Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra Concert

The Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra performs their annual

Spring Concerts

presented by the Northampton Center for the Arts
Friday May 31st and Saturday June 1st at 8 pm

The Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra puts on their signature event of the season; two concerts over two nights at Northampton’s premiere venue for the arts, the newly opened 33 Hawley St. Presented by the Northampton Center for the Arts, the Valley’s finest avant-garde community music ensemble will perform music by James Brown, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bela Bartok, Felix Mendelssohn, Heitor Villa-Lobos and surf guitar classics such as “Pipeline.” 

HVGO is an ensemble of 15 all-amplified electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars (plus drums) made up of all locally based players from a wide variety of stylistic backgrounds, creating a unique sound that can only come from such an unusual combination.

HVGO’s program is centered around the music of James Brown and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Using as the starting point his own meticulous transcriptions of classic recordings from the 1960’s and 70’s (James Brown’s “Cold Sweat”, “Funky Drummer”, and “Ain’t it Funky Now” and four cuts from Antonio Carlos Jobim’s LP masterpiece Stone Flower), Artistic Director Joseph Ricker has created arrangements for the HVGO which highlight the work of Brown and Jobim as composers, a less well acknowledged aspect of the legacy of these music icons. The orchestra will also perform Ricker’s arrangements of selections from Gyermekeknek by Bela Bartok, Songs without Words Felix Mendelssohn, Suite Populaire Brasilienne by Heitor Villa Lobos as well as surf guitar classics such as “Pipeline.”

“The Spring Concerts are where we really get to strut our stuff,” says Ricker .“We’re  excited to present this fun, fascinating and beautiful repertoire and show off all the hard work we’ve been up to this season. Don’t miss it!”

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4221116 $18 (adv.) $20 (door, cash or check only), $10 (under 18 and students with valid i.d) 

Performances: May 31st 2019 and June 1st 2019 at 8:00 PM, 33 Hawley St. Northampton, MA

More info: hvgo.org

Moving into Place

Moving Into Place 

May 24th, 7pm, 2019

Suggested $3 donation at the door

Leila Kaplan, Tess O'Day, Madeline Clyne, Sophie Abraham

Join us for the culmination of our embodied research investigation we have been working on for the last several months! As a group we have held space for one another to explore our relationship to the Connecticut River Valley through movement exploration and collaborative choreography. Our hope was to gain a more dynamic understanding of this area by moving through our own and others feelings and relationships to it. Come see what we've learned!

The event will be comprised of a short movement piece we created and an interactive activity that will explore how our bodies can be tools in understanding and relating to the place of the Connecticut River Valley and the people we inhabit it with.

GLOW :: Ecstatic Dance Northampton :: "Explore" w/DJ Ra So

May 19th, 7-9:30pm

Online & At the Door (sliding scale): $15-25
Low Income w/ EBT Card: $10
Students w/ valid ID: $10
Kids 3-12: $5

More financial information, including scholarships, available at event link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/369177123695019/ or online at www.ecstaticnnortheast.com

“Explore your inner creative genius through the medium you love and enjoy the journey!” ~ Ken Poirot

Dance is love, community, nourishment, inspiration, connection, bliss...

Let's dance together and start the week off in movement and magic. GLOW invites an early evening gathering of community to co-create a journey together... with a mix of local and worldwide teachers, DJs, artists, and musicians to weave a rich experience with a worldwide community and our local family.

..come together and glow with us!


PROGRAM
6:45pm Doors open, Welcome
7:00 Opening Circle & Warmup w/Sarah Monette
8:15 - Second Dance Wave w/DJ Ra So
9:15 Live Musician Soundscape & Closing

❖ In honoring the dance and integrating the experience, we will conclude with humming of gratitude and silent departure ❖

Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/369177123695019/

Jazz Shares: Michael Formanek Quartet

Saturday, May 18, 7:30pm

Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares presents Michael Formanek Quartet, featuring Michael Formanek, bass, compositions, Tony Malaby, tenor and soprano saxophone, Kris Davis, piano and Ches Smith, drums. The Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley St., Northampton, MA. Tickets: $15

http://jazzshares.org/

We're all Bettys

Friday, May 17 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, May 18 at 2:00 pm
Tickets, general sliding scale $10-$20, SBS community $5 https://wereallbettys.brownpapertickets.com/

The Center for the Arts presents "We're All Bettys," a dance concert piece by Cat Wagner in collaboration with Kelly Silliman and advanced dance students from Stoneleigh-Burnham School.

