Music
• Kris Delmhorst at NEYT: In celebration of the Brattleboro Women's Freedom Center, the new name of the former Brattleboro Women's Crisis Center, a concert featuring singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst and the Brattleboro Women's Chorus will be presented Friday, Jan. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the New England Youth Theatre on Flat Street in Brattleboro.
Admission to the show is free. Contact the Women's Freedom Center at 802-257-7364 for more information.
• Bluebirds play in Saxtons River: After its debut at the Saxtons River Brew Pub last fall, the Bluebird Orchestra returns to Saxtons River for a concert at Main Street Arts Saturday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m.
Hatched from the same nest as The Bluebird Marionette Theatre of Saxtons River, the orchestra draws its influences from diverse corners, including the Carter Family, Kurt Weill, and Thelonious Monk, while always keeping one foot in traditional American roots music.
The ensemble features Donald Saaf on guitar and vocals, Matthew Sharff on the standup bass, Rick Contino on pedal steel, and Paul McTaggart on drums in a repertoire of expanded songs from various puppet shows as well as new songs written by Saaf and Julia Zanes. Their music has been described as beautiful, sometimes sad, poignant, and funny, sung and played with gusto, and sure to delight and entertain any audience.
Admission to the concert is $8 for adults and $2 for children. Tickets and further information are available by contacting at Main Street Arts at (802) 869-2960, [email protected], or visiting the Web site www.MainStreetArts.org.
• As Yet Quintet at Marlboro College: On Sunday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m., the As Yet Quintet presents a creative medley of jazz, Mideastern, and Caribbean sounds at Marlboro College's Serkin Center.
The As Yet Quintet is led by visiting professor of jazz studies and pianist Eugene Uman, and features alumna Anna Patton '05 on clarinet, Miamon Miller on violin, and percussionists Todd Roach and Julian Gerstin.
All five musicians contribute to the quintet's program of entirely original pieces. In As Yet's music you'll hear sounds from Latin grooves to Turkish modes, Balkan rhythms played on Cuban wooden boxes, and blues with a touch of Bulgarian choral style. Compositions drawing from many traditions balance with expressive jazz soloing to create an imaginative sound and an unforgettable concert experience.
As Yet Quintet's debut CD, Strange but True, was released in December 2009 and is available at www.asyetquintet.com.
• Judy Collins at The Putney School: On Sunday, Jan. 30, enjoy an evening with Judy Collins in Calder Hall of the Michael S. Currier Center at The Putney School.
Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide with her unique blend of interpretative folksongs and contemporary themes - including her Grammy Award-winning Send in the Clowns. Her impressive career has spanned more than 50 years. At 13, she made her public debut performing Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, but it was the music of such artists as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as well as the traditional songs of the folk revival, that sparked Judy's love of lyrics. She soon moved away from the classical piano and began her lifelong love with the guitar.
The concert is a benefit performance for The New England Folk Music Archives and The Putney School Financial Aid Fund. Tickets are $45 general, $60 patron (priority seating, autographed CD), and $20 for 18 and younger. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/142583.
The 300-seat, acoustically tuned Calder Hall has hosted the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the Windham Orchestra, and is home to the Putney Community Orchestra. Before and after the event, peruse photographs from the collection of The New England Folk Music Archives currently in the Currier Center's 15,000-square foot gallery.
• A look at Beethoven's creative process: Vermont pianist Michael Arnowitt will consider Beethoven's creative process in a lecture and performance at Brattleboro's Brooks Memorial Library on Feb. 2.
His performance, “Beethoven's Sketchbooks,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7 p.m.
Arnowitt is a classical and jazz pianist and recording artist who has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S. and Europe. His life and music is the subject of an award-winning documentary by the American filmmaker Susan Bettmann, Beyond Eighty-Eight Keys (2004). He lives in Montpelier.
“Beethoven's Sketchbooks” replaces the originally scheduled talk, “Willa Cather's Prairie Landscapes” with Amherst professor Michele Barale.
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Brattleboro are held at Brooks Memorial Library.
Upcoming Brattleboro talks include “The Towering Inferno” with Dante translator Michael Palma on March 2; “Did Karl Marx Predict the Cuban Revolution?” with Amherst professor Javier Corrales on April 6; and “The Changing Face of Islam: Transformation in Modern South Asia” with Mount Holyoke College professor Kavita Datla on May 4.
For more information, contact Brooks Memorial Library at 802-254-5290, or contact the Vermont Humanities Council at 802-262-2626 or [email protected], or visit www.vermonthumanities.org.
