Magic Triangle closes out its 30th season

Jazz has been a staple at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center for years, in large part due to the efforts of Glenn Siegel, the Valley jazz aficionado and promoter who started the Magic Triangle Series of concerts (and other events) at the school.

The series has been celebrating its 30th anniversary this season, and the concluding concert take place Wednesday, April 24 when the duo of saxophonist Ken Vandermark and trumpeter Nate Wooley come to the UMass Old Chapel at 8 p.m.

Vandermark, a Boston native who now lives in Chicago, and Wooley, of New York City, began playing together in 2013 after they’d gotten to know each other through playing with some of the same artists, such as drummer Paul Lytton and guitarist Joe Morris. They have since recorded a couple of albums and continue to tour off and on.

Both are both known for their improvisational styles: As press notes put it, the duo “have worked together to create an organic combination of the jazz tradition, free improvisation, and modern composition,” paying particular attention to (and taking “inspirational cues” from) the music of another jazz duo, John Carter and Bobby Bradford.

Vandermark was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship — better known as the “Genius Grant” —  in 1999, and Wooley has been called one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the New York jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes. The two friends like to turn that musical firepower on each other, as Wooley describes from one previous gig: “with Ken it became a kind of hyper-drive situation where each of us was pushing the other to play something new and radically different every night.”

Before Wednesday’s show, Siegel will be presented with a “Jazz Hero” award for his years of producing and championing music in the Valley; he’s one of 20 people who have been honored this year by the Jazz Journalists Association (JJA).

Tickets are $15 for general admission, $7 for students and are available at fineartscenter.com or by calling (413) 545-2511.

 

Shakespeare in the age of new gender awareness

It’s considered one of the Bard’s most popular plays, in which the heroine, Rosalind, is forced to flee to the Forest of Arden because of machinations in her uncle’s court. Disguised as a shepherd named Ganymede, Rosalind then meets Orlando, a young gentleman who’s been banished to the same forest, and the two fall in love.

But in a new production of “As You Like It” that opens tonight (Friday, April 19), at Smith College, the famous comedy of manners and uncertain identity has been given an additional twist. Rosalind and Orlando are still in the forest, and they’re still in love, but Orlando is also attracted “to a boy named Ganymede.” And what exactly does it mean to be a girl or a boy, or to play one?

Daniel Elihu Kramer, the play’s director and a Smith College professor of theatre, notes that “As You Like It” explores love and freedom and the various forms that can take. “[A] young woman pretends to be a young man who is pretending to be a young woman, and she draws the attention of both a young man and a young woman. The play takes on new meaning in a time of more fluid gender identities.”

Costumes for the 15-member Smith student cast have been designed by Professor Kiki Smith, and the sets and lighting have been designed by students Priscilla Yichen Zhou and Lisa Mena. “As You Like It” will be performed at Smith’s Theater 14, 122 Green St. April 19-20 and 25-27 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors; free for Smith students. Call (413) 585-ARTS or visit smith.edu/about-smith/performing-arts.

— Steve Pfarrer