Find an Abundance of Concerts Across the Region

Concert venues in the Berkshires and southern Vermont will provide a dizzying mélange of classical programs across the full musical spectrum this summer. From early music to avant-garde, from Bach to Beethoven, and light years ahead to the Bang On A Can Festival at Mass MoCA, there’s music in practically every style to stimulate and please all tastes.
 
Last week I highlighted three major venues where classical music rules: Tanglewood (www.bso.org), Manchester Music Festival (www.mmfvt.org) and Tannery Pond (www.tannery-pond-concerts.myshopify.com). For complete concert schedules, information and to purchase tickets, visit their websites.
 
And that’s not all. Our region – deemed a “cultural capital” – is seemingly overflowing with classical music in yet more venues large and small – from village churches to world class “temples” of music. Whether you’re a classical initiate or a casual music lover looking for an unexpected, unique listening experience, you’ll find it in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont.

Here are three more venues; call it the ‘three “M”s - to explore.
 

Marlboro Music

About an hour from North Adams is Marlboro Music, on the campus of tiny Marlboro College, located off Route 9, just west of Brattleboro, Vt.
 
Founded in 1951 as a chamber musician’s retreat in a leafy setting, Marlboro from its beginnings has set the highest standard for chamber music performance. The place is a chamber musician’s dream, where dedication to music’s loftiest heights is the goal, and where young, journeyman performers assiduously practice and rehearse with their older, established performer/mentors, taking as much time as is needed to assure a mature and polished interpretation of the music.
 
Why go? The performers study, rehearse and cogitate upon the composer’s intent until all musical decisions concerning interpretation are resolved by the collective ensemble and are realized in the instrumentalist’s fingers or singer’s voices.
 
What will they be they performing? At this level it hardly matters; just know that it will be transcendently achieved, so go and be surprised.
 
Consequently, each concert program is announced only a few days before the weekend performances. The performers take the stage Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m., July 16 through August 14. Or, if you must know in advance, the program will be announced a few days before the concerts. To find out, call the box office at 215-569-4690 or go online at www.marlboro music.org/concerts.

Mohawk Trail Concerts

Mohawk Trail Concerts is a venerable series, located in beautiful Charlemont, over the mountain on scenic Route 2, east of North Adams along the majestic Deerfield River. Violinist and chamber musician Arnold Black established Mohawk Trail Concerts in 1969.

Mass MoCA/Bang On A Can Music Festival

The 15th annual 18-day Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival runs from Monday, July 11, through Sunday, July 31, and features some of today’s leading composers and performers working in experimental music. If you’re new to this ensemble and its coterie of dedicated avant-gardists, suffice it to say that it’s music with an “edge” that will challenge and astonish you.
 
Composers-in-residence and performers will participate in ensembles sitting alongside their teachers. The festival includes daily performances in MoCA’s museum galleries, which are free with paid museum admission. The Festival concludes with a six-hour “blow-out marathon concert,” performed by all of the Festival’s ensembles, including special guests. The Festival also features African and Latin music workshops, electronics and music business seminars, free events within the community, and much more.
 
Along with the BOAC “All-Stars,” this summer’s festival also features the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams.
 
Why go? Touted as “A musical utopia for innovative musicians,” Bang On A Can, or ‘Banglewood’ as founders Evan Ziporyn, David Lang and Julia Wolfe like to call it, is not your grandfather’s idea of sedate chamber music. Musically speaking, there may not be “more things in heaven and earth” than exist between Marlboro Music and Bang On A Can. But, have no fear and take the plunge - you might really enjoy it.
 
Mass MoCA is located at 87 Marshall Street, North Adams. Call for tickets at 413- 662-2111 or visit BOAC’s website for a listing of the full schedule of events: www.bangonacan.org/summer_festival.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.