Music
• Cantrip at Hooker-Dunham: Twilight Music presents an evening of high energy Scottish music from Edinburgh by fiddle/bagpipe trio Cantrip at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Friday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m.
Founding members Dan Houghton (highland bagpipes, borderpipes and smallpipes, flute, whistles, voice) and Jon Bews (fiddle, mandolin, voice) along with Brendan Taaffe (guitar, bouzouki) create a sound that is driving and inspiring in the reels and jigs, sensitive and contemplative in the slow airs, and never without a touch of humor.
Taaffe will open the concert with a short solo set, and the public is invited to a reception in the Gallery to celebrate the release of Houghton's first solo CD, The Long March Home, prior to the concert at 7 p.m.
Cantrip has been stunning audiences on several sides of the Atlantic since the end of the last century with its driving blend of twin fiddles, bagpipes and guitar. The name is an Old Scots word meaning a charm, magic spell or piece of mischief. It aptly describes the unexpected twists and turns in their musical arrangements as well as the compelling potency of their musicianship. While firmly rooted in the Scottish tradition, Cantrip's music takes influences from, and excursions into, music from the Scandinavian, Balkan, Basque, Breton and Québécoise traditions.
An engaging performer with quirky banter and an instinctive connection to the audience, Taaffe has played at festivals, concerts and dances throughout North America and Europe both solo and with his band, Magic Foot, and has toured with Northern Harmony. He melds Irish and American folk material with African instrumentation on his new CD, Little Boots.
Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery is located at 139 Main St. in downtown Brattleboro. Tickets for the concert are $15 General/$13 Students and Seniors. For ticket reservations and information, call 802-254-9276. For more information, visit www.cantrip-music.co.uk, www.brendantaaffe.com and www.hookerdunham.org.
• Music and food in BF: Stone Church Arts is a concert series now in its seventh season at the stone church in Bellows Falls. Downstreet Cafe is a one-year-young cafe in the Exner Block on Canal Street in Bellows Falls. Now, when you attend a Stone Church Arts concert, Downstreet Cafe is providing scrumptious goodies and hospitality at intermission.
Come sample their fabulous fare on any of the following musical evenings coming soon: Sept. 18: Woods Tea Company, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 10: Rhonda Larson, flute and ethnic flutes, with Tim Ray, piano, 4 p.m.; Oct. 23: House Blend, chorale music from all over, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 6: Septeto Tipico Tivoli, traditional Cuban music (tentative), 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 13: Áine Minogue, Celtic harp and vocals, 7:30 p.m.; Dec 11: Jacqueline Schwab, pianist, 7:30 p.m.
For more information about Stone Church Arts, call 802-463-3100. For more information about Downstreet Cafe, call 802-463-4774.
• Ukulele workshop: With the upswing of interest in playing ukulele that has migrated into today's pop, swing, blues, folk and rock genres, Christian Glines of Maple Leaf Music has decided to host a beginner's ukulele workshop.
This workshop will give you the fundamental skills necessary for approaching any of these styles with ease. In this five-week class, from Sept. 19 to Oct. 24, students will learn major, minor and 7th chords, rhythmic approaches to multiple styles of music and an introduction to scales for soloing. Each class will build on material covered in the previous week. Call or e-mail to reserve a spot as space is limited.
Classes will be held Sundays from 6-7 p.m. at Maple Leaf Music, 23 Elliot St., in Brattleboro. The cost is $95 for five classes. Contact Glines at blackjackoak@msn.com or 802-254.5559,
Performing arts
• Auditions for High Button Shoes at Main Street Arts: Auditions for a March musical production of High Button Shoes will be held at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River on Sunday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m. and Monday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m.
Parts are available for all voices and all ages, middle school through adult, with major roles for five men and four women. A chorus of men, women, and children is also needed for the many chorus numbers in the show. Those auditioning should be prepared to sing and bring vocal music if they have it. They are asked to come at the beginning of the audition time so that they can learn a simple group dance routine.
Anyone who is not able to attend the scheduled auditions may call producer Mary Hepburn (802-869-2729) for alternative audition times.The production staff also includes Larry Bramble, director, Vicki Lounder, music director, and Annesa Hartman, choreographer.
Rehearsals for the show will be primarily in January and February, but the cast will meet five times in November to work on the musical numbers. Anyone interested in working on other aspects of the production (sets, costumes, lights, make-up, or stage managing) should call 802-869-2729.
High Button Shoes, with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet, was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Stephen Longstreet. The musical opened on Broadway in 1947 (running for 727 performances), on the West End in 1948, and has had several regional revivals as well. Set in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1913, the show is filled with toe-tapping music that will have audience members humming the score all the way home.
Visual arts
• Art that heals at BMH: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and local artist Stephanie Nichols are teaming up to offer an opportunity for children whose parents have or have had cancer, to come together to create a public work of art.
On Sept. 18, and Oct. 2 and 16, children ages 6-13 will get their hands dirty rolling, carving, cutting tiles which will become part of a collaborative tile mosaic. It is an opportunity for children to spend time and share with others who are experiencing similar challenges. They can have fun at the same time making art that will be celebrated and on display for the public to see.
