Hindustani Music Concert at Simon's Rock

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Simon's Rock announced the Hindustani Classical Music Concert, featuring a performance by mother and son duet, Veena Chandra, sitarist and vocalist, and Devesh Chandra, tabla. 
 
The concert will be held on Sunday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the McConnell Theater at the Daniel Arts Center.
 
The concert will be free and open to the public, who must show vaccination certificates upon entry and attend fully masked. The Daniel Arts Center staff is ensuring that audience members will be safely seated in socially distanced groups. Reservations should be made on this webpage. 
 
Veena Chandra is an internationally renowned sitarist, composer, teacher, and choreographer. She is the founder and director of the Dance and Music School of India in Latham, NY where she teaches Indian classical music. She has been a faculty member at Skidmore College since 1990, teaching sitar in the Music Department. Since 2014, she is also the Artist Associate in Sitar at Williams College. 
 
In 2019, she was awarded the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in music & sound. She is a recent recipient of numerous grants: New York State Folk Art Grant 2003, Artists Decentralization Grant, SOS grants, Meet the Composer grants, Albany League of Arts (2002), New Music USA (2017, 2020), NYFA Keep NYS Creating Project (2020). She has received several years of Community Arts Grants & Arts in Education grants (2000-2020) through The Arts Center of the Capital Region and NYSCA. In 2018, Veena received the SRIJAN Music Excellence Award "in recognition of outstanding contribution in the field of Indian Classical Music."
 
Devesh Chandra has been learning the tabla since the age of 3. He has learned Northern Indian Classical Music by accompanying his mother, Veena Chandra. In addition to tabla solos and playing Indian classical music, he has collaborated and worked with musicians across a broad range of musical genres, from Western Folk and Western Classical to Flamenco and Jazz as well as Latin Music. Devesh has collaborated with notables such as Sumitra Guha, Anup Jalota, Susie Ibarra, Tarun Bhattacharya, Brian Mellick, and Alex Torres. He has also composed music for modern dance, most notably his highly acclaimed commission "House of Fables" for the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company. He has performed at a wide array of music festivals in both the US and abroad including Wanderlust, The NYS Fair, and Friendly Gathering.
 
Devesh regularly visits schools and colleges and teaches students of all ages about Indian classical music and tabla. Devesh teaches tabla as an Artist Associate at Williams College. Devesh and Veena Chandra conduct a yearly community arts project, which exposes the public at large to Indian classical music. Together, they run The Dance & Music School of India, which Veena Chandra founded over 30 years ago.

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Great Barrington Public Theater Appoints Artistic Director

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Great Barrington Public Theater announced that Associate Artistic Director Judy Braha will now join Jim Frangione at the helm as Artistic Director of Great Barrington Public Theater.
 
"We at Great Barrington Public Theater are thrilled that Judy Braha will assume the role of Artistic Director alongside myself. I couldn't have asked for a better partner to help advance the interests of the theater as we move into the next phase of growth as the region's premiere developmental theater," Founder & Artistic Director Jim Frangione said. "Judy brings a tremendous amount of experience and value to our company and has, in just a few short years, grown and greatly enhanced GB Public Theater's signature program, Berkshires Voices, where playwrights develop their work, leading to public readings and in some cases workshops and full productions. I look forward to working more closely with Judy to select the next generation of plays to be presented under the GB Public banner. It's a "Bear" of a job! But we feel great about the direction of our theater."
 
Judy Braha joined the GB Public artistic leadership team in 2023 as the Associate Artistic Director after 2 years directing for the company. She has since then been collaborating with Founder and Artistic Director Jim Frangione on the selection of new work for readings and full productions in the summer season. Her impressive portfolio of credits and accomplishments strengthened Great Barrington Public's creative programming and offered new perspectives to the body of works and events produced each year. 
 
Judy Braha has been a career director, actor, teacher and artist for social justice for over four decades with directorial credits in theaters and universities throughout New England. She led the M.F.A. Directing Program at Boston University's School of Theater, retiring in 2022 after 29 years of service at BU. 
 
"Judy has the strength of commitment, leadership and passion for theater and how it affects communities that fit hand-in-glove with our founding mission and core beliefs," Founder and Producing Director Deann Halper Simmons explains. "Her artistic integrity, sense of stage esthetic and ability to make important choices that craft life from the script continues to be a great asset to our company and growth."
 
"Judy's distinguished artistic voice has significantly contributed to the exceptional growth of GB Public in recent years," Managing Director Serena Johnson added. "We are truly excited to have her stepping into this leadership role in the 2026 season."
 
 
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