By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published May 14, 2013

PITTSFIELD — Bluegrass musician and Lenox native Mason Zink looks every inch the country music star with his blue jeans, brown cowboy boots and tan sports jacket, accented by gold lapel clips.

What differentiates Zink from someone like the late, hard-living country great George Jones? For one, Zink is several feet shorter than the average Grand Ole Opry-ready superstar. Similarly, his cowboy boots resemble those sported by Woody, the cowboy from “Toy Story,” more than what would be worn by the typical sad, song-loving drifter. They also light up.

While Zink might sing very adult standards about lost loves and deep regrets, at age 4, he hasn’t even started kindergarden yet.

Yes, you read that right. Zink is a 4-year-old, currently enrolled at Elm Preschool in Pittsfield, who has been nurturing his love of bluegrass ever since he was 18 months old.

It is a love of country music that is rooted deep in his family tree — his grandfather and great uncles were part of the popular October Mountain Boys, a bluegrass group that performed throughout the Berkshires, while his father, Corey, currently headlines the Corey Zink Band.

“My father and uncles played around the county for years, and as I got into music, I fell in love with country,” Corey said. “Then I got to have my own band, and now Mason is following in the same footsteps.”

Mason is a physically small talent with a very large stage presence, and he’ll get the opportunity to perform in front of pretty sizable crowds this week, when he sings at the Third Thursday street festival in downtown Pittsfield.

Sitting down for an interview with his parents in his mother Melissa’s new photography studio on North Street, Mason is very much a typical 4-year-old. The middle child between Cooper, 6, and Molly, 1, Mason’s favorite things are Woody from “Toy Story,” pizza and doughnuts. Also, like many children his age, he gets restless and doesn’t always sit still — whether it is before a performance, or during an interview with The Eagle.

“When this all started, we weren’t sure if a 4-year-old boy would show up at a performance, or if it would be this little musician,” Melissa said. “So far, the musician shows up every time. He’ll throw a tantrum all the way down, but once he is there, boom, he puts on his blue jacket, puts his guitar over his shoulder, gets on stage and he’s very serious about it.”

Given his father’s love of music, Mason has been growing up with music constantly playing around him. With no formal music lessons or training, he picked up the tricks of the trade almost instinctually, often taking his father’s iPod away for himself, spending hours listening.

During a performance by Corey’s band featuring Mason’s grandfather at the Masonic Temple in Pittsfield, Corey said Mason, only 18 months old at the time, walked onstage. Once he got there, he stopped the show. He grabbed the mic and started to sing.

“It just blew us all away,” Corey said. “We were shocked, and had no idea he was going to do it.”

Melissa said Mason’s commitment to music is unwavering. He gets up around 7:30 a.m., picks up his guitar and starts to play.

“That’s how he starts his day,” Melissa said. “We would think, ‘is he really serious, or does he just think it’s fun?’ It just became an everyday part of our lives. Basically, I’d go, ‘Mason, we’ve got a new XBox game, and he’ll just say ‘no thanks, Momma.’ Or it’ll be, ‘go outside and ride your bike.’ And then it will be ‘no thanks, momma.’ He just loves it.”

When asked what his favorite song is, Mason gets a little shy. He looks to his dad before saying that it is “Roustabout,” a song by bluegrass band Open Road.

Mason is also attracting quite the following. Since launching in March, his Facebook fan page has attracted more than 500 “likes,” and Mason has been asked to perform at various gigs around the county.

Despite all of the attention, Mason’s parents said it all goes back to their little boy’s deep love of music and family.

When he performs, he is accompanied by multiple generations of Zinks, including his his father, grandfather and great uncles.

“Mason idolizes his grandfather, and even has the same kind of guitar strap with the little studs on it,” Corey said.

“Mason loves his family and he loves his music,” Melissa added. “So when they perform, it’s just putting those things together.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published May 10, 2013

Two cities linked by their industrial pasts and economic downturns have shared a relatively recent phenomenon — the emergence of a cultural economy fueled by the arts.
For the entrepreneurs, artists, locals and visitors involved, the transformation of communities reeling from economic fatigue to places with re-energized downtowns has been both frustrating and exciting.

Pittsfield, following General Electric’s withdrawal, has struggled to find a new role as the county’s economic anchor. In North Adams, the loss of the Sprague Electric Co. left a giant hole in the city’s economic infrastructure.

“The city is still struggling, but I feel that all of the members of the arts community feel like we are building another segment of the town,” said Martha Flood, owner of Martha Flood Design in North Adams.

Flood, who offers custom fabric pattern designs, has had her own shop on Eagle Street since 2010.

“You know what? It’s funny, I don’t remember what the downtown was like before all of this,” she said.

It’s a feeling that some of her Pittsfield counterparts share.

“Pittsfield has totally changed,” said Nicki Wilson, the artistic director of New Stage Performing Arts, a small nonprofit theater company formerly based in a space above the Beacon Cinema on North Street.

Wilson’s theater opened in 2010, and for three years she observed Pittsfield’s downtown renaissance firsthand.

“I remember years ago noticing people’s hunger for theater in downtown Pittsfield and thinking, ‘something is happening here,’ ” Wilson said.
Both women are independent artists running small businesses in cities that a decade ago they would never have seen as hubs for creativity.

Welcome to the changing faces of North Adams and Pittsfield.