"Bitchin' Betty" is a slang term used by pilots and aircrew to reference the (often female) voices used in aircraft warning systems. Inspired by this term and an episode of the Unladylike podcast, "We're All Bettys" explores the relationships between gender and artificial intelligence. Following similar creative processes, choreographer Cat Wagner has created two entirely different pieces : one for her advanced dance students at Stoneleigh-Burnham, an independent girls' school in Greenfield, MA, and one with her longtime collaborative partner, Kelly Silliman. The pieces combine the quotidian with the idiosyncratic and exhibit repetition and counterpoint with an obsessive, cerebral formalism.

Photography by Matthew Cavanaugh

Stories of Bicycle History and Activism

May 11, 2019

6:00-8:00pm

Tickets: $8 for FNTG and Historic Northampton members, $12 general admission, cash at door

Lorenz Finison, social psychologist, public health practitioner, historian, and cyclist, will present: ”Stories of Bicycling History and Activism.” Larry is a founding member of Cycling Through History, a nonprofit organization that links cyclists with maps and information about African-American heritage and history in Massachusetts, and the author of two books, Boston’s Cycle Craze, 1880-1900: A Story of Race, Class, and Society (2014) and Boston’s Twentieth-Century Bicycling Renaissance: Cultural Change on Two Wheels (2019). Autographed copies will be available for cash purchase at the talk.

Lisa Leizman Dance Company presents Sweetness

May 10, 2019, 7:30pm

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4208522

The Center for the Arts presents the Lisa Leizman Dance Company in concert on Friday, May 10 in the magnificent new Flex theater space of the Northampton Community Arts Trust Building, 33 Hawley Street, Northampton. The 7:30 pm performance is followed by a festive dinner reception prepared by members of the Lisa Leizman Dance Company.  Tickets are $17 for adults (in advance)/$20 (at the door) and $10 for children under 10 (in advance)/$12 (at the door), available at  https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4208522. Advance tickets are strongly recommended.

Warmer days, sap flowing, soft growing light. Time for some sweetness! How about spending a lovely spring evening with the Center’s long-time resident dance company? Find sweetness in the old—repertory pieces “Evening Song” with music by Philip Glass in an extraordinary arrangement by Peter Blanchette and “Sonata for Alto Horn and Piano” set to music by Paul Hindemith. And look for sweetness in brand new work set to music by company composer-in-residence Andrea Kwapien (“Imbolc”) and in an aria from Cantata 51 by J.S. Bach. Underfoot, a beautiful new hardwood floor perfect for dance. Not to mention plentiful free parking and a delicious reception following the performance—now that’s sweet!

GLOW :: Ecstatic Dance Northampton :: "Swirl" w/Deep Seize

May 5, 7-9:30pm

Online & At the Door (sliding scale): $15-25
Low Income w/ EBT Card: $10
Students w/ valid ID: $10
Kids 3-12: $5

More financial information, including scholarships, available at event link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/408706863010420/ or online at www.ecstaticnnortheast.com

"Dance, and your veils which hide the light, Shall swirl in a heap at your feet." - Rumi

Dance is love, community, nourishment, inspiration, connection, bliss...

Let's dance together and start the week off in movement and magic. GLOW invites an early evening gathering of community to co-create a journey together... with a mix of local and worldwide teachers, DJs, artists, and musicians to weave a rich experience with a worldwide community and our local family.

..come together and glow with us!

PROGRAM
6:45pm Doors open, Welcome
7:00 Opening Circle & First Dance Wave w/Deep Seize
8:15 - Second Dance Wave w/DJ Journey Weaver
9:15 Live Musician Soundscape & Closing

❖ In honoring the dance and integrating the experience, we will conclude with humming of gratitude and silent departure ❖

Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/408706863010420/

Loving Women Cabaret

Loving Women Cabaret

May 4, 7:30pm

Join six singers for a musical celebration of women loving women highlighting the passions and struggles of the gay and women's liberation movements of the 1970's.

Tickets are $15 in advance through Brown Paper Tickets, and available at door for $20 cash or check.

Stories of Our LGBTQ Ancestors: Dr. Amber Starbuck and Mabel Stevens

A group shot kept by Dr. Starbuck in a personal photo album shows gay and lesbian couples holding hands outside the Big House, Middlefield, MA, circa 1930. Photo Credit: Sexual Minorities Archives.

Friday, May 3, 2019 at 7 PM

Tickets available at the door are $10 general, $5 for students and elders. 

