Top 5 Reasons To Come Out For The Kurn Hattin Jazz Invitational!

Kurn Hattin holds its 7th Annual Jazz Invitational TONIGHT at 7 PM in the Higbie Auditorium in the Mayo Memorial Center at Kurn Hattin in Westminster, VT. With performances by several special guests and area youth jazz ensembles, it’s sure to be an amazing evening of swinging entertainment! AND…admission is FREE with a canned food donation for Our Place Food Shelter in Bellows Falls.

Need more encouragement? Here are our top 5 reasons why you ought to be there!

1) You’ll enjoy the sultry New Orleans sounds of local jazz singer, Samirah Evans, up close and personal!

2) Scott Mullett and the Keene Jazz Orchestra really know how to bring the swing!

3) Master of Ceremonies, Eugene Uman of the Vermont Jazz Center, makes everything go down smooth.


Blanche Moyse Chorale: Make A Joyful Noise!

Sacred Works of Schütz and Mendelssohn
Directed by Mary Westbrook-Geha 

This weekend, the Blanche Moyse Chorale will make a joyful noise with performances of sacred works by the German composers Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). The concert will be performed twice: at 8:00 P.M. on Friday, April 11, at the Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bellows Falls, VT, and at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, April 13, at Centre Congregational Church, in Brattleboro, VT.

Under the direction of Mary Westbrook-Geha, the Chorale will treat its audience to a rich selection of a cappella works by Schütz , from the heart of the Baroque period, and by Mendelssohn, from the heart of the Romantic period. The selected texts used by both composers are similar — either psalms or shorter biblical excerpts — but their musical settings are strikingly different. The contrast between their dynamic, harmonic, and polyphonic treatment opens a fascinating window into the cultural evolution that took place over the two centuries between the composers’ births. The concert’s title, “Make a Joyful Noise”, is derived from the text of Psalm 100, which appears twice in the program, in contrasting musical interpretations by both Mendelssohn and Schütz. 


New Sessions: Adult Daytime Music Programs

SINGING STRONG

A singing program for Seniors

Brattleboro Music Center choral director Susan Dedell leads “ Singing Strong,” a new chorus specifically designed for seniors. Singing has been making big headlines in the health field for the last decade, as multiple studies conclude that singing in a group is one of the most effective ways to stay healthy, alert, and happy throughout the course of a life time. Among its many benefits,  singing boosts the immune system, improves heart health, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress. Best of all, it makes you happier! Susan will lead everyone in songs chosen from a variety of musical styles, mostly from the great song repertoire of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. Absolutely no prior singing experience or music reading skills necessary! 


The Lonely Heartstring Band and The Stockwell Brothers at Next Stage on Sunday, April 6

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening bluegrass and newgrass by The Lonely Heartstring Band and The Stockwell Brothers at Next Stage on Sunday, April 6 at 7:30 pm.

The Lonely Heartstring Band is Berklee College of Music students George Clements, Patrick M’Gonigle, Matt Witler, Gabe Hirshfeld and Charles Clements. Their music is a combination of old and new styles, melding the sounds of traditional bluegrass with modern songwriting and arranging. The band began with a common love for the music of The Beatles, bringing some of their favorite songs to life while attempting to remain true to the original arrangements.


Samirah Evans, Keene Orchestra Join Area Youth at the Kurn Hattin Jazz Invitational

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children invites the public to attend its 7th Annual Jazz Invitational Wednesday, April 9th at 7:00 pm featuring special guests: the Keene Orchestra, directed by Scott Mullett, jazz singer Samirah Evans, and with Master of Ceremonies, Eugene Uman of the Vermont Jazz Center. This year’s program features youth jazz ensembles from Bellows Falls Union High School, Brattleboro Area Middle School, Northfield Mount Herman, Kurn Hattin Homes For Children, Vermont Academy, and the Vermont Jazz Center.


Friday: BMC Presents Musicians From Marlboro

On Friday, April 4, the Brattleboro Music Center presents Musicians From Marlboro at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, VT,  in the final concert of its 2013-14 Chamber Music Series.

Musicians From Marlboro, the touring extension of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, offers exceptional young professional musicians together with seasoned artists in varied chamber music programs. The resulting ensembles offer audiences the chance to both discover seldom-heard masterworks and enjoy fresh interpretations of chamber music favorites.


