Two music festivals are only part of Mass MoCA's Summer of 2010
Not one, but two music festivals will take place at Mass MoCA in North Adams during summer 2010. Plus several new art exhibits including the works of actor Leonard Nimoy.
Anticipation is building. With many events leading up to it, including rock legend Richie Havens on July 2, Mass MoCA has planned not one, but two summer music festivals.
The first is the ninth annual Bang on a Can residency which will take place from July 14 to 31. Composers, players and writers by the dozen descend on North Adams to take up a summer residency to advance their craft. Dozens of performances, free and paid are on the docket.
This will be followed by the much anticipated Wilco Solid Sound Festival from August 13-15, part of which will take place on a new stage, reportedly to be located outdoors. You can find the complete Mass MoCA Summer 2010 Schedule here.
Can’t wait? Well the music making begins Memorial Day Weekend with the tasty Carolina Chocolate Drops in concert. A bit string band, a bit jug band it’s a toe-tapping uplifting start to the Summer. The fun continues to the Reggae Soul Dance Party with Meta and the Cornerstones Labor Day weekend. There are sounds for every taste this summer at MASS MoCA.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops on May 29 are as unusual an offering as we get in the Berkshires. The striking trio brings a modern sizzle to the legacy of classic African American string bands. The fun starts at 8 PM withThe Duke and the King opening. The concert is sponsored by Blue Q.
Earlier in the evening, from 5 to 7 PM, MASS MoCA will open a major exhibition of the work of Petah Coyne, Everything that Rises Must Converge. Coyne’s work is imbued with a magical quality to evoke intensely personal associations and seems Victorian in its combination of an overloaded refinement with a distinctly decadent and morbid undercurrent.
Woodstock legend Richie Havens will perform Friday, July 2 at Mass MoCA.
Independence Day weekend sees one of the icons of American folk, Richie Havens, in concert on Friday, July 2, at 8 PM. Since playing the opening set at Woodstock 41 years ago, Richie Havens has been on the road almost constantly, bringing a message that, delivered with burning sincerity and intense acoustic strumming, never gets old.
Bang on a Can, an organization dedicated to commissioning, performing, creating, presenting and recording contemporary music, returns for their ninth consecutive festival of contemporary music on the MASS MoCA campus from July 14 through July 31.
More than sixty festival faculty and fellows mix music written during the previous week with rare and mind-expanding performances of classic experimental music in MASS MoCA’s galleries, courtyards, performance spaces, and the surrounding community.
Composer George Crumb is a source of never ending exploration for contemporary music lovers.
Festival highlights include two major concerts — the first on July 24, a tribute to the music of George Crumb and the second on July 31, the annual Marathon, six hours of boundary-breaking music. Works by George Crumb are adored by those who know him, rarely performed, and sure to draw lovers of contemporary composition from far and wide.
Leonard Nimoy in a self portrait.
Leonard Nimoy will open Secret Selves on July 31 , an exhibition of his recent photographic series that explores the lost or hidden selves of the residents of neighboring Northampton, Mass.
Artist Michael Oatman will open All Utopias Fell, a three-part exhibition that includes The Shining, a 1970s-era ‘satellite’ that has crash-landed at MASS MoCA. Visitors will be allowed to climb a staircase and enter into the craft where they will encounter another Oatman work, The Library of the Sun. These receptions are open to MASS MoCA members only.
Wilco headlines and curates the Solid Sound Festival, August 13 – 15, a three-day event with music, art, comedy, interactivity and more. Featuring the band’s only East Coast performance of the summer, this new festival also presents individual performances by all the Wilco members’ side projects – Glenn Kotche’s On Fillmore, The Nels Cline Singers, The Autumn Defense featuring John Stirratt and Pat Sansone, Mikael Jorgensen’s Pronto — plus additional musical performances, a fully programmed comedy stage, the Solid Sound Stompbox Station (an interactive guitar pedal exhibit created and demonstrated by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline), a concert-poster screening demonstration, film, video installations, DJs and more.
BOAC players in a Mass MoCA gallery. Summer visitors can expect to encounter the unexpected.
The summer season winds down with two weekends of music and film. First, on August 21, Nomadic Wax presents a night of high-energy African film and music beginning with a screening of the award-winning documentary Democracy in Dakar, which explores the transformative role of hip-hop on politics in Senegal. The action jumps from screen to stage as Pan-African rap collective the African Underground All-Stars perform, followed by Group Saloum, Boston’s hottest m’balax band.
A week later, on August 28, the experimental roots rock band Califone performs the score to bandleader Tim Rutili’s first feature-length film, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, while the film plays on the big screen behind the band. This dark tale, about a psychic living in an old country house full of friendly ghosts, features music from the album and the band members as characters.
MASS MoCA celebrates Labor Day weekend with a Reggae Soul Dance Party with Meta and the Cornerstones on Saturday, September 4. Led by the indomitable Meta Dia and with members hailing from the west coast of Africa, North America, Asia and the Middle East, the band creates a unifying and uplifting experience for the audience. Dance instruction arranged by Jacob’s Pillow.
The popular Alt Cabaret series continues in the summer, moving outdoors under the stars to the Dré Wapenaar Pavilion when weather permits. This summer the series features Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey on June 26, comedian Dave Hill on July 10, the Ukuladies on July 17, and Clare and the Reasons on August 7.
Other events include a work-in-progress performance on June 18 by Roomful of Teeth, a reading of the Tony-Award winning play Art in the LeWitt galleries by the Barrington Stage Company on August 4, and two family events: Singing Games with Roomful of Teeth on June 12 and Uncle Rock in concert on August 7. Gallery quests for kids will be offered on July 10 and August 28.
Tickets to all events are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located on Marshall Street in North Adams during gallery hours from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M. (closed Tuesdays). Gallery hours from June 26 through September 7 are 10 – 6 every day. Galleries are open until 30 minutes before show time on most Saturday nights. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or online at www.massmoca.org.
For the complete rundown of what will be happening in the galleries and on the stages of Mass MoCA click on our Mass MoCA 2010 schedule page.
