A reminder: The Oddfellows Playhouse Teen Repertory Company presentation of "Around the World in 80 Days" has 2 performances this weekend - tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. To find out ticket availability, call 860-347-6143.
The Buttonwood Tree presents Frank Critelli and Shandy Lawson tonight at 8 p.m. Both are fine writers and performers so call 860-347-4957 for reservations.
Toussaint the Liberator & Buru Style brings their reggae/funk/soul to Boney's Music Lounge and the "riddim" is definitely "gonna get you." Call 860-346-6000 for the time of the first set.
Saturday November 21:
At 8 p.m. in Crowell Concert Hall, the Wesleyan University Orchestra, Angel Gil-Ordonez, music director, invites you to spend "An Evening in Spain." Among the pieces of music that will transport to the Iberian Peninsula will be de Falla's "Amor Brujo" and "Nights in the Gardens of Spain", Turina's "Fantastic Dances", and Guridi's "Ten Basque Melodies." This sounds like a lovely evening of music and it's free to all who want to take the journey.
There is a double bill of exciting creative music at 8 p.m. in The Buttonwood Tree. The New Haven Improvisers Collective (NHIC) opens the evening with a set of music that draws from the many traditions of jazz and improvisational music. The septet, led by Bob Gorry (guitar) and featuring Wesleyan graduate Carl Testa (bass, bass clarinet), has a new CD, "Inflection", featuring all original works, with music that moves in many directions.After a short break, multi-instrumentalist and sound manipulator Phil Bullaro celebrates the release of his new CD, "Golden Alien", with an inspired set of "electro-acoustic" music. Joining him will be guitarist (and owner of Middletown's Coffeehouse Recording Studio) Michael Arafeh. Call 860-347-4957 for more information or go onlie to www.buttonwood.org.
The Greater Middletown Chorale, Joseph D'Eugenio, music director, have a new program titled "Come, Let Us Sound With Melody!" and you can hear it twice this weekend (not in Middletown, however...sigh.) The program, which features new works by Connecticut-based composers Sarah Meneely-Kyder and Peter Neidmann as well as pieces by Gyneth Walker and a preview of the Chorale's Spring 2010 concert, Mendelssohn's "Messiah." Also on the program is David Conte's "Elegy For Matthew", written for the Matthew Shepard and performed by the GMC on the 10th anniversary of his death. In conjunction with the "Elegy..", members of the Oddfellows Teen Repertory Company will present monologues from Moises Kaufman's "The Laramie Project." Saturday, the GMC performs at 7 p.m. in Newington at the Church of Christ, Congregational, 1075 Main Street, while Sunday the program will be heard at 4 p.m. in the Zion Lutheran Church, 183 William Street in Portland. For ticket information, call 860-526-8891 or go to www.gmchorale.org.
Sunday November 22:
The Green Street Arts Center "Sunday Salon" series features Wesleyan Professor Indira Karamchetti for a 2 p.m. program titled "Reading the Nobel Prize Winners." The GSAC describes the event thusly: "Since 1901, Nobel prizes have become the most prestigious international recognition of achievement. They are earned by a broadly international register of scientists, activists, and authors. This salon will selected readings from the works of recent Nobel Laureates together with a discussion of the criteria for establishing Nobel's ideal of the "greatest benefit [to] mankind," as it relates to literature." Professor Karamchetti is a fine reader and will lead the discussion. For ticket information, call 860-685-7871.
The Wesleyan Guitarists' Showcase takes place at 4 p.m. in the World Music Hall, Wyllys Avenue. The event, free and open to the public, features members of the Wesleyan Guitar Ensemble and special guests.
The Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service is being held this year in the lobby of Middlesex Memorial Hospital at 7 p.m. Prayers, music and sermons from the different religious institutions and beliefs are on the bill - people are requested to bring non-perishable food items to be donated to the St Vincent dePaul Place and the Amazng Grace Food Pantry.
1 comment:
Thank you, Richard, for diligently listing art events that are happening around our city. We are blessed with an abundance of diverse artistic offerings and I believe an especially generous selection of live music. We are All so fortunate!
I had the privilege of experiencing many of them this weekend, and walking in the door from the latest one, a program by the Greater Middletown Chorale, I am compelled to sit and write a bit to let others know what a wonderful experience this talented group offered.
Invited by Mike Arafeh who was recording the concert, I was delighted to hear it through the headphones he offered me. This gave me the extraordinary experience of being in the very middle of the sound as well as sitting in the front. I could see the pianist's fingers dancing on the keys and I was able to see the very passionate facial expressions of the singers, feeling their energy, feeling the power of the words as they coursed through me. What a remarkable gift! Thank you, Michael, and too, to the GMC!
This concert was especially moving to me as these works are of today's composers - living with us on the leading edge of creativity - and words such as the following, in a piece by Thomas Merton and based on Isias 52, were sung in a glorious display of human capability. For me, these words reveal our relatively near future, and while 2012 to some hints of doom, to me it beckons expectation of peace and love in her purest sense.
"The old wrongs are over
The old ways are done
There shall be no more hate
And no more war
My people shall be one.
So tell the earth to shake ...
For the old world is ended
The old sky is torn
Apart. A new day is born
They hate no more
They do not go to war
My people shall be one."
Such hope for us! Such good news! Take heed, God is here!
I feel the presence of God all around and within so much of what I see and hear. God IS the music in the heart of the singer. God IS the sound in the space between the creater and the receiver. God IS the beauty of the All of it, causing my body to pour forth salty tears as it experiences the ultimate feelings of joy, freedom, truth, love and gratitude - simultaneously, moment after moment, note after note.
Yes, we are fortunate indeed.
Still, there was so much more happening this weekend. Other offerings were just as stimulating and entertaining. All I witnessed offered joy to those in attendance. And undoubtedly all were wonderful.
I was fortunate enough to hear both concerts at The Buttonwood Tree (talk about diversity!) as well as the very danceable music at Fishbone's Boney's Music Lounge. If I could have attended more of these events I would have. But for all I did, I am grateful! Thank you to all those who made them possible, especially those who gave it their All.
Middletown rocks! WE rock!
Anne-Marie
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