Culture

SHARON ROBINSON, cello; BENJAMIN HOCHMAN, piano

On Sunday, September 29, the Brattleboro Music Center’s 2013-14 concert season opens with an exceptional performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s sonatas and variations for piano and cello.

World renowned musicians, cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Benjamin Hochman, will play Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, five sonatas and three sets of variations, in two concerts, 3 pm & 7pm, at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, VT. 

Blue Oyster Cult are a lot like Babe Ruth – many home runs, and a lot of strike outs. When examining their musical output, you have to dig through a ton of dirt to get to the gold. However, when Blue Oyster Cult hit a home run, they hit it out of the park. 

Their origins date all the way back to 1967 and they have been recording and performing ever since. In fact, I had the opportunity of seeing them live when they played the Colonial Theatre in Keene a few years back. Blue Oyster Cult were intelligent, highly proficient musically, and at times, rocked harder than almost any other band. For this weekend’s concert, I have included Youtube cuts of 5 of my favorite Blue Oyster Cult ragers, enjoy:

Mini Mozarts is a composition and singing based theory class that focuses on learning the basics of rhythm, melody, and harmony through a hands-on, creative approach. The young musicians will experiment with sounds in order to achieve a deeper understanding of how music is constructed. We will march, clap, and play games to learn about how rhythm, tempo, and time signatures affect musical expression. Students will learn about scales by creating their own, then describing what those scales sound like. Students will also experiment with harmony by discovering how different notes sound while played together. At the end of each class, we will take time to write our own individual compositions based on what we learned that day. On the last day of class, each student will get to go home with a book of their original music!

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present folk singer, songwriter and comedienne extraordinaire Cheryl Wheeler plus folk/rock sister duo The Nields in concert on Friday, September 20 at 7:30 pm at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill in Putney, VT.

It has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers, with fans of the New England songwriter relishing watching the two tussle for control of the microphone. There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic. As the poet and comic forces join, taking their separate turns and melding into the same artistic vision, Wheeler emerges as a delightful, gifted and openhearted performer.