Dave Read

Ashuwillticook Rail Trail

Bicycling in the Berkshires is getting better for visitors and locals because of the development by the MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation of the The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, which is overseen locally by the Berkshire Bike Path Council. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) and the Berkshire Bike path Council (BBPC) help the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) gather information regarding the popularity of multi-use trails state wide. The data we collect is used to advocate for greater trail development.

The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail is a former railroad corridor converted into a 10-foot wide paved, universally accessible, passive recreation path. The Ashuwillticook runs parallel to Route 8 through the towns of Cheshire, Lanesborough, and Adams. The southern end of the rail trail begins at the entrance to the Berkshire Mall off MA Rte. 8 in Lanesborough and travels 11.2 miles north to the center of Adams. Parking lots and restrooms are available at selected locations along the way.

“If one were to imagine a hub of bike trails circumnavigating Mount Greylock, with spokes to all corners of the county, the Berkshires would become the best bike region east of the Mississippi and one of the top five in North America. The draw of that would be immense: something like Tanglewood, the Clark, and Jiminy Peak all rolled into one.”

– Joseph Thompson, Director, MASS MoCA
The rail trail passes through the Hoosic River Valley, between the Mount Greylock and the Hoosac Mountain Ranges. Cheshire Reservoir, the Hoosic River, and associated wetlands flank much of the trail offering outstanding views of the scenery and abundant wildlife. The name Ashuwillticook (ash-oo-will-ti-cook) derives from the Native American word for the south branch of the Hoosic River and literally means “at the in-between pleasant river,” or in common tongue, “the pleasant river in between the hills.” The name was adopted for the trail as a way to reconnect people to local history and the natural environment.

Aston Magna 2013 season schedule

Aston Magna’s 2013 season schedule runs from June 13 through July 13 with concerts at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, at Brandeis University, and at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, plus a June 29 concert at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in downtown Great Barrington, MA.

The season, which will begin on the weekend of June 13-15, will be under the musical direction of Daniel Stepner, Artistic Director and violinist, and will feature many of our most prominent artists, including sopranos Sharon Baker, Dominique Labelle, and Kristen Watson; clarinetist Eric Hoeprich; oboist Stephen Hammer; gambist Laura Jeppesen; theorbist Catherine Liddell; harpischordist Peter Sykes; and trumpeter Josh Cohen.

This summer’s five Aston Magna Festival programs will be performed at Slosberg Auditorium at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, on Thursday evenings, June 13, 20 and 27, and July 4 and 11 with concerts beginning at 8:00 p.m. The concerts can be heard on Friday evenings, June 14, 21 and 28, and July 5 and 12 at 8:00 p.m. in the air-conditioned auditorium of the Olin Humanities Building on the main campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Four of the concerts on Saturdays, June 15 and 22 and July 6 and 13, will take place at the Daniel Arts Center at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA, at 6:00 p.m. The concert on Saturday, June 29 will be performed at The Mahaiwe at 8:00 p.m. A pre-concert lecture by Daniel Stepner will be featured one hour before all concerts, and audience members are invited to “Meet the Artists” post-concert. Audience members are invited to a wine and cheese reception following all concerts at the Daniel Arts Center and the June 29 Mahaiwe concert.

For the first concert weekend, on June 13, 14, and 15, clarinetist Eric Hoeprich will introduce the unfamiliar but hauntingly beautiful chalumeau. The program will highlight this once popular instrument, a relative of both the recorder and the clarinet, in works by Handel, Vivaldi, and others, including Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. Stephen Hammer on baroque oboe, and Kristen Watson, soprano, will also join Mr. Stepner, who will lead a small ensemble.

The second concert will be devoted to music of Johann Sebastian Bach for harpsichord and violin, and will feature all six sonatas for violin and harpsichord. It will be performed on June 20, 21, and 22. Violinist Daniel Stepner and keyboardist Peter Sykes will perform.