The Vermont Jazz Center Presents: Emerging Artist Series – Carolina Calvache

Innovative, original jazz, influenced by Colombian rhythms. Featuring saxophonist, Jaleel Shaw

The Vermont Jazz Center will present Colombian pianist, Carolina Calvache, performing as part of our Emerging Artist series. This young artist has all the qualifications that the VJC is celebrating in this series: she is launching her first CD with a major jazz label (Sunnyside), she is a creative composer, she is highly accomplished on her instrument. She is a rising star in the eyes of both critics and peers and she is traveling with her own band. Her musicians have studied and performed her complex material and are able to transcend its technical demands and add to the beauty of her vision. These musicians are Jaleel Shaw on saxophone, Yasushi Nakamura on acoustic bass and Rodrigo Recabarren on drums.


3/26 Spaghetti Supper to Benefit Guilford School Music Program

Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford has been providing the Guilford Central School with a Music Enrichment Program residency for the past six seasons, with partial funding from the Max Y. Seaton Trust. The balance of the budget is raised by a public concert in Brattleboro featuring the program’s residency artists and also, for the past three seasons, by a Spaghetti Supper held at the school.

This year’s pasta supper is set for Wednesday, March 26, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and is followed by a School Music Night concert; the school is at 374 School Rd. in Guilford Center. The menu includes pasta with a gluten-free option, a vegetarian sauce made from scratch, homemade meatballs for carnivores, green salad, artisan bread with plain or garlic butter, beverages, desserts and a sundae bar.


Wooly Mar and Home Body At Future Collective Show

We arrived fashionably late for the Future Collective show Friday night and missed Wooly Mar’s opening. We regret that but we had the bill upside down.

Wooly Mar is Maria Pugnetti, an “intermedia artist” living in Northampton, MA, who has done various musical things through the years, usually described as some kind of folk music. Currently, she’s doing her own thing with a fluctuating group of musical collaborators, of whom we heard one, a bass player named Kurt. Armed with a compact array of keyboard, drum machine, effects units, and other gear, she coupled sounds and effects with her own sinuous voice in a way that was frankly mesmerizing and slightly levitational. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this woman was luminous, or as one girl shouted out, “pure magic.”


The Land Where the Blues Began: Images and Music of the Mississippi Delta with Scott Ainslie

Join blues guitarist & historian Scott Ainslie on Friday March 21, 2014, 7:30 pm, in Library’s Main Room for a visually and musically entertaining exploration of the region that was ground zero for the development of the Blues. Tickets are $20.00/ $15.00 for Friends of Library members, and may be purchased at Brattleboro Tix or at the library’s circulation desks, and at the door. To benefit the Friends of BML.


March Music Madness

BRATTLEBORO MUSIC CENTER

Who else but the BMC would pack so much wonderful music in to one month?  

We have you covered from Brattleboro to Chester to Wilmington!  With a lunchtime concert, featured local composers, world class musicians, a special children’s performance, and two concerts to support the hungry in our community  —  there is something for everyone.  Come join us and enjoy!


World Music & Jazz Roots Concert to Benefit School Music Program

On Friday, March 14, at 8:00 p.m. in the Vermont Jazz Center performance space at the Cotton Mill Hill complex, Friends of Music at Guilford presents a “World Music & Jazz Roots” concert benefiting its annual Music Enrichment Program at Guilford Central School.

The Friday concert features two ensembles drawing on jazz and classical foundations as well as traditional instrumental and vocal music from around the world. They blend those roots and rhythms into World Music and jazz forms, often original and sometimes skillfully improvised, but always a masterful, creative fusion carrying their audience along on a joyful, soulful journey.


The Future Collective Rocks Brattleboro

Sometime last year, it broke into my consciousness that there was a new arts group in town called the Future Collective and they were doing interesting things. But it wasn’t until this year, when suddenly they held a fundraiser and rented a space on Elliott Street, that I finally got around to figuring out who they were. What they are is very cool – a loosely affiliated group of artists, musicians, visionaries, and creative types who want to create a supportive scene around a free interpretation of the arts. I’m making that up. I have no idea what their actual mission is but it seems related to joy, freedom, beauty, and awesomeness for all. Mission aside, they’ve already given me one thing I’d been missing for a while – loud, live rock and roll music.


