A Jazz Tribute to President Obama, an original work of words and music by Columbia Law School professor and columnist for The Nation Patricia Williams and composer and saxophonist Oliver Lake, will be performed on Saturday, July 25, at 4 p.m. in Ocean Park as the centerpiece of Della Hardman Day. The performance is free and open to the public.
Island dancers aged 3 to 75 will be waiting in the wings this weekend at the high school’s Performing Arts Center, where RISE will present their year-end dance performance, called RISE on the Red Carpet. Drawing on award-winning and classic songs, films and plays for content and theme, the performance will feature tap, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, modern and lyrical dance. Shows are on Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Cost is $15, or $10 for children under 12. Seating is limited, so get there early.
Nancy Jephcote will celebrate her solo CD release on Sunday, August 9 with a concert at the Katharine Cornell Thetare at 8 p.m. Following the hour-long concert there will be a reception with light refreshments at Che’s Lounge.
The album, Garland of Rain, features songs Ms. Jephcote has written and sung over the years, orchestrated carefully with the help of producer Tom Prasada-Rao over two years, with several trips to his studio in Garland, Texas and one journey to Fort Lauderdale to add acoustic bass parts played by Nancy’s sister, Martha Spangler.
A guitar and banjo player, Tony Furtado mixes modern music with the traditional, creating a distinctive sound.
By the age of 19, Mr. Furtado earned himself a reputation as a young banjo prodigy, winning two National Bluegrass Banjo Championships. Despite the press and praise as one of the most promising bluegrass artists, Mr. Furtado decided that one genre wasn’t enough for him. Creatively, he had something more to express. “I don’t think I could ever be happy staying in any one place musically,” he said.
An intensive two-week training program for talented young singers culminates at 8 p.m. this Saturday at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, when students from the Claudette Peterson Vocal Studio’s OperaFest 2009 will don make-up and costumes for a gala performance entitled Summer of Love: Passionate Arias and Romantic Scenes from Classic Opera. Tickets are $20 at the door, $15 for students and seniors. For details, call 508-693-1058.
On Wednesday, May 20, the performing and visual arts students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will present Evening of the Arts, an evening of art, music and drama. Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is free.
The halls will be filled with student art work ranging from sculpture to photography to painting to architecture and more; meanwhile, the Performing Arts Center will be filled with song, dance and drama.
Dr. Amaryllis Iglesias Glass, one of the staff pianists at the Tabernacle, will present a concert with her mother, Amaryllis Iglesias, tonight, July 24, at 8 p.m. A freewill offering will be taken.
Amarylllis Glass won the Schumann Competition in the Johanna Hodges International Piano Competition in 1982 and has performed with the Florida International Symphony Orchestra.
This weekend, the Yard on Middle Road in Chilmark presents new works from its 2009 Bessie Schönberg Choreographers’ Residency. This year’s choreographers, chosen from an international pool of more than 100 seasoned artists, are Dana Katz from Tel Aviv, Israel, Rachael Lincoln of Venice, Calif, and Joshua Monten from Bern, Switzerland. In addition, veteran choreographer and former Juilliard faculty member Elizabeth Keen will also participate in the residency by special invitation. The first performance is on Friday, Sept.
