Jazz à la Mode 40th Anniversary
Listen weeknights at 8 p.m. on 88.5 NEPM
Next week, Tom Reney (who has been with Jazz à la Mode since its inception) will share many of his favorites to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the beloved jazz show. On Monday, they'll include Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Benny Golson, Sonny Rollins, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. On Tuesday, Tom’s focus will be on American Songbook classics performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dave McKenna, Nat King Cole and other jazz greats. He’ll also feature artists for whom he’s written liner note essays and artists he’s interviewed for NEPM’s Jazz Beat podcast.
NEPM Day at Springfield Museums
Featuring Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: The Exhibit
Saturday, Aug. 10 from 10 a.m. — 5 p.m.
NEPM members get free admission with the discount code NEPMLOVE
The PBS Kids series Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum comes to life at Springfield Museums. Follow Xavier and his friends down a hidden passage in the Dinosaur Diorama, dig for fossils, go on a scavenger hunt or meet heroes like George Washington Carver, Sacagawea and others as you learn how they changed history. Your ticket includes admission to Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: The Exhibit and all five of the world-class museums that make up Springfield Museums. Not a NEPM member? Become one today!
Camille A. Brown & Dancers
Jacob’s Pillow, Beckett
Wednesday, July 31 – Sunday, Aug. 4
Recipient of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award in 2016, choreographer Camille A. Brown continues her meteoric rise creating new work on stage, TV, and film as the founder of Camille A. Brown & Dancers. She made history as the first Black director at the Metropolitan Opera to direct a mainstage production when she co-directed Fire Shut Up In My Bones in 2021. During this special five-day engagement at Jacob’s Pillow, Brown herself will take the stage to perform in an unforgettable world premiere: I AM.
Impermanence
Gallery A3, Amherst
Thursday, Aug. 1 – Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024
Opening Reception Thursday, Aug. 1 from 5 – 8 p.m.
Impermanence, the theme of Gallery A3’s ninth annual juried show, embraces art that speaks to the ever-changing, transient, and often cyclical nature of all things as experienced in the realm of human relationships and emotions and as encountered in the material and natural worlds. The juror, Maria Timina, is the curator of Russian and European art at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.
Historic Deerfield: August Adventures
Free admission all day
Thursday, Aug. 1 from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
In partnership with the Highland Street Foundation, Historic Deerfield will offer no-cost admission to the museum on Thursday, Aug. 1. Visit the museum’s historic houses and Flynt Center, get hands-on with make-and-take arts and crafts activities, and play old fashioned lawn games like the graces, quoits, and rolling hoop.
Bang on a Can: LOUD Weekend 2024
MASS MoCA, North Adams
Thursday, Aug. 1 – Saturday, Aug. 3
For 23 of its 25 years, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival has transformed MASS MoCA into a genre-bending musical utopia for innovative composers and performers. It culminates in LOUD Weekend, when renowned special guests, BoaC faculty, and young players take the Hunter Center stage in a series of playful and heady collisions of jazz, classical, rock, and beyond. It’s a fully loaded, three-day, eclectic super-mix of creative, experimental, and unusual music.
Fiestas Patronales de Holyoke 2024
Dwight Street, Holyoke
Thursday, Aug. 1 – Sunday, Aug. 4
Fiestas Patronales de Holyoke is a four-day celebration that showcases a portion of the rich cultural diversity that defines the City of Holyoke. This is your chance to immerse yourself in the music, food, and dance of Puerto Rican culture. Headliners include José Manuel, Frankie Ruiz Jr., Millie Quezada, Rumba Caliente, Victoria Sanabira, and many others.
Bobby Sweet with Pete Adams & Lara Tupper
Dream Away Lodge, Becket
Friday, Aug. 2 at 8 p.m.