Monday Afternoon: Music Appreciation Gathering

Think book club for music lovers!

On Monday, the Brattleboro Music Center’s new monthly gatherings for music and discussion begin. Monday’s session will be led by accomplished pianist and Windham Orchestra director Hugh Keelan.  The Music Appreciation gathers will be held from 1:30 to 3 pm at the BMC, 38 Walnut Street in Brattleboro.  All are invited to attend, no previoius knowledge or experience needed to enjoy.  $5 suggested fee.


Electric Fence – Saturday Night in Saxtons River

Electric Fence returns to Pleasant Valley Brewing in Saxtons River for a night of rocking-acoustic-swing and rock and roll. Steve Carmichael, Howard Weiss-Tisman, Jonny Sheehan and Jeremy Holch have been playing in the area for five years.

They have developed a sound that incorporates folk, rock, swing, blues and country, bringing an original spin to covers, as well as to their original tunes. Come out and welcome mud season. Pleasant Valley Brewing is in Saxtons River. The music starts at 8.


The Vermont Jazz Center Presents: Snarky Puppy

Grammy Award-winning Jazz and Funk Powerhouse, SNARKY PUPPY Comes to Brattleboro, Vermont

The Vermont Jazz Center will present the Grammy Award winning band, Snarky Puppy at the Latchis Theater on March 15th at 8:00 PM. Snarky Puppy is a collective of about 30 interchangeable musicians supplementing a core group under the direction of electric bassist, Michael League. Nine of the members will be performing at the Latchis. They represent a new wave of young, smart musicians who have successfully united the trifurcated worlds of jazz, R & B and funk.


The Sweetback Sisters and Elixir at Next Stage on Friday, March 7

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of swing, honky-tonk and fiddle music by The Sweetback Sisters and Elixir at Next Stage on Friday, March 7 at 7:30 pm.

The Sweetback Sisters forge their own sound by delivering arrangements that combine the soul of classic ‘40s and ‘50s-era country music with an undeniably contemporary edge. The rollicking country, swing, honky-tonk and old-time music of Emily Miller (vocals, fiddle, guitar), Zara Bode (vocals, guitar), Stefan Amidon (drums, vocals), Jesse Milnes (fiddle, guitar, vocals), Ryan Hommel (electric guitar) and Peter Bitenc (acoustic bass) is as infectious as it is heartbreaking.  Their charismatic charm harkens back to the golden era of both the silver screen cowgirl and the ersatz cowboy stars of local UHF TV kiddie shows.  That whimsical exterior is wrapped around a core of deeply felt love for traditional country music styles and a palpable joy in playing and singing together.


Scott Ainslie Concert for Brooks Memorial Library

MUSIC AND IMAGES OF MISSISSIPPI DELTA WITH SCOTT AINSLIE

Nationally acclaimed acoustic Blues singer, historian and songwriter, Scott Ainslie, will perform a benefit concert for the Friends of the Brooks Memorial Library. The concert will be held on Friday, March 21 at 7:30 in the Brooks Library on Main Street in Brattleboro.

Advance tickets are available through Brattleborotix http://www.brattleborotix.com/boxoffice or at the Front Desk of the Library. Tickets will be available at the door; ticket prices are $20 ($15 for members of the Friends of the Library).


The Land Where the Blues Began: Images and Music of the Mississippi Delta with Scott Ainslie

Get your tickets now! Join the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library on Friday, March 21, at 7:30 PM, for a concert to support the services and programs at Brooks Memorial Library–The Land Where the Blues Began: Images and Music of the Mississippi Delta with Scott Ainslie. 

Scott Ainslie has combed the Library of Congress photo archives and combined archival photos with his own images of the Mississippi Delta for a concert tour that explores this formative region of the American South. Visually and musically entertaining, the concert is a richly varied exploration of the region that was ground zero for the development of the Blues. 


Starry Mountain Singers at Sandglass Theater

Don’t miss this rare treat!  On Friday evening, The Starry Mountain Singers (featuring members of the beloved Sweetback Sisters) will grace the Sandglass stage with their gorgeous and intoxicating harmonies!

 

Friday, February 21st, 7:30 pm

Suggested Donation $10 – $15

At Sandglass Theater

17 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT

to make reservations (highly recommended!)
By Email: stefanamidon@gmail.com
or by phone: 718-916-1544