‘A sense of community’

“The past five to 10 years have been a very exciting period of time for Pittsfield,” said Megan Whilden, the director of cultural development for the city.

She shared a study by Americans for the Arts, a national organization, on the economic impact that nonprofit arts programs had on Pittsfield between 2005 and 2010. The study found that attendance at city arts events increased by 169 percent.

That this increase occurred around the inception of Whilden’s office at City Hall is no coincidence. Former Mayor James Ruberto created Whilden’s position as a community organizer for the arts in 2004.

“When GE left Pittsfield, they left the city with a $10 million economic development fund, and Mayor Ruberto decided to invest a third of that into the arts and culture in the city,” Whilden said.

Some of that money was invested in the $20 million renovation of the Colonial Theatre, a Gilded Age theater that had suffered from years of neglect. Whilden said that Ruberto also invested in Barrington Stage Company and the renovation of the Berkshire Museum, as well as in Hancock Shaker Village.

“All of this was controversial, and it created a lot of conversation and debate. When something is new and untried there is definitely hesitancy, with the point of view that maybe it isn’t worth it,” Whilden said.

Downtown theaters brought a revival of large-scale events like the Third Thursday festival and the Pittsfield Ethnic Fair, the opening of Beacon Cinema and the institution of the WordXWord and the Pittsfield City Jazz festivals.

All of this led a swath of Pittsfield’s downtown to be re-christened the “Upstreet Cultural District” — one of the first four cultural districts designated by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2011.

“There is a real sense of pride in the city of Pittsfield,” said Jim Benson, a local restaurateur who founded the annual WordXWord Festival, a weeklong event in August celebrating spoken word performance.

“The cool thing about this from a business standpoint is that spoken word really has a draw in downtown Pittsfield,” Benson said. “Bring one of these poets to a Tuesday night in March at Ybar and you have a full house for poetry.”

A city on the way back up

North Adams’ downtown area has experienced its own renaissance over the past decade.

When Mass MoCA opened in 1999, filling the massive factory spaces left over by Sprague Electric to become one of the largest contemporary art museum in North America, it brought something completely new to the small city — a world-class modern art center.

Watching the museum gradually alter the face of the former mill community has been exciting, said Jonathan Secor, director for special programs at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Secor came out to the city in the late 1990s to serve as a consultant for Mass MoCa and help the museum institute its performing arts programs.

“I witnessed the city go down when Sprague left and then have been watching the city make its way back up,” he said.

Though North Adams has done a lot to spur economic growth and open up pathways for artists to make a living in the city, there is still a lot of work to do, Secor said.

“As with Pittsfield, we both can’t say ‘we made it’ yet without lying,” Secor said. “North Adams has a lot of issues that all real cities have. I’ve really come to believe that our new slogan should be ‘slow and steady wins the race,’ and we are sticking to it.”

Secor said it is remarkable to imagine just how rapidly the city’s Main Street has changed. From completely empty storefronts to restaurants, small shops and gallery spaces, the downtown is more lively than it has been in decades.

One of the city’s highest profile events is Solid Sound, the band Wilco’s music and arts festival, which has drawn huge crowds to downtown North Adams. This year the festival will run from June 21 to 23.

Some challenges come with hosting a music festival in the Berkshires, said Wilco’s manager, Tony Margherita, who organizes Solid Sound. But hosting the event in North Adams makes it distinct from any other festival, he said.

“There’s a lot to be said for urban settings,” he said. “But there is a particular feeling about performing at Mass MoCA that is a huge part of what makes this different from any other festival we have been at in other parts of the world.”

While Pittsfield has seen many organizations come together, North Adams’ metamorphosis over the past 10 years has almost solely come from Mass MoCA.
The museum attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually, and Secor said North Adams’ main challenge now is to try to ensure that those people who come just for the art stick around and enjoy the city.

“Mass MoCA could be like Disneyland, in that you enter the gates, say hi to Mickey, and then leave. We have to find a way to avoid that,” Secor said.
Artists have expanded away from the museum and scattered around the city. The Eclipse Mill houses a series of artist lofts in a former textile mill. Murals in the downtown, gallery spaces and public art events like the monthly Downstreet arts festival have helped restaurants and small businesses on Main Street.

Looking forward

Not all news is good news. According to figures released by the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the unadjusted jobless rates for Pittsfield and North Adams in March 2013 were 7.8 and 9.1 percent, respectively — higher than the state’s 6.8 unemployment rate.

Whilden and Secor agree that there is more work to do.

“The arts are catalysts and are not the end point,” Secor said. “Naysayers say, ‘we’d rather have a factory,’ and while I don’t disagree, I don’t see that happening. Not in North Adams, and especially not in North America.”

For Whilden, the growth of the arts in the cities makes the Berkshires more attractive to businesses. Two major hotel chains, Marriott and Hilton, have plans to build new branches in Pittsfield, and she said rumblings about a train service between Pittsfield and New York City would be a great boon to the county’s economy.

She has more good news for the immediate future — her office has just won a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support “Art + Industry,” a new initiative to explore the city’s industrial past through artwork.

