Music section
It may be freezing outside, but inside the Brattleboro Music Center’s spring semester starts next week. Get involved and let the music warm you!
Consider starting that instrument you have always wanted to play! We offer lessons in 16 instruments & voice to all ages and levels.
We also have classes for kids, teens & adults – including our new adult daytime programs, take a look:
Southeastern Vermont’s Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival will take place on Saturday, January 25, 2014 in Brattleboro, Vermont. Now in its 7th year, the Brattleboro Music Center’s annual festival brings together local and regional musicians representing the best of various northern musical traditions. This year’s festival features over twenty musicians and the rich traditions of Ireland, Scotland, England, Scandinavia, New England and French Canada.
The annual Northern Roots Festival is a celebrated opportunity for Brattleboro’s vibrant community of traditional musicians to come together to share their music with each other and the community at large. The festival also draws on the richness of talent in the broader region, with players from throughout New England coming to perform, teach and participate in informal sessions.
Singer/songwriter Lisa McCormick, of Brattleboro, VT, is one of five artists selected to attend a four-week artist residency in Florida, for the month of February.
McCormick will be dedicating the residency time to composing new original songs for her upcoming CD and concerts.
The Escape-to-Create artists are selected from an international pool of applicants, following a peer review selection process. Since 1993, Escape to Create’s multi-disciplinary residency offers artists the gift of time and space from a community engaged in furthering artistic expression.
Twilight Music presents acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet Caravan of Thieves, plus fiddler Emma Walsh, at Next Stage on Friday, January 17 at 7:30 pm.
For the past five years, Caravan of Thieves has roamed the North American continent recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers at their high energy shows. Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It’s theatrical and humorous. It’s musical and intense. It entertains, dazzles and defies classification while welcoming the spectator to join the band throughout the performance in momentary fits of claps, snaps and sing-alongs.
Windham Orchestra
BRUCKNER & SIBELIUS in Brattleboro & Saxtons River
On Friday, January 17 in Saxtons River, and Sunday, January 19 in Brattleboro, the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Hugh Keelan, presents a dynamic program ranging from Bruckner’s popular 19th century “Romantic” Fourth Symphony; to local composer Jan Norris’ new work “Melting Spring.”
Guitarist Freddie Bryant’s Kaleidoscope Quartet to feature the sounds of jazz from around the world at the VJC in a tribute to VJC founder, Attila Zoller
The Vermont Jazz Center kicks off 2014 with a concert featuring guitarist Freddie Bryant’s Kaleidoscope Quartet a band that features disparate grooves from around the world unified by Bryant’s simple truth that he is indeed an authentic global citizen. This show will be a tribute to VJC founder, the great guitarist, Attila Zoller.
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a twin bill of award-winning contemporary folk singer/songwriters Antje Duvekot and Seth Glier at Next Stage on Friday, January 10 at 7:30 pm.
Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.
BMC Chamber Music Series
PIANIST JONATHAN BISS
FRIDAY, January 10, 7:30 pm
Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven
American pianist Jonathan Biss is widely regarded for his artistry, musical intelligence and deeply felt interpretations, winning international recognition for his orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances and for his award-winning recordings. Biss, whom The New Yorker describes as playing with “unerring sophistication”, made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2001, and since then has appeared with the foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is a frequent performer at leading international music festivals and gives recitals in major music capitals both at home and abroad. Sponsored by Vermont Public Radio. Tickets: $30, $20, $10
Everyone is welcome to come and meet their favorite DJ’s from 107.7 FM WVEW.
Attendance to the event is free, and Backside Café will have their bar and a limited bar food menu available for attendees. A portion of the proceeds from the night’s drink sales will go towards the radio station.
Live DJ’s:
Selector D (host of One Drop)
Zig-Zag (host of Patterns of Chaos)
Wild Goose (host of The Future Collective Presents…)
Next Stage Arts Project presents two indie rock bands, Brattleboro-based quartet The Snaz and Keene-based trio Jake McKelvie & The Countertops, at Next Stage on Saturday, December 7 at 7:30 pm.
The Snaz is a young, original rock band featuring Dharma Ramirez (15, lead vocals and guitar), Mavis Eaton (15, keyboards and backup vocals), Zack James (13, drums) and Sally Fletcher (15, bass). They have won “Battle of the Bands” competitions in Brattleboro and Northampton. Their prize for the Brattleboro event was recording time at the Guilford Sound studios, where they recorded an EP with the help of Grammy nominated record producer Peter Solley.
On Friday, December 6th at 8:00 PM, the Vermont Jazz Center will present a Gala Performance with the VJC Big Band supporting internationally acclaimed vocalist, Kevin Mahogany. This is a dance concert and more than half the floor will remain open for people to move to the sounds of the VJC’s 18 piece orchestra.
