Violinist Francesca Anderegg To Play at South Berkshire Concert Series at Simon's Rock

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — On Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 pm, Francesca Anderegg will return to the Berkshires and Simon's Rock for a recital of music for violin and piano by women composers in the McConnell Auditorium of the Daniel Arts Center.  
 
The concert is free and open to the public. 
 
Reservations are recommended: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/south-berkshire-concert-francesca-anderegg-tickets-301498107957 and vaccination certificates and masks are required. 
 
Anderegg, who grew up in the Berkshires and has performed here frequently, will be accompanied by pianist Matthew McCright. Their program will include works by Clara Schumann, Gra`zyna Bacewicz, Hannah Lash, Jessie Montgomery, and also will include the Violin Sonata of Amy Beach.  For further information, call 413-528-7212.
 
Anderegg grew up in the Berkshires, hailing from a musical family. She earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and masters' and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where her teachers included Robert Mann, Ronald Copes, and Naoko Tanaka. 
 
She is a laureate of the Corpus Christi Competition and winner of fellowships from both the McKnight Foundation and the Leonore Annenberg Fund. Her festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, and Yellow Barn. An enthusiastic educator and mentor of young musicians, Anderegg is Associate Professor of Violin at St. Olaf College and has taught at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She has been an invited guest teacher at universities throughout the country and abroad.
 
Anderegg has a national and international reputation as a violinist with a special focus on Latin American repertoire and contemporary music. As a soloist, Ms. Anderegg has toured throughout Argentina and Brazil, performing a wide variety of contemporary and standard violin concerti with orchestras in the United States and South America. Since her Carnegie Hall debut performance in 2008, Ms. Anderegg has given solo recitals in national and international venues, including Brooklyn's National Sawdust, The Arts Club of Washington, the National Museum of Colombia in Bógota, and many others across the world. 
 
Her three solo albums have been featured on radio programs throughout the country
 
Ms. Anderegg's appearances include concerts at Chicago's Symphony Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with Itzhak Perlman and members of the Perlman Music Program.
 
American pianist Matthew McCright has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific as piano soloist and chamber musician.
 
A native of Pennsylvania, McCright now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the piano faculty of Carleton College. An accomplished recording artist, McCright has released six solo recordings; his most recent What is Left Behind on the Proper Canary label, as well as three albums on innova Records (Second Childhood, A Waltz through the Vapor, and Blender), the piano works of Gene Gutchë on Centaur Records, and the release on Albany Records of the piano music of Olivier Messiaen. His solo touring shows include Evening Preludes, The People's Music, Contemplations: The Music of Olivier Messiaen, Connecting Flights, There and Back Again, and Endurance.
 
McCright's festival participation includes Bang on a Can at MassMOCA, Printing House Festival of New Music (Dublin), Late Music Festival (UK), SEAMUS, Hampden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival, Engelbach-Hart, Kodály Institute, Perilous Night, Fringe, Bridge, Spark Festival of Electronic Music, SPLICE, Festival of Lakes, Rayuela, Oh My Ears, Source Song, Seward Arts, Zeitgeist Early Music, Duquesne University's Summer Music, Music 2000, CCM Village Opening, and Minnesota Composers Alliance, as well as programs for the American Composers Forum across the country. McCright completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music Degree in Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance, Magna Cum Laude, from Westminster College. His past teachers include Lydia Artymiw, Lisa Moore, Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, and Richard Morris.

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King and Confidantes Debate Hope and Change in 'American Five'

By Alan PetrucelliSpecial to iBerkshires
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Fiction and fact meld in the regional premiere of "The American Five," now playing at the Larry Vaber Stage of the Unicorn Theatre. 
 
The play takes a fictionalized look at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his four closest confidants in the months leading up to the famed March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. The quintet, through differing opinions, animated arguments, constant threats of violence and a late-night meal featuring challah bread and wine, become a family as they prepare for the history-making march that galvanized the Civil Rights movement.
 
Most of us know the King saga. It's the second act in which playwright Chess Jakobs' genius shines. Prejudice runs rampant here: Is Stanley Levison, a Jewish lawyer from New York who shows up in Montgomery to join the fight for racial equality and "to repair the world," viewed as white? Jewish? Both? And march strategist and organizer Bayard Rustin experiences his own fight for civil rights because of his homosexuality. Here, Jakob explores prejudice on different levels.
 
The cast is top-notch with many emotional highs. As King, Rashun Carter (who would look more like his character if he had a full moustache) and Sydney Elisabeth (as Coretta Scott King) are at their best during a scene that bounces between humor and poignancy. 
 
She questions her husband about his meeting with President John F. Kennedy; he is angry and refuses to discuss it. "There is no 'you' out there, without a 'me,' in here," she says, leading King to agree that because of her self-worth and unwavering devotion to him, she is "Coretta Scott Queen."
 
As Clarence Jones, King's personal counsel, Brett Diggs has assurance and dignity; Harry Smith's portrayal of lawyer Stanley Levison, is nothing short of extraordinary. Destan Owens' performance as gay Bayard Rustin is the play's most outstanding performance as he defends his relations with men: "You don't get to judge me!" he tells King. "I'm just trying to find love."
 
"The American Five" is tightly directed by Gerry McIntyre; the historic period projections and footage/designed by Alex Hill remind people that there are dreams, such as hope and change, that are still being fought.
 
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