As part of its continuing original research series on pre-Stonewall era LGBTQ individuals who lived in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, the Sexual Minorities Archives (SMA) of Holyoke will present a new history talk about Dr. Amber Starbuck and Mabel Stevens of Middlefield. The two women were an out lesbian couple who ran a wellness resort called the Big House in Middlefield from the 1920s to 1960s. The history talk, Stories of Our LGBTQ Ancestors: Dr. Amber Starbuck and Mabel Stevens, will be shown to the public for the first time twice in Northampton in the coming weeks. This event at the Center for the Arts is a collaboration between the Sexual Minorities Archives and Historic Northampton. Tickets available at the door are $10 general, $5 for students and elders. 

The story of Starbuck and Stevens is a compelling narrative of pre-Stonewall queer lives and queer community, of lesbians openly living in rural Massachusetts, and working women who were trailblazers as prominent community leaders in Springfield as well as Middlefield, MA. This talk is especially for those interested in LGBTQI+ history, women's and feminist history, early lesbian history in the Pioneer Valley, history of women's participation in community organizations (both women were involved in the Springfield YWCA), women's labor history in western Massachusetts, rural physicians and healthcare, gender non-conformity, and more. 

The talk draws on a range of primary sources discovered and organized by the SMA -- including local news clippings, print ads and posters, Big House artifacts, Census and Ancestry.com records, and, most notably, photographs from a personal album compiled by Starbuck and Stevens, and images from the Big House photographed recently by the SMA. These sources provide the visuals for the talk.

Stories of Our LGBTQ Ancestors: Dr. Amber Starbuck and Mabel Stevens teaches the community about local movers and shakers who were instrumental in forming businesses and organizations well before the start of the modern LGBTQ Movement but whose histories have been hidden – until now. 

The history talk is a 90-minute PowerPoint presentation full of found images and historical facts about the two women, their work and love relationship, followed by a Question and Answer session. 

For those who want to learn more about Starbuck and Stevens, the SMA will offer at the talk a PDF of an accompanying 80-page, annotated SMA original research paper that includes photos not shown in the presentation, for an additional donation of $10.

The SMA’s team of researchers, led by Curator of the SMA, Ben Power, who is the Executive Director of the Sexual Minorities Educational Foundation, spent five years conducting in-depth research and compiled it into this new history talk.  Everyone is welcome to attend. Both events are wheelchair-accessible. 

GLOW :: Ecstatic Dance Northampton :: "Flow" w/DJ Eoka

April 28th, 7-9:30pm

Online & At the Door (sliding scale): $15-25
Low Income w/ EBT Card: $10
Students w/ valid ID: $10
Kids 3-12: $5

More financial information, including scholarships, available at event link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2301543483457453/ or online at www.ecstaticnnortheast.com

"The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music ... dancing is poetry with arms and legs."
~ Charles Baudelaire

Dance is love, community, nourishment, inspiration, connection, bliss...

Let's dance together and start the week off in movement and magic. GLOW invites an early evening gathering of community to co-create a journey together... with a mix of local and worldwide teachers, DJs, artists, and musicians to weave a rich experience with a worldwide community and our local family.

..come together and glow with us!

PROGRAM

6:45pm Doors open, Welcome
7:00 Opening Circle & Warmup w/ Sarah Monette
7:15 First Dance Wave w/Chris Marti
8:15 Second Wave w/Dj eoka (Canada)
9:15 Soundscape w/ Nash Atkins & Closing

❖ In honoring the dance and integrating the experience, we will conclude with humming of gratitude and silent departure ❖

Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/2301543483457453/

Shakespeare Stage: The Tempest

Shakespeare Stage returns to the Flex Space Friday April 19th and Saturday April 20th at 7:30pm and Sunday April 21st at 6:30pm to present The Tempest.

The Tempest is the story of facing Nature's superior power over man and woman and the humble journey of those who suffer and in the end, surmount such adversity. Neither a comedy nor a tragedy, The Tempest is a magical and spiritual experience that focuses on many different aspects of love or lack thereof: Romantic, Fraternal, and love of drink to name a few.

Come with us on this tempestuous journey as we set the stage between the 1st and 2nd World War. A time when the great globe itself was facing such tumult and fear of complete destruction and annihilation. Will we succumb to technological advancements or will the heart, will love win in the end?

Shakespeare Stage strives to provide artistic enrichment in the Pioneer Valley and beyond. Through passionate performances, involvement from the community, and the pursuit of dramatic growth and excellence, we contribute to the increasing importance of the arts and theatre for our neighbors.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by visiting https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4211756 , or at the box office day of show for cash or check. Space is limited, so get your tickets soon! Keep updated on all the happenings at Shakespeare Stage by visiting our Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/ShakespeareStage/.