Kevin Mahogany is well acquainted to singing with big bands as he has his own repertoire and custom-made charts, some of them arranged by the legendary Frank Mantooth. According to the respected jazz website, allmusic.com, Mahogany’s “swinging style is reminiscent, but not derivative of Joe Williams.” He takes pride in his Kansas City roots and, just like another Kansas City resident, Charlie Parker, his delivery is deeply saturated in the authentic blues. In one recent performance, Kevin joked that the state law in Kansas City required a minimum of two blues numbers per set!
For the second year running, the Kurn Hattin Children’s Select Choir has been invited to join Grammy-winning fiddler Natalie MacMaster on stage for her “Christmas in Cape Breton” concert. Kurn Hattin Music Director
Lisa Bianconi has chosen 26 out of the 64-member advanced choir to perform in the concert, which takes place at the Latchis Theater in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont on Friday, December 6 at 7:30 PM
Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music’s 41st Annual Christmas at Christ Church program is set for 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 13, and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 15—note this departure from past years’ schedule for the reprise performance. Christ Church is at the corner of Rt. 5 south and Melendy Hill Road in the Algiers Village of Guilford.
“Brightest & Best: Music to Welcome the Holy Child” is this season’s theme for the program. Since mid-September, Tom Baehr has been conducting rehearsals with sixteen Guilford Chamber Singers. Many have sung with Friends of Music for a long time, and others are new to this annual “pick-up” group but sing with other choirs and choruses in the area.
Brattleboro, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford, for a 43rd year, invites singers and music lovers in the Tri-State region to start their holiday season with its annual Community Messiah Sing on the first Saturday in December. Set again at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street in Brattleboro, the Sing’s permanent home since 1982, the event is a benefit for agencies serving the area’s homeless.
This year the first Saturday falls on December 7, and the program is set to begin as usual at 1:00 p.m. with Clark Anderson at the helm as conductor for a third season. William McKim graciously stepped in for a 28th year as Sing organist when Christian Huebner, Centre Church’s resident organ master, learned that his ministerial ordination ceremony was set for the same afternoon. Messrs. Anderson and McKim will lead the assembled singers through the Christmas portion of Handel’s masterwork, plus a few other favorite sections from Parts II and III.
An old-time Gospel Hour is planned in West Dummerston on Sunday Dec. 1st.,from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Dummerston Community Center. Guitar and vocals will be by GinMillBill.
There will be no preacher and no preaching, just music and singing. Songbooks will be available. Light refreshments will be available. Donations will be accepted for the Community Center’s heating and maintenance fund.
Hugh Keelan and the Windham Orchestra recently collaborated with young musicians and singers from Kurn Hattin Homes to create a thing of immense beauty.
If you missed the concert earlier this month, you can catch the ! Goosebumps guaranteed!
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of bluegrass and Americana music with the award-winning Claire Lynch Band and double banjo bluegrass quartet Hot Mustard at Next Stage on Friday, November 22 at 7:30 pm.
The Claire Lynch Band – Claire (guitar, vocals), Matt Wingate (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Mark Schatz (bass, clawhammer banjo, percussive dance) and Bryan McDowell (mandolin, fiddle, vocals) has the innate ability to perfectly interpret the beauty, subtlety and genre-defying sophistication of Claire’s music. By any measure, the quartet is high on the bluegrass world’s A-List, with musicians whose accolades include three International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Female Vocalist of the Year awards and two Grammy nominations for Best Bluegrass Album (Claire), two IBMA Bass Player of the Year awards (Mark), MerleFest Doc Watson Guitar Champion (Matt ) and an unprecedented first-place win in three instrument categories at the Walnut Valley National Flatpicking Championship (Bryan).
The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus directed by Becky Graber will present its eighteenth annual fall concerts entitled “Where There is Light” on November 23 and 24 at the First Baptist Church in Brattleboro. Seventy local women and girls will perform, accompanied by guest musician Kate Parsons on piano.
Included in the performance will be two of Graber’s compositions, “Travelin’ Light” and “Let Your Light Shine On.” From Minnesota composer Elizabeth Alexander is a Chinese proverb set to music about light, beauty, harmony, honor, and peace, “Where There is Light in the Soul.” The Zulu song “Thula Sizwe” will be combined with Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”
Rocking-acoustic-swinging-soul music Friday night at Pleasant Valley Brewing in Saxtons River. Electric Fence returns with a night of free music, great beer and November cheer to take the chill off. Music starts at 8:00 and goes until 10:30.
Manuel Valera’s New Cuban Express to present a rhythmically charged evening at the Vermont Jazz Center on November 16th, 2013 at 8:00 PM
The Vermont Jazz Center will present Cuban pianist/composer Manuel Valera in concert with the New Cuban Express Quintet (NCE) on Saturday, November 16th at 8:00 PM. This international band is touring in support of a new, highly acclaimed recording, Expectativas, their second Grammy nominated disc in two years. Valera (Cuba) is on piano and keyboards, Joel Frahm (USA), saxophone, John Benitez (Puerto Rico), bass, Ludwig Alfonso (Cuba), drums and Mauricio Herrera (Cuba), percussion.