“The city is still a work in progress,” she said, “and I can’t wait to look back and say ‘look at how far we’ve come from 10 years ago.’ ”

“It’s just a very dynamic time to be in the Berkshires,” Secor said. “Change is evident.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published May 10, 2013

STOCKBRIDGE –– It sounds like the beginning of one of those “a guy walks into a bar” jokes. What happens when a Jewish court jester and an anti-Semitic king are thrown into a medieval dungeon together? Well, if New York Times best-selling author Daniel Klein’s new play, “The Jewish Jester: A Fable With Music,” is anything to go by, the answer is simple — they make the audience laugh.

While Klein is a prolific and accomplished writer, “The Jewish Jester” is only his second play. His first, “Mengelberg and Mahler,” made its world premiere during Shakespeare & Company’s 2010 season.

“The Jewish Jester” is getting the world premiere treatment, too, at the Unicorn Theatre, where it opened Thursday night. Produced by New Stage Performing Arts and directed by Bruce T. MacDonald, the play runs through May 26.

For a comic writer who hasn’t met a pun he didn’t like, Klein said it was liberating to work on a play that did not deal with the same kinds of weighty issues explored in “Mengelberg and Mahler,” which centers on the ramifications faced by Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg as a result of some morally ambiguous compromises made during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands.

“The other play was so serious,” Klein said in an interview. “It dealt with material that meant a lot to me, but I didn’t get those laughs. I don’t care how many tears I got or how many wrenching discussions were inspired (by the play), I kept asking, ‘where’s my laugh?’ ”

This time, Klein has gone all out to get those laughs. “The Jewish Jester” slyly pokes fun at Shakesperean language. Klein says it’s the “first play to combine Yiddish and Elizabethan English.”

“I had this line that just came out of my head — ‘thou schnorrer!,’ ” Klein said. “It’s such a funny-sounding expression, with ‘schnorrer’ meaning ‘beggar’ in Yiddish, somebody you want to get rid of.”

“Danny claims the play doesn’t have a deeper message, but it’s all there,” said New Stage Performing Arts artistic director Nicki Wilson. “It looks at prejudice, at the fact that people shouldn’t look at labels, and what you end up learning when you do look past those labels.”

Wilson first came across “The Jewish Jester” through a reading at Shakespeare & Company. Not long after that reading, Klein approached Wilson about staging his work. She initially said no, but then gave in.

She hired MacDonald after seeing a comedy he worked on at Mixed Company in Great Barrington. Shakespeare & Company favorites Jonathan Epstein and Robert Lohbauer were cast to play the Jester and the King, respectively. Jesse Putnam, of the eclectic Klezmer-pop-folk hybrid band Bella’s Bartok, was brought on board to write music.

MacDonald said that the plot of two characters from disparate backgrounds coming to understand one another is what gives the light comedy its power.

Taking off masks

“This play is about taking off masks, putting masks on,” MacDonald said. “The wonderful thing about this story is the joy and embrace of just being a human being. It does all of that without hitting you over the head with the author’s message.”

Lohbauer, who played Mengelberg in “Mengelberg and Mahler,” said he was immediately struck by this play’s humor.

“It’s very Danny with all of the puns,” Lohbauer said in a phone interview. “It just hit me between the eyes when I read it. Then I saw the way it addressed anti-Semitism — it’s hilarious, but also has an existential lesson.”

Lohbauer, for whom the role of the King was written, said he also was drawn to his character’s transformation.

“He does a complete 180 degrees from this self-involved autocrat and becomes a humanist,” Lohbauer said.

“The fool and the king are both very important archetypes,” Epstein said by phone. “Every culture has a jackal or a crow or sometimes a snake — that person who sneaks through corners of life by being a trickster or a jester or a fool.”

For Epstein, part of the fun is working with Klein’s language.

“In a role like this, you have to find what makes a guy talk in this stylized manner. If you go too far, you have these weird psychological profiles,” Epstein said. “Danny has been working on it to suit the way Bob and I speak, and we’ve been adapting ourselves to come into alignment with the style and the message and so on — it’s been very collaborative which isn’t always the case with a new play.”

Klein says it is important to remember one thing about “The Jewish Jester” — it’s entertainment.

“If I have anything to say in this that is meaningful, it’s that this play offers a new take on how you can rid yourself of cultural definitions and achieve some sort of existential meaning for yourself.

“But,” he said after a well-timed beat, “forget about that. I just want you to laugh.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published May 3, 2013

PITTSFIELD –– The Rev. Vern Decoteau, Adams native and pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Belchertown, has always loved to sing. A fan of classic American pop music standards and Broadway show tunes, Decoteau said there is nothing like the joy that comes from singing.

In the late 1980s, Decoteau got the chance to channel his inner Frank Sinatra when he performed with a group of other priests in the Diocese of Springfield in a series of popular concerts that benefited Roman Catholic charities and community initiatives.

“It felt so natural to put on these kinds of concerts,” Decoteau said. “We stayed in our clerical clothes, sang these popular songs and brought the house down — we had a lot of fun with the people who came to watch.”

Something of vaudevillian priests, the group was formed at a difficult time for the Catholic priesthood. A shortage of priests resulted in the curtain closing on the popular concerts.

Flash forward nearly three decades later, and the concerts are back, with a mix of old and young priests, all willing to spread the gospel with a touch of Broadway razzle-dazzle. After a successful concert last October in Chicopee, the group of singing priests will present “New Wine in Old Wineskins” tonight at 7 at Barrington Stage Company’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, to benefit the Annual Catholic Appeal.