For more information please contact Director Julian Findlay at julian.shakespearestage@gmail.com or 413-992-7317.

CAST & CREW 
Alonso: Mark Tidswell
Sebastian: Jimmy Murphy
Prospero: Chris Devine
Antonio: Izzy Salant
Ferdinand: Sean O’Connor
Gonzalo: Rod Kleber
Adrian: Andrew LaPenta
Caliban: Julian Findlay
Trinculo: Ryan Dunn
Stephano: Autumn Tustin
Boatswain: Tim McCabe
Miranda: Sarah Etkin
Ariel: Kate Glowatsky, Jayse Matrishon, Jasmine Camaano

Director: Julian Findlay
Choreographer: Catherine Stewart
Music: Chris Devine 
Costumes: Reba-Jean Shaw-Pichette, Piper Pichette

Glow - Ecstatic Dance

GLOW - ECSTATIC DANCE NORTHAMPTON

A bi-monthly dance journey to take us into self exploration and creative expression. We honor moving as the music inspires you in a judgement-free space designed to inspire easeful presence and energetic flow. GLOW is an opportunity to connect with your self, shake up your patterns, let free-form inspiration abound, and co-create a transformative experience.

Let carefully crafted musical journeys allow you to process emotions, exercise your body and mind, lift your spirits, and be welcomed by a vibrant local community as part of a global family in ecstatic expression. You can engage in the dance as you wish… through movement, meditation, expansion, observation, introspection, development, and connection.

You’ll be amazed at what emerges when you let go and just dance!

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/340029886854050/

PROGRAM 4/14/19
6:45pm Doors open, Welcome
7:00 Opening Circle & Guided Warmup W/ Chandra Cantor
7:30 Ecstatic Dance Wave w/ Journey Weaver & Special Guest
9:00 Soundscape Integration w/ Kelli Joy
9:15 Closing Circle

Along with dancing, each event will offer local vending, community networking, family corner, and chair massage!

Limited Early-bird Online until sold out: $10
Online & At the Door (sliding scale): $15-25
Low Income: $10 w/EBT ID
Students: $10 w/valid ID
Kids 3-12: $5
Limited number of discount tickets available online at http://www.ecstaticnortheast.com/event-registrations-tickets

GUIDELINES

1. Conversation outside the dance space
2. Judgement free, move however you wish
3. Respect yourself and one another

Connect with inquiry before assumption, give yourself permission to be present and free of digital distractions, enjoy a natural high, and co-create the experience with consideration.

Any concerns at any point can be addressed with an available Space Holder (listed at the entrance table)

Kids: Are welcome but must be supervised, match the energy of the dance, and may only run around outside. Children must have a guardian, in the dance space or out in the lobby, at all times.

“I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words.” ~ Ruth St. Denis

Dance is love, community, nourishment, inspiration, connection, bliss...

Let's dive into an ecstatic wave together and start the week off in movement and magic. GLOW invites an early evening gathering of community to co-create together... we'll bring you a mix of local and worldwide teachers, DJs, artists, and musicians to weave a rich experience twice a month for our dancing family!

Already filling the schedule with... warmups of 5 rhythms, gaga, soul motion, authentic movement, afroyoga... DJs from Boston, Nevada City, Guatemala, NYC, Berlin, Northamtpon, Los Angeles, Goa, Hartford, London, Montreal, the Bay area, Salt Lake City.... and live musician soundscapes with bells, didgeridoos, guitars, gongs, bowls, harps, kalimbas, violins, voice, piano, flute .... and much more!!!

We invite you to be inspired, expand, connect, and move... with a worldwide community and our local dance family.

…...come together and glow with us!

Melody Fader, Pianist, In Concert

APRIL 14, 2019: 2:00-3:00 PM, with reception to follow

General Admission: $15; Seniors over 60: $10

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4090383

Melody Fader will perform a piano concert, including music by Chopin, Bach, Schubert, Mazzoli, and Debussey. 

Melody Fader enjoys a busy career as piano soloist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist and interdisciplinary collaborative artist in New York City. She has performed throughout the United States and in such New York venues as Alice Tully Hall, The Joyce Theater, The New York Times Center and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Ms. Fader is also often on tour abroad. Her performances have been enthusiastically reviewed, including by The New York Times, which has called her work “sumptuous,” “stirring,” “masterful” and which commented that she “plays with elegance.” Ms. Fader holds a BM degree from the Eastman School and an MM from Juilliard, where she was a student of Margo Garrett, former Chair of the Collaborative Music Program.

For more information about the concert, please e-mail larryfader@comcast.net.

