“The Joy of Music†— the Jewish Artists Showcase concert performance featuring selected original compositions by Joy Robin Dronge, winner of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires’ juried competition, will be held Sunday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, 270 State Rd., Great Barrington.
Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, the concert and reception are free of charge and open to the general public. The musical performance was initially scheduled for the evening of Sept. 11, 2001.
Dronge is a Juilliard-trained flutist and composer who has had her work performed at Tanglewood, Boston University, Lesley College, Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Spencertown Academy, Edward Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, American Women Composers of Massachusetts Concerts at the First Parish Church in Watertown, Kripalu Center, and on community television.
The founder of the Stockbridge Sinfonia, an orchestra that has been meeting and performing in the Berkshires for 28 years, Dronge taught music in the Pittsfield Public Schools for 14 years. She was a three-time participant in the “Creating Original Opera,†a program of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and has received several grants from the Massachusetts Council of the Arts.
The concert performance is dedicated to her daughter, Risa Graubard, who passed away in 1995 from cancer; also to world-renowned jazz and classical composer Jimmy Giuffre; the late Geraldine Rabens, mother of Wendy Rabinowitz; and the families of the victims of Sept. 11.
The program will highlight Dronge’s solo flute performance, Journey, and a Shofar and brass quintet Yom Kippur On. It will also include a woodwind quartet, flute and strings quartet, several songs dedicated to her daughter, and Mozart’s B-Flat Piano Trio.
The musicians for this concert are cited as some of the finest in the world. The pianist is Harold Lewin, the founder and director of the series titled “Music and More†at the Meeting House in New Marlborough. His previous concert venues include Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Also, Kyle Barry, operatic tenor, who will sing in Peter Grimes this summer in Japan under Seiji Ozawa; and the Huntington Brass Quintet, which has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the Boston Symphony.
Additional participants include Elizabeth Barbour, viola, member of the Tamarak String Trio; Peter Breykin, piano, graduate of the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Russia; Judith Dansker, oboe, who has performed at the Library of Congress and with The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center, New York City; Alex Kutik, shofar, and former trumpet player with the State Symphony Orchestra of Belorussia; and Kenneth Long, clarinet, performs with the contemporary music groups Furious Band and Friends and Enemies of New Music, as well as in the New Haven Symphony. Francis Morris, cello, has a violin repair and restoration business, has played Dronge’s Flute Quartet in Boston and at Simon’s Rock of Bard; Sharyl Noroian, soprano, soloist with the Berkshire Lyric Theater Chorus; Kirsten Peterson, bassoon, who has performed at the Aspen Music Festival and Yale Norfolk Chamber Festival; and Susan St. Amour, violin, principal violist in both the Albany and Berkshire symphonies, who has also performed at the Aspen Music Festival.
For more information, call the Federation at 442-4360, ext. 21.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
North Adams Double Murder Case Continued to March
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The case of a city man charged with killing his parents was continued to March on Monday.
Darius Hazard, 44, was scheduled for a detention hearing on Monday in Northern Berkshire District Court.
Prior to the start of the court's business, the clerk announced that Hazard's case was continued to Monday, March 2.
Hazard is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson in connection with the Nov. 24 fire that claimed the lives of Donald Hazard, 83, and Venture Hazard, 76.
Police say Hazard confessed to the killings and starting the fire and fled the Francis Street home where he lived with his parents.
Samuel Currence served his country in the Air Force with distinction, professionalism and unparalleled humility from 1962 to 1985, retiring as a technical sergeant. click for more
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
click for more
