an early music nerd like me, you will love this intimate program of English consort music from the Renaissance period. Arcadia Viols has performed in many venues including Stratford Music in Ontario, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Festival. Recent performances include Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue” at Clark University and at Tufts “Lachrimae” in Hadley; and “The Wonder of Will” with Stile Antico and the Folger Consort at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
CONQUER SCHOOL VACATION WEEK
Magic Tree House: The Knight at Dawn KIDS
The Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield
Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m.
Magic Tree House: The Knight at Dawn KIDS is an adaptation of the second of Mary Pope Osborne’s award-winning fantasy adventure books from the Magic Tree House book series, which has sold more than 100 million copies and is available in more than 100 countries around the world. Author Mary Pope Osborne will be signing books in the Colonial Theatre lobby prior to the performance.
Art of Adventure!
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
Feb. 18–21 and Feb. 23–24
For school vacation week, Norman Rockwell Museum is hosting fun-filled family art-making activities to complement their “Eloise and More: The Life and Art of Hilary Knight” exhibit which features original art, manuscripts, sketches, photographs, music, videos and more Much of the work on view has rarely been seen, including trial Eloise drawings from Hilary Knight in 1954, previously unpublished drawings from Eloise in Paris, and a once-stolen Eloise portrait from the Plaza Hotel.
Springfield Museums: Curiosity Challenge
Monday, Feb. 20 – Friday, Feb. 24
Leonardo da Vinci was renowned for his curiosity. He even conceptualized modern inventions such as airplanes and solar power all the way back in the 1400s. Kids can use curiosity to solve challenges throughout the Museums with activities like “Leonardo’s Lab,” “Great Gliders,” and “Blinking Eye.” Free with museum admission.
Fun in February: School Vacation Week in Deerfield
Visitor Center at Hall Tavern, Historic Deerfield
Monday, Feb. 20 – Friday, Feb 24
Come play and have fun in Historic Deerfield’s 1786 Hall Tavern. Dress up, write with a quill pen, play games, make a craft, and experience a hearth cooking demonstration. This is a drop-in program, come anytime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
The Beneski Museum of Natural History
Amherst College
Open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Beneski Museum of Natural History is one of New England’s largest natural history museums, featuring three floors of exhibits with more than 1,700 specimens on display. You’ll find dramatic displays of fossil skeletons, from fish to dinosaurs to Ice Age megafauna, and an extraordinary collection of dinosaur footprints. Geological specimens and immersive exhibits tell the history of the local landscape through geologic time.
Please Ship This Wet Gift: a clown presentation about terrible feelings
Northampton Center for the Arts
Saturday, Feb. 25 at 10:30 a.m.
Sunday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m.
Please Ship This Wet Gift is one clown's presentation about terrible feelings, and provides an opportunity for family audiences to laugh together about feeling bad. Performed by Marta Mozelle MacRostie of Brave Bucket Co. and directed by Hannah Simms, this original work uses audience suggestion, audience participation, drawing, made-up songs, puppetry, and cardboard sharks to bring some empathy, laughter, and lightness to the heavy stuff.