Giving the concerts a comeback last year coincided with former Pope Benedict XVI’s Year of Faith. The initiative, which began on the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council on Oct. 11, 2012, and is set to run through Nov. 24, marks a period in which Catholics around the world are encouraged to share the teachings of their faith.

Peggy Weber, a reporter for Catholic Communications, a nonprofit that provides media coverage and programming for the Diocese of Springfield, decided the Year of Faith marked a perfect opportunity to bring the concerts back.

“I just remember going to those in the ‘80s, and finding them to be so much fun with so many fond memories,” Weber said.

During an interview, Weber brought up the idea with the Rev. Matt Alcombright, director of the Office of Ministry with the Deaf, and a vicar at Mother of Hope Parish in Springfield, who happens to be an accomplished pianist. When Alcombright, son of North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, told her it was a great idea, she brought it up with other priests and members of her office. One thing led to another and eventually Decoteau was brought on to organize the concert held on Oct. 26 at Edward Bellamy Middle School. The priests performed a two-act show that consisted of a series of traditional spiritual songs in the first act, followed by a selection of Broadway show tunes and pop standards to close out the show. The concert was a resounding success.

“It was a mad sell-out, it was kind of crazy,” Weber said. “It was a magical night, with the audience feeling good about their faith and the Church. And let me tell you, these priests literally sang for their suppers, they were so good.”

About 1,200 people attended the concert. Alcombright said the show marked a great moment for priests both young and old to collaborate with one another.

“You see priests out of their element,” Alcombright said. “You see us on Sundays at Mass, but then you put us on a stage and have us perform — it’s a new way to see a familiar face.”

Putting Alcombright on a stage is not too much of a departure for the priest who earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and piano performance with a tuba minor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2005. In high school and college, he was a parish organist and performed throughout the diocese. He entered St. John’s Seminary in Brighton in 2006, and was ordained in 2012.

For Alcombright, who will provide piano accompaniment during tonight’s concert, part of the joy of performing with the group is being able to work with his fellow priests in a context separate from the ministry.

“One of the priests is actually my former boss,” Alcombright said. “I told him it was good to play for him again, and to spread joy through our music.”

Spreading joy through music is what the Rev. Christopher ‘C.J.’ Waitekus, pastor of St. Anne Church in Lenox, said is the aim of the concert.

“Fun is the name of the game,” Waitekus said. “I was in the play ‘Oklahoma’ as a kid in school. In this concert, I have a solo in the middle of a song from that musical, and it’s just been so fun for me. I do love theater, and I personally love musicals.”

What adds to this sense of fun is the on-stage camaraderie of the priests, Waitekus said.

The title of the show is a playful take on a parable from the Bible that says one cannot put new wine in old wineskins, the containers used for carrying wine. Waitekus said the show offers a chance to mix the “old with the new,” giving priests who have been “pushing 50 years ordained and guys who are in their late 20s” a chance to perform together.

“As a priest you have to get up in front of people for your sermons,” Waitekus said. “With this we are all doing that together — coming together as a group.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 26, 2013

GREAT BARRINGTON –– Chinese contortionist Miao Miao Chen looks like she is about to raise herself into a standard handstand, with both arms firmly planted on the stage beneath her, supporting her weight as one leg slowly rises up over her head. A partially lit candelabra sits in front of her and soon, she places one lighted candle between the toes of her left leg. While her arms remain resolutely straight, her right leg curves in the air as she moves her left leg over her head, placing her foot in front of her face as she lights the candelabra’s sole unlit candle. The audience responds with rapturous applause.

This moment comes from a segment featured on the short-lived ABC TV talent show “Master of Champions” posted on YouTube. The video displays Chen’s unique talent — the ability to appear graceful while folding her body in strange contortions that look like they should be physically impossible. It’s only a small sampling of the kinds of feats of strength and precision that will be on full display for Berkshire audiences today when Cirque Shanghai, the circus that Chen choreographs and directs, comes to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with its latest touring show, “Bai Xi.”

The theater will hold two performances of the show, one at 10 a.m. for area schools, followed by a public performance at 7 p.m.

In English, the show’s title translates to “100 wonders.” Chen said the name directly references China’s rich acrobatic tradition.

“It goes back to our history from over 1,000 years ago,” Chen said by telephone from Dolly Parton’s Smokey Mountains theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. “Only the best troupes and performers would perform for the emperor. They’d prove themselves to him. Our show brings that back — we are giving you the best.”

It’s a performance tradition that has been rooted deeply in Chen’s life. Chen was raised by performer parents — her mother is a singer and her father is what Chen called a “stage host and entertainer.”

Finding that Chen was extremely flexible as a little girl, her parents made the decision to send her to school to train as a contortionist. She was only 6 years old when she started performing.

“I started performing in these troupes that had mostly boys, and we would get to perform on talent shows on TV in China,” Chen said. “I loved it and it was a lot more fun than studying and going to school.”
Chen stopped performing three years ago and now is theatrical director for Cirque Shanghai’s productions, serving as a mentor to the young performers who, like her, have dedicated themselves to perfecting an ancient art.

“You can’t last very long doing the contortion act that I did, there are so many injuries, it’s very punishing on your body,” Chen said.

