New Directions Cello Festival returns to Florence
The Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence will host the 31st annual New Directions Cello Festival from June 26 to June 28 Serving as an international forum for alternative and creative cellists, the weekend features workshops, panels and concerts emphasizing improvisation across all musical styles. The festival kicks off on Friday, June 26, with performances by Helen Gillet, Nassem Alatrash with the Ize Trio and global electronic innovator Shannon Hayden. Saturday evening’s lineup features Brent Arnold, the Intergalactic Cello Quartet and Emmy Award-winning cellist and songwriter Ben Sollee. The event concludes on Sunday, June 28, with a final showcase featuring individual festival participants alongside the 20-piece Cello Big Band led by Artistic Director Jeremy Harman. Livestream tickets are available for the Friday and Saturday evening performances, and full event details can be found at bombyx.live.
A.P.E. Gallery presents ‘Slow Processing,’ artist Anna Parisi’s debut solo exhibit
A.P.E. Gallery will present “Slow Processing,” the debut solo contemporary art exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Anna Parisi at The Split Level Gallery at 33 Hawley Street in Northampton, from July 3 through Aug. 1. The collection features oil paintings, drypoint prints and personal sketchbooks exploring the psychological transitions, discomforts and ambiguities of early adulthood. An opening reception will be held during Arts Night Out on Friday, July 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. Additional event programming details can be found online at apearts.org.
Berkshire Choral celebrates British composers at UMass
Berkshire Choral International will present “British Mavericks: Choral Music of Smyth and Britten” on Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Tillis Performance Hall within the Bromery Center for the Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Guest conducted by Grammy nominee Beth Willer, the concert features a 100-voice festival chorus and full orchestra performing Dame Ethel Smyth’s groundbreaking 1891Mass in D alongside Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. Featured vocal soloists include Sarah Brailey, Clara Osowski, Aaron Crouch and Carl Dupont. General admission tickets are $20, with $10 discounted tickets available for youth under 18 and UMass students and staff. Tickets can be purchased online at bit.ly/BritishMavericks or by calling 413-545-2511.
UMass professor to headline poetry showcase
ByWay Books & More in Brattleboro, Vermont, will host a free poetry showcase on June 27, from 4 to 6 p.m., featuring contributors to the anthology “The Country in the Mirror,” edited by Sharon Darrow and published by Rootstock Publishing. Headlining the reading is Shelburne Falls resident Martin Espada, a renowned poet and the first Latino to receive the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize. Espada is also a professor of poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Other notable poets reciting include Rachel Hadas, who has received many awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and Chard deNiord, winner of the Pushcart Award and Poet Laureate of Vermont from 2015-2019. The Country in the Mirror is available for purchase at ByWay Books. The event is open to the public with book signings and refreshments available. For more information, visit bywaybooks.co.
Photo exhibit hits the road after being displayed at the State House
The Reading Public Library is the first library in Eastern Massachusetts to host “Quabbin: Yesterday and Today,” a photographic exhibit by Belchertown nature photographer Ed Comeau that pairs historic images of the Quabbin Reservoir’s creation with contemporary landscape and wildlife photography from the region that will be on display through July. His contemporary images document the landscapes, wildlife and natural beauty that now define the reservoir and surrounding watershed.
The exhibit, which was made possible by a grant to the Friends of Quabbin from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, recently concluded a successful run at the Massachusetts State House Senate Gallery and is now touring libraries in communities that receive drinking water from the Quabbin Reservoir. With the state in a significant drought after two years of below-average precipitation, and with the Quabbin 10 feet below capacity, this is a timely exhibit to help bring attention to the importance of the reservoir to the 2.7 million people it serves.
“I wanted to help people better understand where their water comes from, what it took to create the Quabbin Reservoir, and what an extraordinary place it has become,” said Comeau. “By bringing this exhibit to libraries in communities that benefit from Quabbin water, such as Reading, I hope to create a stronger connection between residents and the watershed that serves them.”
Visit ComeauPhotography.com/QuabbinYesterdayAndToday for an online version of the exhibit.
Michael Wilbur to perform at The Drake
Michael Wilbur, an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of the pioneering brass-dance band Moon Hooch, brings his high-energy solo act to The Drake in Amherst on Thursday, June 25. Known for his genre-defying fusion of live-looped horns, electronic production and vocals, Wilbur, a native of Brockton, delivers a primal, dance-floor experience rooted in jazz, electronic dance music and soul. The show features DJ Aims and starts at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m. General admission standing tickets cost $15 in advance or $20 on the day of the show and can be purchased at thedrakeamherst.org/events/michael-wilbur-w-dj-aims.