Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
performances

Indigo Room launches with weekend events

Indigo Room launches with weekend events

Morgan James performing the first sneak preview event (with Doug Wamble) in March.

Christina Lane

The Indigo Room is a new event space in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, adjacent to the Mahaiwe Theater, with a capacity of 75 to 100, depending on the seating arrangement. With a flexible stage, the venue can be set up to meet most production needs and is fully equipped with top-notch sound and lighting systems.

Though it has already hosted a few soft openings, The Indigo Room officially opens Sunday, Oct. 12, with a ribbon-cutting at 1 p.m., part of a weekend of grand opening events.

A traditional Chinese lion dance will be performed to bring good luck. Red envelopes will be available for attendees to present their good wishes, and an apple cider toast will be raised in celebration. Guests will receive a commemorative souvenir.

On Friday, Oct. 10, comedian Kevin McCaffrey performs at 7 p.m. Drag Bingo with Miranda Moirai will take place later that night at 9:30 p.m.

Tony-nominated jazz and pop singer Ann Hampton Callaway will feature highlights from her hit shows “The Streisand Songbook, Ann Hampton Callaway Sings the ‘70s,” “The Linda Ronstadt Songbook,” “To Ella with Love,” “From Sassy to Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project” and “Finding Beauty: Inspired Classics and Originals” on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 8 p.m.

On Sunday, Oct. 12, at 11 a.m., there will be a free family concert with Arlo Guthrie’s longtime drummer, Terry A La Berry. Also on Sunday, blues musician Guy Davis will perform at 8 p.m. Davis is a two-time Grammy nominee for best traditional blues. A musician, actor, author and songwriter, Davis uses roots, blues, folk, rock, rap, spoken word and world music to address social injustice, touching on historical events and common life struggles.

The Indigo Room has a capacity of 50 to 100, depending on the seating arrangement. Christina Lane

Tickets are available at mahaiwe.org, or by calling or visiting the box office at 14 Castle St., Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m. The phone number is 413-528-0100.

The Indigo Room will also leave space in its programming for local artists — a welcome addition to Great Barrington’s cultural scene, especially since the departure of smaller venues like Club Helsinki in recent years.

“It is a continuation of the high-caliber work and customer care that audiences expect of the Mahaiwe, while expanding what we can do. It’s an intimate social space where you can find live comedy, an array of musical performances, as well as family-friendly entertainment and everything in between,” said Executive Director Janis Martinson.

Mike Cobb
performances

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Seeing isn’t always believing. Sometimes it’s the lack of a defined picture that can be the most compelling. And when Alex Harvey of Shinbone Alley sings his supernaturally charged sea shanties and street ballads, the unseen will be downright scary. On Oct. 30, the historically inclined storyteller and performer will create a spooky evening of forbidden tales and yarns through a carefully chosen series of songs at Spencertown Academy of Arts.

The repertoire for the performance is a bit fraught. Over the years, Shinbone Alley has explored the world of folklore through music. Though the group usually features two musicians, Harvey, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, will be performing solo. That is, of course, unless you include the spirits.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield
Vieux Farka Touré
Proivded

Desert winds rarely blow into the Berkshires, but on Nov. 5, they will carry the Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa music to Race Brook Lodge.

That evening, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, often called “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will play at the lodge’s Event Barn in Sheffield, Massachusetts, at a benefit for the foundation Touré directs.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.