As a director and a mentor, Chen said she can help guide the young performers, many of whom started as young as 5 years old. Chen said young acrobats in China practice eight to 10 hours a day. This practice regimen consists of regular morning training, with another hour after breakfast, followed later at night with more practice.

It’s a grueling schedule. Chen said Chinese acrobats will stay with performance schools for at least five to eight years, perfecting their craft before auditioning for large circus troupes that recruit throughout the country.

The troupe selection process happens each year. Chen and her team will observe each group perform their own traveling acts in different cities, before deciding which one is good enough to make the cut.

Performing in “Bai Xi” requires a level of perfection and discipline that makes for an impressive display, said Beryl Jolly, the Mahaiwe’s executive director.

Containing acts titled “the giant Wheel of Destiny,” “the group Swinging pole act,” and the “motorbike Globe of Death,” Cirque Shanghai promises to dazzle audience members of all ages, Jolly said.

“With a show like this, you have kids and adults holding their breath, and this sense of awe that ripples around the house,” Jolly said by telephone from her office.

Part of the family-friendly appeal of the show, might stem from the performers’ familial connection behind the scenes. Chen and her performers spend virtually all of their time together as they travel throughout the United States.

The group has just finished a stint at Dollywood and will spend the entire summer in Chicago.

“What really stands out about this group is (Chen’s) choreography,” Jolly said. “There is an element of choreography and artistry from an adult woman’s perspective that I’m looking forward to seeing myself.”

With so many groups clearly inspired by the popular French-Canadian group, Cirque du Soleil, which combines operatic theatrics with traditional circus performance, it is difficult for a troupe like Cirque Shanghai to stand out.

What makes her group different, Chen said, is that “we have our own energy that is uniquely Asian. We have modern [showmanship] combined with Chinese tradition.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 19, 2013

LENOX — Listen to Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi’s 1610 “Vespero della beata vergine,” and you can literally hear a changing of the musical guard from the Renaissance to the Baroque period happening in real time.

Often referred to as the “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the vocal and orchestral composition is derived from the “vespers” or evening prayers that are part of the Liturgy of the Hours, daily prayers in the Catholic Church that consist of psalms, hymns and readings. With the Renaissance ending and the Baroque period beginning at roughly the year 1600, Monteverdi’s piece, which was commissioned by the Mantua court, bridges stylistic divides between music of the late 16th and early 17th century.

“This piece is significant because you can hear instruments that had never been heard before, like cornettos and sackbuts, which are precursors to the trombone,” said Andrea Goodman, founder and director of the Berkshire-based Cantilena Chamber Choir. “It is this real show piece, a tour de force.”

Berkshire audiences can hear Monteverdi’s landmark work for themselves when Goodman’s choir performs the piece with early music ensemble Cambridge Concentus at Trinity Church on Sunday at 3 p.m.

“This [piece] is a culmination of every technique that had ever been used, and is looking at the future of what is to come,” Goodman said.

Goodman has worked as a director and conductor for countless groups, from the annual summer Saratoga Choral Festival to choirs at Skidmore College and New York University. She decided to start the Berkshire choir back in 2004, after noticing that there was a void for classically trained singers who were looking to be challenged by repertoire different from what was offered by other area choirs.

In the nine seasons that the choir has been active, Goodman said that she has been fortunate to work with versatile singers, many of whom are instrumentalists themselves.

Goodman said this makes many of them good sight readers, which comes in handy for learning tricky material written in languages with which not every member of the group is familiar.

Goodman said it doesn’t get much better than Monteverdi. Born in 1567, Monteverdi came of age as the Renaissance was ending, and died in 1643, right in the midst of the Baroque period.

Like Beethoven

While a composer who influenced countless musical greats who followed him, Monteverdi remains obscure to the general public.

“He’s one of those composers whose dates are very inconvenient, a bit like Beethoven who lived in both the Classic and Romantic eras of music. Monteverdi spanned changes in culture and musical expression,” said Jeremy Yudkin, chair and professor of musicology in the department of musicology at Boston University’s School of Music.

Yudkin, whose wife performs in the choir, will give a pre-concert lecture at 2 p.m.

In the same way that Beethoven was responsible for many of the changes in music that he was living through, Monteverdi shaped both the music and the surrounding culture of his time, Yudkin said.

Yudkin said Monteverdi moved away from the “otherworldly” polyphony — defined as music that contains two or more simultaneous parts of independent melody — of someone like Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, to “a much more full-blooded approach to human emotions with personal kinds of expressions.”

Yudkin said Monteverdi’s influence had a trickle-down effect. Without Monteverdi, there would never have been Baroque composers like Antonin Viveldi, which in turn meant that there would not have been a musical titan like Johann Sebastian Bach, Yudkin said.

“His influence was enormous, and served to bring instrumental music on par with vocal music,” Yudkin said. “Vocal music was always considered the pre-eminent expression of the human voice, but Monteverdi understood the expressive potential of instruments.”

For David Kjar, co-artistic director of Cambridge Concentus, the opportunity to perform Monteverdi’s work offers the chance to explore a composer who remains a little mysterious.

Something mysterious

“There is something so mysterious about Monteverdi’s language for many of us as listeners and musicians,” Kjar said. “It’s very attractive and feels like a foreign language.”

For Kjar, who co-founded the group six years ago in order to give musicians in the early stages of their careers more performance opportunities, the magic of Monteverdi’s music rests in its status as timeless work that is difficult to categorize.

