Four Sundays (and a few Saturdaysand weekdays)

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Arts Council’s “Four Sundays” program, which has gone through a bit of an evolution in the last few years, is back again in yet another format.

The original program, “Four Sundays in February,” was moved to April last year and expanded to include additional events. This year, Four Sundays runs in March and April (it officially began last weekend, with the Arts Council joining Signature Sounds this year to present the Back Porch Festival), with seven events all told.

The Silver Chord Bowl, a longtime staple (39 years) of Four Sundays, takes place this Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m. at the Academy of Music. The a cappella singing competition will pit a number of collegiate groups against each other; it also includes The Northamptones, Northampton High School’s a cappella singers.

Four Sundays continues March 18 at 7 p.m. at the Academy with a screening of the 1919 silent film “South — Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition,” generally considered the world’s first documentary film, with live music by the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra.

The film chronicles the famous 1914-1916 voyage led by Shackleton to explore Antarctica, in which the Endurance, a mixed steam power/sailing ship, got trapped in ice floes, forcing the crew to make camp on a barren island before making an 800-mile journey in open boats to safety. The movie was filmed by crew member Frank Hurley.

The live music accompaniment will be provided by three musicians on a combination of instruments including drums, bass, electric violin and guitar, clarinet and more.

Other Four Sundays events include the Power of Truths Festival, a kids’ movie festival, and a fundraising concert for NHS music students. More details are at northamptonartscouncil.org.

 

The show mustgo on

NORTHAMPTON — Students at Northampton High School are readying for their annual musical, but with a twist: It’s the first one in years without Beau Flahive, the school’s former director of vocal music programs, in the picture. Flahive retired last summer following more than two decades at NHS.

But the show is still on. “Rock of Ages,” the jukebox musical based on rock and pop songs by bands from the 1980s — Pat Benatar, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Twisted Sister — takes place at NHS March 16-18 at 7 p.m. and March 19 at 2 p.m.

Direction is by Dave Grout, a veteran of Amherst Community Theater who is new to Northampton schools this year.

Diana Foskett, of the high school’s Musical Booster Club, notes that students are also working this year without longtime theater teacher Stephen Eldredge.

“A huge number of teachers and staff left or retired after last year,” Foskett said in an email. “Everyone involved this year is new, and they’re all trying to figure this out from scratch … The kids are acting, singing, and dancing their hearts out.”

The production has this in its favor: The musical director this year is Susan Dillard, a former NHS student who studied under Flahive.

Tickets for “Rock of Ages,” from $5 to $15, are available at nhsmusical.com.

 

UMass alumnawins opera awardin Texas

AMHERST — Natalie Lewis, a 2021 vocal studies major from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, won first place in the Houston Grand Opera’s “Concert of Arias” competition in February, earning a $10,000 prize and besting over 900 original applicants for the contest.

The annual competition identifies candidates for the Houston Opera’s young artist training program.

According to the UMass Department of Music & Dance, Lewis, one of eight finalists in the contest, also won the Online Viewers’ Choice Award, chosen by people watching a livestream of the Houston competition via Facebook and YouTube.

At UMass, Lewis was part of the school’s Chamber Choir, the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and UMass Opera. As a senior, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend The Juilliard School in New York.

She’ll make her Carnegie Hall debut in April, singing the alto solos in Marianna Martines’ “Dixit Dominus” and Bela Bartok’s “Three Village Scenes” with the Cecilia Chorus of New York.

 

Art for the planet

AMHERST — Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery this month is hosting “The Way of Gaia,” paintings by Martin Bridge that speak to humanity’s relationship to the planet through the lenses of ecology, evolution and the environment.

Bridge’s paintings are from the book “The Way of Gaia,” which includes prose by Steve Trombulak, a professor emeritus of biology and environmental studies at Middlebury College in Vermont.

According to publicity notes, Bridge is a western Massachusetts artist whose work “celebrates the sacredness inherent in nature ... he hopes to inspire and cultivate a greater sense of mystery and possibility in our experience of the world.”

The exhibit runs through March 31.

 

Being Bernie

SOUTH HADLEY — Everyone’s favorite meme generator, Bernie Sanders, will discuss his new book, “It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism,” in a Zoom session March 13 at 8 p.m., an event co-sponsored by the Odyssey Bookshop.

In his book, the U.S. senator from Vermont offers what’s described as a “progressive takedown of the uber-capitalist status quo that has enriched millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the working class.”

During the event, Sanders will discuss ways to create a more equitable society. You can submit a question for the senator when registering for the discussion, and yours may be answered during the event.

Each ticket includes admission to the Zoom discussion and a hardcover copy of “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.” You can register at odysseybks.com; follow the links for “Events.”

 

Landscapestudies as spring approaches

EASTHAMPTON — The OxBow Gallery this month is highlighting work from two painters who find inspiration in the Valley’s natural scenery, from fields to forests to streams.

In the front room, Kate Spencer exhibits oil paintings based on her walks on Mount Toby in Sunderland and Leverett. In the rear gallery, Stephanie Vignone displays pastel and oil paintings based on a number of locations in western Massachusetts.

Spencer’s semi-abstract landscapes, 36 by 36 inches, reflect the variety of terrain found around Mount Toby, a place she says is “notable for its biodiversity, attractive woodlands, caves, waterfalls … and glacial kettle ponds.”

For her part, Vignone notes on her website that she coupled her love of the outdoors with learning to paint with pastels (and then in oil): “Painting the places I see has given me another deep way in which I can connect with them.”

The shows run through March 26. On that last day, Spencer will talk about her Mount Toby paintings with ecologist Peter Grima from 1 to 3 p.m.

— Compiled by Steve Pfarrer

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