The Evergreens Reopened
Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst
Wednesday – Sunday through May from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The Evergreens, an integral component of the American literary site interpreting and celebrating Emily Dickinson’s life and legacy has reopened. It was built for the poet’s brother Austin and his family in 1856. The Evergreens remains largely unaltered since the time when Emily Dickinson’s family lived here, a time capsule reflecting the wide-ranging aesthetic and intellectual interests of the entire family. Order timed tickets in advance.
Attacca Quartet
Bowker Auditorium, UMass
Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.
The New York-based Attacca Quartet glides with dexterity from the music of the eighteenth through to the twenty-first century. Their two releases “Orange” and “Evergreen,” in collaboration with Caroline Shaw, won the 2020 and 2023 Grammy awards for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Their program at UMass will include works by Shaw, German cellist and composer Anne Müller, and DJ/electronica artist Flying Lotus, along with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 8, Op. 110.
Orchestra Gold
The Drake, Amherst
Thursday, March 7 at 8 p.m.
Orchestra Gold an African psychedelic rock ensemble based in California with raw, hypnotic vocals, dance-forward party vibes, and a groove that simply cooks. The swinging six-piece group soaks up vast Malian influences, from Afro Funk to traditional Bambara ritual song, and delivers them with a clear devotion to fuzz, reverb and musical healing. The brass horn lines and hypnotic guitar riffs trace their sound back to the great African Orchestres of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Plus! They’ll be part of tomorrow’s Fabulous 413 show.
Human Agenda Theater Presents Gorgons
Hawks & Reed, Greenfield
Friday, March 8 – Sunday, March 10 and Friday, March 15 – Sunday, March 17
Western Mass.-based Human Agenda Theater celebrates the collaborative process of creating and sharing stories of the human experience through ground-breaking, interactive and weird forms of ensemble-based devised theater. In Megan E. Tripaldi’s Gorgons, Medusa is dead; Stheno and Euryale her two sisters, remain. As a century passes, they are left behind to process their grief over her demise and to figure out who they are without her.
Subverting the Motherhood Ideal: Reading and Conversation on International Women’s Day
Northampton Center for the Arts
Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
Based in Florence and founded in 1997, Perugia Press is a nonprofit press with the mission to support and promote women’s voices in print, and expand the audience for poetry by making books that welcome longtime readers of poetry and those new to poetry. This Women’s History Month, on International Women’s Day, they bring together four prize-winning writers who will read about being mothered and mothering (or not), choosing motherhood (or not), the cultural phenomenon glorifying caretaking, and the way we become mothers to our own parents as they age.
Wofa Spring Showcase: Sona the Orphan
PVPA Theater, 15 Mulligan Drive, South Hadley
Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 at 7 p.m.
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts dance teacher Kabisko Kaba founded Wofa in 2009, to give PVPA students the opportunity to explore the rich culture and heritage of Guinea, West Africa. “Sona the Orphan” is inspired by a West African tale of an orphaned girl raised by her stepmother after her own mother dies in child birth. Sona is kind and good but poorly treated by her stepmother. In this adaptation, the stepmother is replaced by a grandfather. As the community comes together to support Sona, her grandfather has a change of heart and learns to love Sona for herself. Tickets are available at the door.
The Edinburgh Rollick: Music from the Niel Gow Collections
The Clark, Williamstown
Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
Niel Gow was eighteenth-century Scotland’s most celebrated fiddler. His son, Nathaniel, combined traditional and original dance tunes under the Gow name in six collections of strathspeys and reels. Ruckus, a dynamic shapeshifting early music ensemble with a visceral and playful approach to classical music, teams up with violinist Keir GoGwilt.
Melissa Ferrick: Raise the roof and fall in love all over again
Bombyx, Florence
Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
In late 2023, Ferrick released Black Dress, their first single in eight years, via the venerable Kill Rock Stars Records. This release coincides with the 30th anniversary of Ferrick's critically acclaimed major label debut, Massive Blur. This promises to be an evening of high energy music, laughter, and deeply felt songwriting.
In Stile Moderno
For five voices (and theorbo): Madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi
Edwards Church, Northampton
Friday March 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Here’s yet another example of fine musicians choosing western Mass as their artistic home. Soprano Agnes Coakley and lutenist/cornettist Nathaniel Cox founded In Stile Moderno in Basel, Switzerland in 2012. They made their way to Boston and then relocated to Greenfield in 2022. So lucky for us! Alongside five vocalists skilled in both seamless blending and virtuosic solo singing, the concert will also feature Nathaniel Cox on the theorbo, a very long-necked lute that was commonly used to accompany singers in the 17th century.