Rumored to have been a brothel and speakeasy during the great depression, The Dream Away Lodge is one of Berkshire County’s best loved and most closely held hilltown secrets. The drink and food menus look delish! Singer-songwriter Bobby Sweet is a Berkshire native and sixth generation musician who has received praise for his Country-Americana style and songs about real life. He will be performing with pedal steel guitarist Pete Adams and vocalist Lara Tupper. Folk-Americana songwriter Jordan Weller will open the show.
John Williams' Film Night
Tanglewood, Lenox
Friday, Aug. 2 and Saturday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m.
A beloved highlight of the Tanglewood season, John Williams’ Film Night returns. From Hollywood’s golden age to contemporary favorites, conductors Ken-David Masur and David Newman lead the Boston Pops in two memorable evenings of music and film clips, including a special celebration of Henry Mancini’s 100th birthday.
Plus! You can listen to the program Saturday, Aug. 10 at 1 p.m. on Classical NEPM.
Silverthorne Theater Company: Smart People
Hawks & Reed, Greenfield
Friday, Aug. 2 – Saturday, Aug. 10
Four Harvard-connected elites seek out meaningful work, human connection, and clarity around the elephant in the room that is race in America. Valerie campaigns for Barack Obama while trying to put her Acting MFA to work. Jackson saves lives in the ER and his neighborhood clinic. Ginny is a champion for the mental health of all Asian American women, except maybe her own. Brian uses science to prove that white people are racist and somehow surprises himself. A mashup of these four flawed individuals leads to painful missteps and new understandings as their lives intertwine.
Pocumtuck Homelands Festival
Unity Park Riverfront, Turners Falls
Saturday, Aug. 3 and Sunday, Aug. 4
People have gathered at the Great Falls for thousands of years. This annual Native American cultural celebration includes live music, drumming, dancing, storytelling, native crafts, and food. Enjoy presentations and performances by Mohawk elder Tom Porter; Nipmuck flute maker and musician Hawk Henries; the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers; authentic powwow drumming with the Iron River Singers; Hula with Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima o Nūioka and many others.
Speeder Day
Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum
Saturday, Aug. 3 from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum is dedicated to preserving and operating Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway trolley car No. 10. which was built by Wason Manufacturing Co. in Springfield in 1896. Saved by a local farmer, it spent sixty-five years as a chicken coop, tool shed and playhouse. Speeder day offers rides on an antique rail-inspection car, also known as a speeder, motorcar or putt-putt.
Redcoats and Rebels
Old Sturbridge Village
Saturday, Aug. 3 and Sunday, Aug. 4
See the largest military re-enactment in New England with hundreds of costumed Revolutionary War reenactors, both soldiers and civilians, encamped on the Village Common. Come tour the camps, witness recreated skirmishes and battles, see special presentations, enjoy fife and drum music, and more.
Hot Club of Cowtown
Iron Horse, Northampton
Saturday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m.
Award-winning Austin, Texas-based Hot Club of Cowtown may be the world’s most globe-trotting, effervescent string trio, who’s joyful sound blends the traditional Western swing of the 1940s American southwest with European hot jazz influences of the same era. They write their own original songs and reinterpret everything from hoedowns to American songbook standards.
Aston Magna: English Extravaganza
Saint James Place, Great Barrington
Sunday, Aug. 4 at 3 p.m.
The mission of the Aston Magna Foundation is to enrich the appreciation of music of the past and the understanding of the cultural, political, and social contexts in which it was composed and experienced. Aston Magna artistic director and violinist Daniel Stepner leads a program of songs, sonatas and catches by Henry Purcell and The Judgement of Paris, a 1701 masque depicting the beauty contest between Venus, Juno and Pallas.
Cello & Chocolate
Bombyx, Florence
Sunday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.
Cello and chocolate — does it get any better? Here’s a lovely multi-sensory experience that will feature the sounds of a cello duo paired with the delicious flavors of Ana Bandeira Chocolates of Northampton. Dave Haughey is the owner of Ana Bandeira Chocolates and 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. This event is part soundbath and part concert. Bring cushions, yoga mats, and blankets to make yourselves comfortable. There will also be folding chairs for those who prefer not to sit on the floor.