Thanksgiving, done. Next? For many, the next holiday tradition is the classic ballet, The Nutcracker.
Children in the Arts of Martha’s Vineyard will present the 11th annual Nutcracker Gala at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7.
The Nutcracker Prince’s triumphant battle with the Mouse King? Check.
Darting Snowflakes? Arabian and Spanish dancers? Sugar Plum Fairy? Check, check, check (with sugar on top).
Talking Guitars, an intimate portrait on film of master guitar craftsman and now Island resident Flip Scipio, will screen tonight, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.
This behind-the-scenes music documentary illustrates the fascinating juxtaposition of the quiet artist and the world of musicians who seek his expertise. His clients include Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Ben Taylor, Paul Simon, David Tronzo, Leni Stern and Carly Simon. For himself music is like Esperanto, a universal language.
Behind time and without a budget, Rob Meyers, the Island vocalist best known for his indie-pop band Kahoots, was working up his first radio jingle for Cronig’s. He had nailed the jazzy barbershop harmony, wrapped up the doo-wap top-off. All he needed was the catchy hook. Then, deadline looming, he hit it: (sing along now) “Everybody digs Cronig’s ...”
The Flying Elbows, the Island’s own old-time string band, will crank out another night of zany songs and high- energy fiddle tunes next Friday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.
Currently a foursome, this band has been through many incarnations over the years. Original member Bob Hammond is back with the band, adding not only a twin fiddle but also some really rootsy clawhammer banjo.
Quiet, please? Not at the Vineyard Haven Public Library this Tuesday, when the reading desks will be pushed back to make way for a free Holiday Pops Concert with the Vineyard Sinfonietta.
The program includes music composed by Telemann, Gluck, Glazunov, Warlock, Britten, Willson and Gershwin. Playing will be Jan Hyer and Heidi Schultz on cello, Matt Pelikan on viola, Jo-Ann Ewing and Patricia Szucs on violin, and Holly Wayman and Nan White on flute.
Not since the Sixties have Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur made music together on the Vineyard — but they will be back on Saturday at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.
Patrons of the old Mooncusser Coffee House in Oak Bluffs may recall the pair jamming as part of the Kweskin Jug Band there on several occasions. Carly and Lucy Simon opened for them there.
The words come out syncopated, layered, alto over soprano over bass over tenor and all rolling, rolling over you in an overlapping, ethereal echo: “We are the ones, we are the ones, we’ve been waiting for ...”
Irish musicians are melting the membrane that once separated the flute, fiddle and pipes from the driving baselines and hip-swiveling rhythms of modern music — and three free-wheeling members of the band Lunasa will show how it’s done at a concert Saturday, Sept. 6, at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.
The Katama Trio, a Vineyard-based, semi-professional chamber ensemble, will perform selections from the baroque and early classical periods at the Vineyard Haven Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. The event is a part of the library’s Tuesday Evening Lecture Series. Formed in 2005, the Katama Trio includes cellist Jan Hyer, recorder player Matt Pelikan and pianist Joan Solomon. They will perform sonatas by Georg Phillipp Telemann, John Ernst Galliard, and Francesco Mancini. A reception will follow the performance.
More than 150 Vineyard musicians, all of them students in the Martha’s Vineyard All Island Band Program, will play in the annual winter concert this Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the regional high school’s Performing Arts Center.
The winter band concert features the fifth and sixth grade band, the seventh and eighth grade concert band and the seventh and eighth grade jazz band.