For more information about Melody and her work, please visit www.melodyfader.com

Season Teaser Wine and Cheeser

Saturday, April 13th, 7 - 10pm

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4198276

Please join Strident Theatre at the Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley Street, for our first annual SEASON TEASER WINE AND CHEESER. We'll have refreshments, a few words about the company, and some short readings from our summer scripts. And we'll have a chance to say hello, and to talk!

We are taking this night not only to hold a fundraiser, but to show our gratitude, and to start building conversations about how we would all like to see Strident grow, very much in concert with our beloved community. This isn't just a night to tell you who we are. It's a night to build connections, foster community, celebrate art, and discover ways to grow TOGETHER. What would you like to see Strident Theatre bring to Northampton? Children's classes and productions? Classes for adults? Staged readings? New works? Classics through a progressive lens? These notions are all on our radar. What's on yours?

Let's raise a glass to the possibilities, together.
Cheers!

https://stridenttheatre.com/

Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival

Film Festival events take place in different locations. The Center is honored to host the Festival on Friday, April 5, and Sunday April 7. Please stay tuned for exact times on these days.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/PVJFF

http://www.pvjff.org/

Computer Music and Video: Free Workshop & Concert

Computer Music and Video: Free Workshop & Concert

Saturday April 6th, 2019

Tickets and more information can be found at www.free-computer-music-workshop.eventbrite.com

Reserve your free ticket and get five dollars off evening concert.

Workshop: 3:00pm FREE

Concert: 8:00pm $15 ($10 with free workshop ticket)

Bring laptops and headphones + learn creative audio/video synthesis using Max8 and Gibber(JavaScript).

Beginners welcome. Intro provided. 

The workshop ticket is free. The concert is $15. Presenting the free workshop ticket at the concert will get people $5 off the concert price, making it $10.

Penny's From Heaven

Friday, April 5, 7:30 pm at 33 Hawley Street

The Center for the Arts invites you to its debut signature party at Northampton’s hottest venue. Join us for an evening of music and dancing with DJ Johnny Memphis, colorful cuisine, creative cocktails, and special guests in celebration of Penny Burke (retired but not retiring) and all things Penny…

Festive attire (vintage and retro encouraged!) Tickets are $25 per person plus cash bar. Advance purchase available online until 4:30 pm event day. Tickets sold at the door from 7 pm.

Tickets at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4094835

In for a Penny, In for the Sound: Help fund our new sound system by bringing us all the pennies that you can spare. Generous donors are matching every penny with a dollar up to $15,000. That’s right. Every penny buys a dollar!

Penny Whistle Stop: Check into our lobby bar where we’ll be reviving the classic Artini and introducing the Cosmopennyton.

Penny Social: Try our artsy auction with a raffle twist. We start you off with ten complimentary chances to win.

Ditch Your Penny Loafers: Slip away from the main event for a sock hop in the dance studio. Appropriate footwear provided.

All proceeds benefit community arts!

Many thanks to Berkshire Brewing Company, Daury Wealth Management LLC, Eastside Grill, Florence Bank, Herrell’s Ice Cream & Bakery, Murr-ma Distilling Company, Myers Catering, Northampton Rental Center, PeoplesBank, Sylvester’s, Thornes Marketplace, TommyCar Auto Group and Whalen Insurance.

Celebrate the Struggle: 100 Signs for 100 Years

What better way to celebrate and honor Frances Crowe on her 100th Birthday than to show up with a sign about the issues- ones you care about and work for and ones Frances cares about. Our goal is to get you and 99 others- 100 people- holding 100 signs.

We will march from 33 Hawley St. and up Main Street, then back to Hawley St. and inside for a proper celebration!

Visit our Facebook Event page for more information!

Looking Down the Iraq Line, by Harriet Diamond

The Valley Light Opera Presents: Costumes through the Ages

Friday, March 29, 7:30 PM, doors open at 7:00. Silent auction, hors d’oeurves, and cash bar.

Tickets: $20. Available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4067786

Valley Light Opera is presenting a fundraising fashion show and musical revue, featuring exquisite costumes from medieval times to the 20th Century, all created by VLO’s team of costume designers for past productions. More than a dozen performers will model the costumes and sing joyous, funny, brilliant music to match. There will be selections from a full range of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works (The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, Ruddigore, Yeomen of the Guard, and more), other light operas (The Merry Widow), and classic Broadway musicals (My Fair Lady, Brigadoon). There will even be a preview of VLO’s Fall 2019 show, Camelot!

Valley Light Opera Inc., is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees, the VLO presents a fully-staged opera every fall at the Academy of Music in Northampton, with less formal productions each spring.