During the third weekend, June 27, 28, and 29, the Saturday evening performance will take place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center at 8:00. The concert will present music by Bach and French composer Marin Marais, whose life was portrayed in the film Tous les matins du monde. Soprano Dominique Labelle will solo in works by Marais as well as in Bach’s “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen.” The second Brandenburg concerto will also be performed. The ensemble will include gambist Laura Jeppesen, theorbist Catherine Lidell, baroque trumpeter Josh Cohen, and a chamber orchestra led by Mr. Stepner.

Monteverdi madrigals will be performed on July 4, 5, and 6, together with those of one of his predecessors, Giaches de Wert. Masterful and imaginative musical settings from the 16th and early 17th century will be the fare with Aston Magna’s Madrigal Singers performing.

For the final concert weekend, July 11, 12, and 13, Aston Magna explores the musical library of America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, illuminated by excerpts from his writings. An accomplished musician himself, Jefferson collected a good number of musical gems, including music of Corelli, Mozart, J.C. Bach, Maria Cosway and Francis Hopkinson. Performing will be soprano Sharon Baker, violinist Daniel Stepner, and harpsichordist Michael Sponseller.

In conjunction with the first two concert weekends, period instrument workshops will be offered at Brandeis University. On June 9-14, workshop classes and private instruction will be offered by Mr. Hammer, oboe, and Mr. Hoeprich, clarinet, exploring Mozart’s use of wind instruments in The Magic Flute. In the June 16-21 workshop, Mr. Stepner will offer sessions on Bach’s works for unaccompanied violin, geared to both modern and baroque violinists. For more information, please consult the website, www.brandeis.edu/summer/music/.

For information or to order tickets to the concerts at the Olin Auditorium on the main campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, please phone 845-758-7887. Individual tickets purchased in advance for concerts at Olin Auditorium are $35 ($30/seniors). Students with valid full-time student ID, or under the age of 25, may purchase up to two $5 student rush tickets on the day of the performance. Student rush tickets are subject to availability. Tickets to these concerts are not available online.

Tickets to the June 29 concert at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center can be purchased by calling 413-528-0100 or on line at www.mahaiwe.org. Audience members are invited to a wine and cheese reception following the June 29 Mahaiwe concert.

Subscriptions to the Festival are available at Slosberg Auditorium, Brandeis University, and at Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Single tickets purchased in advance for the Slosberg Auditorium concerts are $30 ($25/seniors); subscription tickets are discounted at $5, $4, $3 and $2 per ticket, for 5, 4, 3, and 2 concerts, respectively. Individual tickets purchased in advance for concerts at the Daniel Arts Center are $35 ($30/seniors); subscription tickets are discounted at $5, $4, and $3 per ticket, for 4, 3, and 2 concerts respectively. Buying in advance also saves you an additional $5 over the price of individual tickets at the door.

Student rush tickets at $10 are available at the door at all concerts. Aston Magna encourages parents to bring the kids! Children 6 to 16 are free, two per each paid adult ticket at Daniel Arts Center.

Tickets or information to concerts at the Daniel Arts Center and at the Slosberg Auditorium may be ordered by calling 413-528-3595, (out of area 800-875-7156) or on line at www.astonmagna.org.

Tanglewood 2013 popular artists schedule

While 2013 may be felt as an annus horribilis among James Taylor fans, since he’ll be on a songwriting sabbatical, the roster of popular artists scheduled to perform during Tanglewood’s 76th season in the Berkshires is an attractive one. Melissa Etheridge will open the festivities with a concert in the Koussevitsky Music Shed on June 21. The next day, a new symphonic project, The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration, featuring Warren Haynes with the Boston Pops under the direction of Keith Lockhart, will be presented in the Shed.

