Entertainment

Arts Beat

MARK AUERBACH

MARK AUERBACH

The Third Annual “Yidstock” Festival of New Yiddish Music
You don’t have to be Jewish to love the sound of klezmer, that jazzy music genre, which originated in Eastern Europe among the Ashkenazi Jews and emigrated, along with them to the New World. The Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, presents its third annual “Yidstock” festival of klezmer music, workshops, seminars, and other events on July 17-20.
Most Klezmer music was written and performed for weddings and festivals in the old country, and when it arrived on North American shores, it influenced modern American jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop standards, Broadway and Hollywood. If you venture down river to The Goodspeed Opera House to catch the 50th anniversary production of “Fiddler on The Roof” (through September 12), you can hear the klezmer influence on Broadway.
On the Yidstock 2014 bill are The Klezmatics and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, widely considered to be the two greatest modern klezmer bands. Other headliners include Berlin’s Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, one of the most creative and cutting-edge Yiddish ensembles; Basya Schechter: Songs of Wonder (The Heschel Project), featuring poetry by the great Yiddish poet and theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel, put to new music by Basya Schechter, founder and leader of the Jewish world-beat group Pharaoh’s Daughter; and the Nigunim Trio, featuring Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London (both of the Klezmatics) and pianist Rob Schwimmer, performing original and traditional nigunim and zmiros. The curtain will come down on Yidstock 2014 with Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars.

Seth Rogovoy, curator of Yidstock. (Photo by Fred Collins)

Seth Rogovoy, curator of Yidstock. (Photo by Fred Collins)

Yidstock 2014 offers a rare opportunity for festival-goers to take in performances by several generations of the most accomplished and influential klezmer musicians, including those who revived the music in the 1980s, those who made it blossom in the klezmer renaissance of the 1990s, and those who are blazing new trails well into the 21st century.
A series of workshops and talks is also on the schedule, including two Yiddish Folk Dance workshops led by internationally renowned Yiddish dance teacher Steve Weintraub; a lecture by Hankus Netsky, founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band; an instrumental klezmer workshop with Brian Bender; a Yiddish song workshop with Asya Vaisman Schulman; and a multimedia journey through a thousand years of klezmer history by author and music critic Seth Rogovoy, who programs the annual event.
For information and tickets: 413-256-4900 or www.yiddishbookcenter.org.
Richard Chamberlain Stars in New Musical Reading
The Berkshire Theatre Group presents a special benefit event featuring Richard Chamberlain in a reading of Martin Rabbett’s new musical “Sometimes Love” at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on Friday, July 18 at 2pm. Proceeds benefit the programs of The Berkshire Theatre Group, and the event includes a catered box-supper and a “talk back” with Chamberlain and cast.
In “Sometimes Love”, seven contemporary New Yorkers, most of them longtime friends, discover that life brings empowerment in surprising ways. They face the full spectrum of challenges: unemployment, infidelity, narcissistic lovers and alcoholic parents. But when the shame is confronted head-on and the smoke finally clears, their broken lives arrive at a fragile order, a simple and elegant truth. Love comes and goes, they discover, and the only way to make it stay is to adapt to its many mutations.
Richard Chamberlain is a world-renowned actor of stage, film, and television. He’s remembered for his TV series “Dr. Kildare” and miniseries “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun”. His films include: “The Last Wave”, “The Towering Inferno”, “Petulia”, and he’s appeared in major stage productions of “My Fair Lady”, “The Sound of Music” and “The King and I”. His autobiography, “Shattered Love” was a New York Times bestseller.
For tickets: 413-997-4444 or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org.
Keep in Mind…
***The Music of “The Who” gets star billing at The Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Talcott Mountain Music Festival on Friday, July 18 (Raindate: Saturday, July 19). Brent Havens is guest conductor with vocalist Brody Dolyniuk. The program may include: “Baba O’Riley”; “Pinball Wizard”; “See Me, Feel Me”; “The Rock” (Quadrophenia); “I Can See for Miles”; and “Magic Bus”. For tickets: 860-244-2999 or www.hartfordsymphony.org
***Tanglewood’s 2014 Festival of Contemporary Music (July 17-21), under the direction of composers John Harbison and Michael Gandolfi, highlights works by American composers, as part of Tanglewood’s season-long focus on American music, with a special emphasis on works by former/current Tanglewood Music Center Composition Fellows and works by women composers. For tickets and information: 888-266-1200 or www.tanglewood.org.
***Renée Fleming plays an opera diva in the world premiere of Joe DiPietro’s “Living on Love” at The Williamstown Theatre Festival (through July 26). Three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall (“Anything Goes”) directs. The cast also includes:Anna Chlumsky (“In the Loop”, “Veep”), Blake Hammond (“First Date”, “Sister Act”), Justin Long (“Seminar”), Scott Robertson (“Cabaret”), and Douglas Sills (“The Scarlet Pimpernel”). For tickets: 413-597-3400 or www.wtfestival.org
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.

To Top