• A cappella concert benefits BMAC: Tickets are selling fast for Brattleboro's Eighth Annual Collegiate A Cappella Concert at the Latchis Theatre, all proceeds of which benefit the Brattleboro Museum & Arts Center.
Seven talented groups, each of which features a singer who grew up in our region, will take the stage on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m., for a night of amazing musical entertainment.
By popular demand for the second year in a row, one of those seven groups, the Tufts University Beelzebubs, will give a second performance the following day, Sunday, Feb. 6, at 11:30 a.m. at BMAC.
Led this year by Music Director and Tufts senior Penn Rosen of Brattleboro, the “Bubs” took second place on NBC's The Sing-Off in 2009 and now provide the arrangements and background vocals for the Dalton Academy Warblers on the mega-hit TV series, Glee.
Tickets for the Latchis show are $30, $22 and $15. Tickets for the Beelzebubs at BMAC are $20. Call 802-257-0124, ext. 101, for more information on both shows.
Performing arts
• Vermont Academy presents black box production: The Performing Arts Department at Vermont Academy will be presenting a student created black box production on Feb. 10-12, with showings at 7 and 9 p.m. in the Nita Choukas Theater in the Horowitz Performing Arts Center.
Working with 14 students, Vermont Academy theater instructor Daniel Burmester, challenged them to research, write and create all aspects of a theatrical production. The students were given about three months to complete this task. The purpose of the Winter Workshop is to give students the creative experience and challenge of writing, designing, advertising and performing their own show, allowing them to experience a production from all approaches.
The show, which is still in the creation phase, is untitled for now, so audience goers will just have to come to the show to see what they've come up with. But, here's a hint…it takes place in an asylum.
There is no specific admission fee, but donations will be accepted at the door. For further details about the show, visit The Black Box Blog at www.vermontacademy.org or call 802-869-6644 for details.
Books
• Get to know your eBook reader: Amazon reported that more eBooks were sold last summer than hardcover books, and eBook devices have multiplied beyond the Kindle. Mobile devices such as iPhones, Blackberries, and the iPod Touch all have eBook applications and 64 percenbt of all publishers are publishing eBooks.
Besides purchasing eBooks from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Google, they may be borrowed with a Brooks Memorial Library card. Learn how to borrow these titles through Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro and what other services you might be able to access with your mobile device.
Join Brooks Memorial Library Director Jerry Carbone, and eBook enthusiast Eric Blomquist, on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 4 p.m., and Thursday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. in the Brooks Memorial Library Meeting Room for an hour of exploration. For more information, contact the library at 802-251-8185 or visit www.brooks.lib.vt.us.
Lectures
• Roots of Modern Conservatism at Marlboro College: In the wake of the newly-elected Republican majority taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Joseph Reisert, an associate professor of American constitutional law at Colby College will discuss the rise of the modern conservative movement in a lecture at Marlboro College's Ragel Hall on Monday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.
What is conservatism? The simple answer is the opposition to changes sought in the name of “liberal” or “progressive” or “egalitarian” ideals. There is an extraordinary diversity, however, within the ranks of this fundamentally partisan, characteristically oppositional definition of a conservative party.
Reisert will speak to the modern conservative's preferences for tradition over reason; for the local and particular against the general or cosmopolitan; and for the noble and beautiful over the useful and common. At bottom, these attachments or ideals are best understood as a response to the limits of what we can and do know about how society works and how to solve social problems.
• A Visitor's View of Palestine at RFPL: “For all the writing about them, Palestinians remain virtually unknown, particularly in the United States,” noted scholar Edward Said asserted in 1986. Twenty-five years later, this still remains true.
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m., join Beth Stickney at the Rockingham Free Public Library for a talk and slideshow: Come Drink Coffee with Me: A Visitor's View of Palestinian Lives.
Even the most devoted follower of the daily news in the U.S. is hard-pressed to conjure an image of life in Palestine beyond armed conflict played out in distant, dusty villages. While tourism thrives in Israel proper, the Palestinian territories are not must-see vacation spots for most Americans. The Palestinians, however, are devoting great energy and ingenuity to their own emerging tourist industry. From nature hikes to politically oriented tours, the West Bank in particular, repays even a brief visit with abundant hospitality and opportunities to experience Palestinian family life, culture, and home-cooking.
Following a recent two-week trip that took her from Hebron in the south to Ramallah and Nablus in the north, Stickney, an instructor at Keene State College, will present her impressions of Palestinian life, culture, and cuisine - with a dash or two of politics.
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Call 802-463-4270 for more information.