Folk, rock, pop, and radio shows Tanglewood 2013 season

Melissa Etheridge Live – June 21 7PM
Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration – June 22 8:30PM
Joan Baez & Indigo Girls – June 23 2:30PM
Terence Blanchard Group – June 28 8PM
A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood with Garrison Keillor – June 29 5:45PM
Jackson Browne with Special Guest Sara Watkins – July 4 7PM
Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, and Guster “Last Summer On Earth Tour 2013” – July 23 7PM
An Evening with Steve Miller Band – July 29 7PM
Esperanza Spalding – August 4 8PM
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals with Josh Ritter – August 19 7PM
Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! – August 29 8PM
Donal Fox, Scarlatti Jazz Project – Aug. 31, 2013 – 1pm – Ozawa Hall
Harry Connick, Jr. – Aug. 31, 2013 – 7pm – Shed

Jackson Browne 2013 Tanglewood Fourth of July concert

The redoubtable Garrison Keillor returns with a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, for the 14th consecutive year, on June 29. James Taylor’s fellow Troubadour Club alumnus Jackson Browne headlines Tanglewood’s Fourth of July celebration, with special guest Sara Watkins.

Vince Gill returns to Tanglewood, with Boston Pops

Understanding Tanglewood’s Popular Artist moniker to stray far beyond whatever parameters may pertain to “pop music,” the schedule unfolds with a couple of musicians from the discrete genres of country and jazz. Vince Gill, who played Tanglewood with his wife Amy Grant and James Taylor in 2011, is featured guest on a July 7 Boston Pops program. Triple-threat Esperanza Spalding, the virtuoso bassist, vocalist, and composer leads her Radio Music Society Tour to Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall on Sunday, August 4, 2013.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 Tanglewood schedule begins July 5 with an all-Tchaikovsky program led by popular guest conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and featuring the popular violinist Joshua Bell.

Image credits:

Jackson Browne unplugged and in concert; Author=http://www.flickr.com/people/36703550@N00
Esperanza Spalding performing at the Newport Jazz Festival 2008; “Cowboy” Ben Alman http://www.benalman.com
Melissa Etheridge, Hollywood Walk of Fame; Attribution: Angela George
Warren Haynes performing with Govt Mule; Chris Hakkens http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_hakkens/3595676891/in/set-72157619171503309

Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2013

The fifth Mass Poetry Festival, scheduled for May 3–5, 2013, in Salem, MA, brings American’s most admired poets from across the country to a celebration of Massachusetts’ lively contemporary poetry scene. Salem becomes the epicenter of contemporary American poetry, offering rare opportunities to hear first-rate American poets read and discuss their work in intimate and engaging fora. Highlights include:

Friday evening May 3, 2013, Tracy K. Smith (Life on Mars), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, joins poet and memoirist, Nick Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City), and Jill McDonough (Where You Live) for an unforgettable evening of poems about the humor and the dysfunction of family, Michael Jackson and the Hubble telescope. 7:30–9:30 p.m. in the Atrium of the Peabody Essex Museum.
Saturday evening May 4, 2013, Sharon Olds (Stag’s Leap), 2013 winner of the TS Eliot Poetry Prize joins the 2010 National Book Award for Poetry winner, Terrance Hayes (Lighthead), and Eduardo C. Corral (Slow Lightning), whose first collection won the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. The three writers demonstrate the extraordinary possibilities of poetry to reveal the personal and political experiences of American life. 7:30–9 p.m. at the First Universalist Church of Salem.
Sunday afternoon May 5, 2013, Santa Fe-based poet Arthur Sze (The Ginkgo Light), recent winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize, joins Cambridge-based Gail Mazur (Figures in a Landscape) 2:15–3:15 p.m. at PEM’s Native American Gallery. The 1994 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Yusef Komunyakaa (The Chameleon Couch) joins two award-winning poets with roots in Massachusetts: Kevin Goodan (Winter Tenor) and Erica Funkhouser (Earthly) 3:45–4:45, PEM’s East India Room.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival offers poetry readings, workshops, a small press fair, panels, music, and visual arts. Panel topics range broadly from a Cinco de Mayo reading, Taboo, and the Common Threads Reading, where contemporary poets in Massachusetts discuss their literary heirs. More than 100 poets will engage with thousands of people. Admission for all weekend events is $15, $7 for students and seniors. The website www.masspoetry2013.crowdvine.com provides a list of book stores for festival buttons sales and for pre-registering for events.

