Music Makes The Season

Could it really be the penultimate week of 2011? It seems so. And now, as we celebrate the winter holidays, music takes center stage, perhaps more than at any other time of year. It is interesting to contemplate what makes this so. Most obviously, music has always been central to religion, ritual and spirituality. Music gives us Christmas oratorios and carols, spirituals and the Jewish cantorial tradition. For centuries of Western history, sacred music was the dominant form. In non-Western cultures, as well, music accompanies rituals and worship. But perhaps for an even longer time, music has been an intensely social activity, and what brings us together socially more than the holidays? Here are two ways to enjoy the season in the coming weeks. On New Year’s Eve, Berkshire Bach presents Bach at New Year’s, featuring all six of the Brandenburg concertos. Not without reason are these instrumental tours-de-force among the best-loved of Bach’s compositions. Kenneth Cooper conducts the Berkshire Bach Ensemble, which includes the incomparable violinist of the Emerson String Quartet, Eugene Drucker, this year. Bach at New Year’s takes place Sunday, Dec. 31, at 6 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. Tickets are $57 or $37. For tickets and information, go to www.mahaiwe.org or call 413-528-0100. After the New Year, a program of English and Spanish Renaissance Christmas music will be performed at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, CT. The locally-based Wykeham Consort performs. The players include soprano Matilda Giampietro, Erica Warnock playing tenor and bass viols, Sarah Jane Chelminski on recorder and guitarist Andrew Lafreniere. The program is free and open to the public. It is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 6, at 6:30 p.m. For information, go to visit www.gunnlibrary.org or call 860-868-7586. Here’s wishing all our readers joyful, peaceful holidays and a music-filled New Year. See you in 2012.

Latest News

Tuning up two passions under one roof

The Webb Family in the workshop. From left: Phyllis, Dale, Ben and Josh Webb, and project manager Hannah Schiffer.

Natalia Zukerman

Magic Fluke Ukulele Shop and True Wheels Bicycle Shop are not only under the same roof in a beautiful solar powered building on Route 7 in Sheffield, but they are also both run by the Webb family, telling a tale of familial passion, innovation and a steadfast commitment to sustainability.

In the late ‘90s, Dale Webb was working in engineering and product design at a corporate job. “I took up instrument manufacturing as a fun challenge,” said Dale. After an exhibit at The National Association of Music Merchants in Anaheim, California, in 1999, The Magic Fluke company was born. “We were casting finger boards and gluing these things together in our basement in New Hartford and it just took off,” Dale explained. “It was really a wild ride, it kind of had a life of its own.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert Cray’s soulful blues coming to Infinity Hall

Robert Cray

Photo provided

Blues legend Robert Cray will be bringing his stinging, funky guitar and soulful singing to Infinity Hall Norfolk on Friday, March 29.

A five-time Grammy winner, Cray has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and earned The Americana Music Awards Lifetime Achievement for Performance. He has played with blues and rock icons including Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton and many more.

Keep ReadingShow less