“The work is just early enough that it draws on a much older harmonic language, but late enough that it somehow feels modern,” Kjar said. “This piece has so much color and variety. You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy it.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 17, 2013

LENOX — Landscape designer Scott Harrington wants Arbor Day in Lenox to be a whole lot greener this year. Working with town officials and community members, Harrington applied for and won a $1,000 grant from the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture that will be used to cover expenses for a town tree planting that would take place on April 26.

The New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture only awards one grant, “so it was a huge honor for us to receive it,” Harrington said.

Right now, Harrington hopes to plant a magnolia tree on the grounds of the Lenox Public Library, and possibly hold another tree planting at a different location on the same day, while additional funds raised would help cover other tree plantings that would take place later on in the year.

Planting a tree is not an inexpensive endeavor. Harrington said that while the initial cost of acquiring a tree would be about $200, the actual installation, maintenance and watering costs could total more than $1,000.

Harrington said that he and the others involved with the event are hoping to raise $5,000 by April 25, and have so far reached $1,600 out of their total goal. Harrington said that all of these plans are still tentative until the tree planting ceremony is put to a vote at the Lenox Board of Selectmen meeting on Thursday.

Harrington first thought of a townwide Arbor Day celebration back in February, when he brainstormed the idea with town officials like Lenox Tree Warden Warren Archey.

It ended up being perfect timing. In conjunction with efforts to plant new trees in Lenox, Archey is in the process of seeking re-certification from the Arbor Day Foundation to designate Lenox as a Tree City USA.

To be named one of the more than 3,400 communities that are cited for their dedication to tree conservation and planting, Lenox has to satisfy four guidelines established by the foundation.

The town has to have a tree board or department, a tree care ordinance that grants the department the power to oversee the implementation of a town forestry plan, an annual budget of $2 per capita, and an official townwide Arbor Day observance.

“Arbor Day is a great way for people to recognize the importance of trees,” said Archey, who has served as the town’s tree warden for the past 11 years. “I’m working with the Department of Public Works to plant about 15 trees this year in the town.”

As a way for people to acknowledge the need to conserve the forestry in every town and city nationwide, Arbor Day plays a great role in bringing a town together, said Lynne Sutton, chairwoman of the Lenox Village Improvement Committee.

“I grew up about an hour north of here, and I would participate in 4-H. Each year you would get trees to plant for Arbor Day, and those trees are still there,” Sutton said.

“There’s a quote that says something like, ‘A person who plants a tree today knows that they are doing it for another generation.’ I think that’s so important.”

A lifelong dedication to forestry is partly what drives Harrington. His father owns the longest-running tree service in Madison, Wis., which helped inspire Harrington to be an arborist. A former Boy Scout who would go on to major in biology in college and serve in the Peace Corps through which he worked on a horticulture project in Samoa, Harrington has always been dedicated to protecting trees.

“Trees are such a necessary resource,” Harrington said. “The Berkshires is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and part of that is due to our rich forests and beautiful trees.”

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Arbor Day history
Arbor Day is a nationwide observance started in Nebraska in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton, who served as secretary of agriculture under President Grover Cleveland. The day is centered on individual communities taking it upon themselves to plant and care for trees. Arbor Day spread internationally in 1883 when it made its way to Japan. It is now recognized all over the world.
“It’s easy for people to forget about the importance of trees,” said Lenox Tree Warden Warren Archey. “They are good for town beautification, good for your health — they do so much.”
How to help in Lenox
To make a donation or inquire about how to volunteer to the 2013 Lenox Arbor Day, contact Scott Harrington at (413) 348-4505, or at scottharringt10@hotmail.com. Any checks or donations should be made out to Town of Lenox Village Improvement Committee, and can be sent to 17 Tucker St., Lenox, MA 01240.

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 11, 2013

GREAT BARRINGTON — Multi-hyphenated musician Chris Thile — mandolinist-singer-composer — said it is difficult to easily categorize his upcoming performance with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Both musicians avoid the harsh restrictions imposed by genre classifications, he said, that both the mainstream music industry and modern music listeners try to force upon artists.

The mandolin and the piano are an unlikely pair, and the two men’s improv-heavy joint performances covers an equally unlikely sampling of music. The concert will touch on everything from Bach to Radiohead, but Thile said that Mahaiwe audiences should expect to find more similarities than differences between music from such vastly dissimilar eras.

“A great Radiohead piece has a lot more in common with a great piece like one of Brandenburg’s concertos than people would normally categorize it as having,” Thile said. “Once you enter that level of quality in music, you’ve made it into something that transcends classification.”

The same could be said for the careers of both Thile and Mehldau. A 2012 MacArthur Fellow, Thile was only 5 when he first started playing the mandolin. By the time he turned eight, he was playing the instrument as part of Nickel Creek, an acoustic trio that also consisted of brother-and-sister team Sara and Sean Watkins, who played the fiddle and guitar, respectively. As time went on, Thile’s skill and fame increased, as he won the National Mandolin Championship at only 12 years old and has since gone on to win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk album for the Nickel Creek platinum-selling album, “This Side.”

Thile began his solo career while he was playing as part of Nickel Creek, releasing his first solo album, “Leading Off,” in 1994. He has released five solo albums through Sugar Hill Records and has collaborated with major symphonies and Dolly Parton, and recorded “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddle player Stuart Duncan and bassist Edgar Mayer, which was released in 2011.