Playing to the River, poem by Jeff Daniel Marion

Column 420; by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate
There’s something wonderful about happening upon a musician playing for his or her own pleasure, completely absorbed in the music. Jeff Daniel Marion is a fine poet from east Tennessee. And here’s a woman playing the bagpipes.

Playing to the River, poem by Jeff Daniel Marion

She stands by the riverbank,
notes from her bagpipes lapping
across to us as we wait

for the traffic light to change.
She does not know we hear—
she is playing to the river,

a song for the water, the flow
of an unknown melody to the rocky
bluffs beyond, for the mist

that was this morning, shroud
of past lives: fishermen
and riverboat gamblers, tugboat captains

and log raftsmen, pioneer and native
slipping through the eddies of time.
She plays for them all, both dirge

and surging hymn, for what has passed
and is passing as we slip
into the currents of traffic,
the changed light bearing us away.

about American Life in Poetry

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2007 by Nancy Price from her book of poetry Two Voices and a Moon, Malmarie Press, 2007. Reprinted by permission of Nancy Price and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Terence Blanchard Group on 2013 Tanglewood schedule

The 2013 Tanglewood popular artists schedule has been updated to include the Terence Blanchard Group, featuring New Orleans jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, who first performed at Tanglewood on August 31, 2008. The concert will take place in Ozawa Hall on Friday, June 28, at 8 pm. Jazz already scheduled for this summer at Tanglewood is Grammy award-winning jazz bassist/vocalist/composer Esperanza Spalding with her her Radio Music Society Tour on August 4.

formerly with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers

Blanchard is renowned in jazz circles as a remarkable trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. A veteran of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (recommended by Wynton Marsalis as his replacement in 1983), Blanchard began his own recording career in a band co-led with saxophonist Donald Harrison, delivering two albums for Concord and three more for Columbia before launching his solo career with his eponymous 1991 album, also for Columbia. He recorded nine albums for Columbia and Sony Classical. In 2003 Blanchard signed with Blue Note Records where his career jettisoned to a new level of excellence, beginning with Bounce and then two years later with the Herbie Hancock-produced, Grammy-nominated Flow. In 2007 Blanchard won the large jazz ensemble Grammy for the haunting song-cycle album A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) and in 2008 won the best instrumental solo Grammy for Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (he won the same Grammy in 2009 for Jeff Tain Watts’s album Watts for the track “Dancin’ for Chicken”). In 2009, he recorded Choices, a compelling sextet date featuring spoken-word passages by social activist Dr. Cornel West and guest vocals by R&B soul singer Bilal. Choices was Blanchard’s 18th album as a leader/co-leader and his 39th album overall.

While recording and touring his own bands, Blanchard has also becoming a go-to composer for scoring films, beginning in the early ’90s for such films as Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). He has enjoyed a special collaborative relationship with director Spike Lee, including his 2002 film 25th Hour (for which Blanchard received a Golden Globe nomination), the 2006 HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, and 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna. Blanchard worked on the soundtrack for Cadillac Records (2008) and most recently contributed the score for Lucasfilm’s Red Tails, about the Tuskegee pilots.

Blanchard’s work with film has organically spread to working on scores for Broadway productions. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherf**ker With a Hat premiered at Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York on April 11, 2011 and closed on July 17, 2011. It garnered six Tony Award nominations. As for A Streetcar Named Desire, set in the gritty French Quarter of 1940s New Orleans, Blanchard says, “I’ve been inspired by Tennessee Williams’s play and the original screenplay. One of the things about the movie—which is great and even historic in terms of our culture—is how much reference there is to music, such as the line ‘and the brass band plays.’ New Orleans had a profound effect on Tennessee Williams, which is why he wrote this play.” This new production starred Blair Underwood and was produced by Front Row Productions, which enlisted Blanchard to develop thematic ideas and arrangements with a New Orleans sensibility. Blanchard was commissioned by Opera St. Louis for his first-time opera, premiering this year. A boxing fan, Blanchard decided to focus on the story of former welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith, a tremendous fighter from the U.S. Virgin Islands who also had to deal with the repercussions of being a closeted gay in the early ‘60s.

More about 2013 Tanglewood schedule.