Springfield Symphony Orchestra: Fantasias
Springfield Symphony Hall
Saturday, March 9 at 2:30 p.m.
The piano is in the spotlight for this matinee concert with the Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra by Paul Chihara and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy for piano, chorus, and orchestra, both featuring the dazzling artistry of Vietnamese pianist, Quynh Nguyen. Works by Lili Boulanger and Ralph Vaughan Williams show off the beauty of the orchestra itself. The Springfield Symphony Chorus, the UMass Amherst Chorale and the orchestra join forces for Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine” and selections from Randall Thompson’s Frostiana. Adam Kerry Boyles conducts.
Mozart's Requiem
Buckley Recital Hall
Saturday, March 9 at 7 p.m.
The Amherst College Choral Society, joined by the Amherst Symphony Orchestra presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem. Conducted by Dr. Arianne Abela, the performance also features four accomplished professional soloists well-known to local audiences: soprano Sherezade Panthaki, mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken, tenor William Hite and bass-baritone Sumner Thompson. The concert opens with a performance of the first movement of Beethoven's violin concerto, with Amherst College senior Zhihan Xu '24 as soloist. Free and open to the public.
Daymé Arocena
MASS MoCA, North Adams
Saturday, March 9 at 8 p.m.
Award-winning Afro-Cuban jazz singer Daymé Arocena, has been frequently compared to prominent figures such as Celia Cruz, Aretha Franklin, La Lupe, and Ella Fitzgerald, drawing inspiration from the intertwining musical legacies of her native Cuba. Her output incorporates her Havana heritage, strong faith in Santeria, and early musical experiences that only escalated after François Renié, Director of Havana Cultura initiative, was struck by seeing one of her performances.
Field Notes: An Afternoon of Storytelling
The Academy of Music, Northampton
Sunday, March 10 at 2 p.m.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) presents a live storytelling event celebrating the many ways local food and farming leave their mark on our lives and in our communities. Our western Massachusetts neighbors will share true stories about following dreams, sustaining livelihoods, and connecting with others through food. Recent stories have ranged from the awe and magic of maple trees to growing into an identity of being a “real cook,” and everything in between. This year’s theme is “In the Weeds.”
Music Reveries
The Springfield Chamber Players Clarinet Quintet
First Church of Christ, Longmeadow
Sunday, March 10 at 3 p.m.
This concert features “Souvenirs de Voyage” for Clarinet Quintet by Bernard Herrmann, the Academy Award-winning composer of Alfred Hitchcock film scores, such as Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, and The Birds. You will also hear Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Six Studies in English Folk Song and more, blossoming in the beautiful acoustics at First Church of Christ in Longmeadow.
Holyoke Civic Symphony: Tea and Trumpets
Fine and Performing Arts building, Holyoke Community College
Sunday, March 10 at 3 p.m.
It’s the next installment in Holyoke Civic Symphony’s “Brass Menagerie” season. "Tea and Trumpets" will feature Sheldon Ross as trumpet guest soloist performing in Vincent Persichetti's "The Hollow Men, which was inspired By T.S. Eliot’s poem of the same name. A versatile freelance performer, Sheldon Ross plays trumpet in the Valley and throughout New England, maintains a private teaching studio, is on faculty at the Northampton Community Music Center, is a member of the Clarion Brass Quintet, and more. Kudos to the Holyoke Civic Symphony for offering program notes in both English and Spanish.
The Greater Westfield Choral Association Spring Concert
Second Congregational Church, Westfield
Sunday, March 10 at 3 p.m.
The Greater Westfield Choral Association under the direction of Marc Winer will be presenting their 46th annual Spring Concert on Sunday, March 10 at 3:00, at The season’s program opens with two pieces by Mozart: Te Deum Laudamus and the Missa Brevis in D Major, accompanied by Scott Bailey on organ. The second half features William Byrd’s Ave Verum, Herbert Howell’s O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, Jan Sweelinck’s Gaudete Omnes, Gerald Custer’s Innisfree and Alice Parker’s Saints Bound for Heaven.