Since Nickel Creek stopped performing together as a group in 2007, Thile has been part of bluegrass band Punch Brothers.

“I really love all kinds of music, but my only requirement is that it has to be music that keeps me engaged,” Thile said. “I want my mind to be engaged and my body to be engaged. I don’t want music that is only made for my body, or music that is only made for my mind — I’m looking for music that does both.”

One musician who certainly does both is Mehldau, who leads the Brad Mehldau Trio and, like Thile, collaborates with an array of artists who offer something of a cross-section of the diversity of the modern musical landscape, from a mandolinist like Thile to famed soprano Renée Fleming and jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.

Mehldau, who, like Thile, is making his Mahaiwe debut on Saturday, started his trio in 1994, and has a diverse musical resume that includes jazz arrangements of rock songs, original compositions and traditional jazz standards. Besides being featured on countless albums, his work has been included on the soundtracks of films like Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Alternating with his performances with Thile, Mehldau is touring with fellow jazz pianist Kevin Hays and is collaborating with drummer Mark Guiliana on an electric duo project called “Mehliana.”

Thile has admired Mehldau since he was a child. When they are on stage, Thile said, they share a common musical language.

“We take a lot of delight in letting factors dictate the way the music ends up,” Thile said. “I’ve always appreciated Brad’s approach to music, in that everything he does is in service to the song.”

The concert is a unique collaboration between two dynamic performers that Mahaiwe Executive Director Beryl Jolly said should be an “eye-opening experience for the audience.”

“They are open to breaking new ground,” Jolly said.

The pair’s concert comes after a string of successful performances at the Mahaiwe with duos of artists from vastly divergent backgrounds and styles, she said: From theater legend and New York cabaret mainstay Barbara Cook paired with jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli to Jimmy Webb with Judy Collins, Jolly said that the Mahaiwe has been fortunate to “offer these exciting collaborations in an intimate setting.”

The setting should lead to a close connection between audience and performer, Thile said.

“Over the course of the evening, we’ll touch on something that feels familiar yet new,” he said. “We’ll toss you a rope and invite you to follow along with us.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 5, 2013

NORTH ADAMS –– It began 10 years ago in a small New York town with a barn full of artists watching movies that lasted for only a minute each. It was the start of the One Minute Film Festival, an event that brought people together from different backgrounds and experiences to celebrate filmmaking on a small scale.

The festival was the brainchild of New York City-based husband-and-wife artists Jason Simon and Moyra Davey, who renovated an unfinished barn in Narrowsburg, N.Y. Simon and Davey found the small town to be something of a haven for New York artists looking to escape the city, and both came to the realization that their barn could house an annual event for their friends to celebrate the creative process.

Feeling that a decade marked an appropriate end point, Simon and Davey decided to hold the final festival last summer. To celebrate 10 years of 60 second filmmaking, the couple have worked with Mass MoCA on an exhibition of work produced over the course of the festival’s run.

Situated on the museum’s third floor, and overseen by curator Denise Markonish, the exhibition, which opens Saturday as part of Mass MoCA’s 3-2-1! opening celebration for three exhibitions, is a multimedia display of films and one-sheet movie posters designed by the filmmakers themselves.

“You know, a one-minute film is such a humble thing, and we love the absurdity that comes from making these full-scale movie posters that go with a one-minute film,” Markonish said.

The exhibit consists of six screening areas showing films that play in a continuous loop. The screenings run chronologically by year, culminating in a one-hour “exquisite corpse” film, which represents the festival’s final year. For this final year, artists were asked to craft a film based on the final screenshot of another filmmaker’s work. The end result is a dizzying look at a mass collaboration of 100 artists.

“I’m really excited to see the show myself,” said North Adams-based artist Mary Lum, who has a film in the exhibit. “It was such a generous act by Moyra and Jason to host it (the festival) every single year, and give this platform to so many people.”

Markonish said she has fond memories of the festival. A friend of Davey and Simon’s, she attended the festival almost every year, but always as a spectator.

“For me, it signaled the start of summer much more than July 4 ever did,” Markonish said. “It was artistic independence day.”

The desire for artistic independence is partly what drove Simon and Davey to start the festival in the first place. They hoped to give their friends and acquaintances, some of whom had never worked in film before, a safe space to explore new mediums.

The first festival attracted about 75 guests who gathered in the barn to watch the films on a large screen set up by Simon. After the screening, the event turned into a party, with the group spending the rest of the warm summer night with music and dancing.

“It kind of mushroomed over time,” Simon said. “People started to take it quite seriously, and at its peak, about 150 people submitted films.”

San Francisco-based Anne Colvin was one of those artists. Colvin met Davey during a trip to Orchard, a now-defunct gallery space run by Davey, Simon and 10 other artists in New York’s Lower East Side. Davey told Colvin, who works primarily in film and video art, about the festival.

Colvin did not get to attend the actual festival, but did submit a film, “Cracked Actor,” in 2006. Working with found footage, Colvin re-filmed a taped performance of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. Zooming in tightly on Bowie’s face, Colvin said she wanted to make the piece vague, “leaving what is going on to the viewer’s imagination.”

