Sizzling for Summer

The weather is not the only thing turning hot. The summer music season is heating up with a sizzling variety of concerts. Close Encounters with Music celebrates its 20th anniversary with Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance. Based in Great Barrington, CEWM has become a much-beloved local institution for fascinating excursions into classical and contemporary repertoire, fused with art and culture. Cellist and artistic director Yehuda Hanani is a mainstay of the Berkshires’ cultural scene. The Fiesta! program includes Chick Corea’s jazzy, flamenco-inspired “La Fiesta!,” performed by accordionist Bill Schimmel, one of the principal architects of the tango revival in America; Astor Piazzolla’s “Grand Tango,” choreographed by David Parsons as a 2001 CEWM commission; “Ropa Vieja,” a hypnotic work by composer-in-residence Jorge Martin and also a CEWM commission; and works by Granados, Ginastera and Villa-Lobos. The concert takes place this Saturday, June 4, at 6 p.m. at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA. Tickets are $50 for orchestra seats, $40 for balcony. Call 800-843-0778 for tickets, or go online to www.cewm.org. A relative newcomer to the area, Now! Concerts is in its second year of bringing contemporary chamber music to the area. An offering of the 3Corners Contemporary Music Project in Millerton, NY, it was founded by musicians Dianne Engleke and Mark Liebergall, with help from Music Mountain founder Nick Gordon and chairman of the Indian Mountain School music department Anton Kuskin. A week from this Saturday, a trio consisting of Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Beth Guterman Chu, viola; and Sophia Shao, cello, will perform works by living composers including Annie Gosfield and Krzysztof Penderecki, as well as Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for Solo Viola and Zoltan Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello. The concert is Saturday, June 11, at 2 p.m., at the North East-Millerton Library Annex on Century Boulevard in Millerton. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased on the website www.nowconcerts.org, at Kamilla’s Floral Boutique or Little Gates Wine Shop in Millerton, by email at 3cornerscontemporarymusic@gmail.com, by phone, 518-789-0617 or at the door.

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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