According to Kelly McCue, BMH Comprehensive Breast Care Program Nurse Navigator, “Group art projects such as the Tiles for Smiles program help children to gently release their feelings of sadness, fear or anger while participating in a fun activity with other children who are going through a similar experience.”
The program will be held in the Tyler Conference Room (on 1st floor of main hospital) at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital on those three Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to noon. There is no fee. Enrollment is limited to 15 children. For further information, contact Stephanie Nichols at 802-257-0253 or nicholssteph@hotmail.com.
• Entries sought for art exhibition: Two local organizations, Brattleboro Climate Protection and Artists for a Cool Planet are co-sponsoring, and seeking entries for, an exhibition of art to be held at Amy's Bakery Arts Cafe in October.
The exhibition, The End of the Romance: Getting Over Oil will take place at Amy's Bakery Arts Cafe from Oct. 1-25. The purpose of the exhibit is to draw attention to the climate crisis and the urgent need to reduce fossil fuel emissions. The exhibit will coincide with the international day of climate action on 10/10/10, sponsored by the organization 350.org.
The sponsors are looking for works which celebrate connections to the natural world, emphasize the urgent need to reduce fossil fuel emissions, or represent solutions. The work need not be literal; a statement to contextualize it may be helpful.
For more information and submission guidelines, contact show organizer Mollie Burke by Sept. 17 at mburke@sover.net or 802-257-4844.
Dance
• African dance series begins: A beginners African dance class series will meet on Thursday nights from 6-8:30, starting Sept. 16, at Geryunant retreat center, near Stickney Brook, off Bear Hill Road, in West Dummerston.
The facilitator is Gena Corea. Participants will learn the ABCs of African movement and create circle dances with the movements as Lauren Bernozzi, Sara West and Nick Gangel drum the spirits down to earth.
The cost is $10 per class for a series of six, $15 for drop-ins. For directions, call 802-257-3099 or e-mail genovefa@sover.net.
Books
• Looking at the lives of visionary New Englanders at The Book Cellar: On Thursday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m., John Walters will be at The Book Cellar reading and signing his new book, Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives.
The book tells the stories of some truly remarkable people who have led lives of passion and purpose, devoting themselves to a career, an art form, an idea, or a cause. All of the people featured in Roads Less Traveled are residents of Vermont and New Hampshire and the list includes local visionaries Will Ackerman, a Grammy-winning guitarist and producer and the founder of Windham Hill Music, as well as Scott Nehring, a Townshend furniture maker who crafts each piece from the wood of a single tree and makes everything fit flawlessly together without metal joinery or adhesives. In the telling of their stories and others Walters has compiled a testament to the breadth of human creativity and the strength of the human spirit.
Walters is a writer, editor and voice artist. He met the people featured in Roads Less Traveled during his work as a radio host and magazine writer, but writing the book allowed him the opportunity to tell their life stories in full without the constraints of airtime and word counts. Walters was the creator and host of The Front Porch, an award-winning interview show on New Hampshire Public Radio, where he worked from 2000 to 2005. In 2009, he won the Donald M. Murray Outstanding Journalism Award, given by the New Hampshire Writers' Project. He lives in East Montpelier.
The Book Cellar is located at 120 Main St. in downtown Brattleboro. For more information about this and other events or to reserve copies of Roads Less Traveled, contact the store at 802-254-6810 or www.bookcellarvt.com.
• Cummings to sign books at The Book Cellar: Do you or does someone you know suffer with Irritable Bowel Disorder (IBD)? Approximately 1.5 million people in the United States alone are afflicted with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a category of illnesses that includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and that number is steadily growing.
On Saturday, Sept. 18, from 3-4:30 p.m., local author Dede Cummings will be at The Book Cellar to answer questions and sign copies of her new book, Living with Crohn's & Colitis. Co-authored with Dr. Jessica Black, it offers patient-focused, expert guidance on everything from the latest medical treatments, how to cope with a diagnosis, and tips for balancing diet with a busy lifestyle so you can form a personalized wellness plan.
Cummings, author and Crohn's patient, has been a book designer for the past 25 years. She has been published by Family Fun and Mademoiselle magazine and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's Newsletter. She was a Discovery/The Nation poetry semi-finalist, and currently writes in a salon hosted by the author Suzanne Kingsbury. She and her family reside in Brattleboro.
• Tom Wessels at RFPL: On Monday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m,. come to the Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls for an evening with Tom Wessels, a local author, professor and renowned ecologist.
Wessels will show slides and tell stories from his hot-off-the press new book, Forest Forensics: A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape. Books will be available at the program.
Thousands of readers have had their experience of being in a forest changed forever by reading his first book, Reading the Forested Landscape. Now Wessels takes that wonderful ability to discern much of the history of the forest from visual clues and boils it all down to a manageable field guide that you can take out to the woods and use to start playing forest detective yourself.
Was this forest once farmland? Was it logged in the past? Was there ever a major catastrophe like a fire or a windstorm that brought trees down? Wessels has created a key - a series of either/or questions - to guide you through the process of analyzing what you see. With 50 color photographs, Forest Forensics clearly illustrates its material, and makes for a information-packed book.
Wessels is the director of the Environmental Biology program at Antioch New England Graduate School and founded its master's program in conservation biology. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.