Colvin said the festival’s one-minute requirement was not difficult for her. The same can’t be said for Gregg Bordowitz, who is friends with both Simon and Davey. Bordowitz attended the festival almost every year, but said he found the one-minute parameters to be a big challenge.

In an age of individualized viewing experiences, with people glued to Netflix-streaming videos on their laptops, Bordowitz said the magic of the festival rested in its old-fashioned approach to the viewing experience.

“Jason loves cinema and he turned this kind of YouTube format of constant videos into a public event,” Bordowitz said. “It returned film to people sharing a cinematic experience — it’s a format many of us still adore.”

By Brian Mastroianni, Berkshire Eagle Staff
First published April 4, 2013

PITTSFIELD — Jimmy Sturr stands center stage wearing a Las Vegas-ready bright red sequined shirt. Sturr’s blue jacket-clad 12-piece band plays around him, performing “Polka Round,” a song from the group’s 2004 Grammy-winning CD, ‘Let’s Polka ‘Round,’ during a 2010 PBS television special.

“Let’s Polka round/let’s shake it down/let’s cut it loose on the dance floor,” Sturr sings as the members of his largely elderly audience swing and twirl in front of the stage. The performance is lively with the song played at a fast tempo, and it should give local polka aficionados, and the curious uninitiated, a taste of what to expect when Sturr and his orchestra perform at the Colonial Theatre on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“For people who come to the show, I can guarantee that they’ll have a great time,” Sturr said in a phone interview with The Eagle. “The music is just infectious.”

It’s music that is deeply rooted in Sturr’s childhood. The self-proclaimed ‘King of Polka,’ Sturr has been a fan of the sometimes-derided style of Central European folk dance music popularized in the United States by Polish immigrants since he was a young boy growing up in the small village of Florida, N.Y. About 60 miles outside of New York City, Florida has a population just under 3,000 people and was settled by Polish immigrants in the 1800s.

The community’s immigrant past made it a center for polka music. Sturr, who is of Irish descent, said that 85 percent of the town was Polish when he was growing up. Polka bands would play regularly, whether on the local radio station, at weddings, high school dances or at the village dance hall.

“I started my band when I was only 11 years old — I’m not kidding,” Sturr said.

From elementary school to high school, to his time at the Valley Forge Military Academy, Sturr continued playing as his reputation grew. Some of the musicians in his orchestra have stayed with him for more than 20 years, as they traveled the world together, touring 145 days of the year.

Despite performing in a genre of music with mostly niche appeal, Sturr and his orchestra have reached the kinds of career highs that would be the envy of most working musicians.

He and his band have won 18 competitive Grammys and have been nominated more consecutive times than anyone else in the history of the awards. Beyond awards recognition, the band has collaborated with Willie Nelson, played at Carnegie Hall seven times, and raked in five gold albums. Sturr also hosts a weekly television show that airs Friday nights on Direct TV channel 345 and on satellite dish channel 231.

“It’s almost like an updated ‘Lawrence Welk Show,’ ” he said.

Conjuring the memory of Welk’s show, the wholesome long-running variety program often spoofed by “Saturday Night Live,” indicates part of the challenge of selling polka to younger audiences. While Sturr incorporates a variety of musical genres like country in his shows, the appeal of polka remains rooted mainly with older generations.

“Unfortunately, the younger people are not that interested in it, which is kind of a shame,” said Lucy Flossic, who hosts “Polka Express,” a radio show on Pittsfield-based WTBR radio, 87.9 FM, with her son, Bill Gustavis. The show airs every Friday night starting at 6 p.m., and is repeated Sunday mornings at 8 a.m.

Like Sturr, Flossic said that polka played a large role in her life. Of Polish descent, Flossic met her late husband Carl at a polka festival in London, Conn. The pair married three years later and eventually started the radio show together.

“It’s happy music, and I enjoy dancing to it,” Flossic said.

For people like Flossic, the music of Sturr and his orchestra keeps a rich cultural tradition alive and vibrant.

“I like opening people’s eyes to this music.” Sturr said. “Polka takes a beating from people who say that it’s not for young people, but once those young people come, they love it.”
In thinking back on his own youth, Sturr said his 11-year-old self would find it hard to believe that he would eventually achieve so much success.

“Whoever could have thought that a young kid from this little village in New York would perform at Carnegie Hall?” Sturr said. “It’s really incredible.”

Origins of Polka

While popularly associated as a Polish-American folk dance, the polka has its roots in Bohemia dating back to the 1830s.

“There’s an excitement to the music that can’t really be beat,” said popular polka musician Jimmy Sturr, who will perform with his orchestra at the Colonial Theatre on Sunday.

According to an essay published by the University of Southern California, the polka started as a round-dance and gained popularity throughout Europe over the course of the 19th century.

According to the report, the word “polka” is believed to come from the Czech term for a Polish girl, or “polska,” and the word “polka” in Polish actually means “Polish woman.”

The United States version of the folk dance is different from its European origins. The USC report references six different polka styles that include Slavic, German and even Mexican polkas.

Lucy Flossic, co-host of “Polka Express” on WTBR radio, 87.9 FM, feels a universal appeal to the energetic, up-tempo music.

“I get compliments from people on the radio show, and there are people who are not Polish who listen,” Flossic said. “There’s one couple who are Italian, and they follow one band in particular, and they always listen in to our show. There are people who listen no matter what.”
– Brian Mastroianni