Music
• Caravan of Thieves at Hooker-Dunham: Twilight Music presents acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet Caravan of Thieves at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 pm.
Fuzz and Carrie Sangiovanni (guitars, vocals), Ben Dean (violin) and Brian Anderson (acoustic bass) feature a theatrical high energy stage show, gypsy flavored songwriting, Beatlesque vocal harmonizing and driving rhythms - an overall circus of sound.
Tickets for the show are $16 general admission/$14 students and seniors. Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery is located at 139 Main St. in downtown Brattleboro, VT. For ticket reservations and information, call 802-254-9276. For more information, visit www.caravanofthieves.com and www.hookerdunham.org.
• St. Patrick's Fiddle Frenzy with Blue Moose & the Unbuttoned Zippers: Stone Church Arts presents St. Patrick's Fiddle Frenzy 2011 with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers on Saturday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. This foot-stomping celebration of spring will take place at Immanuel Episcopal Church, 20 Church St., Bellows Falls.
Founded in 2006 by four Berklee College of Music students, BMUZ decided to do something really different. They combined Scandinavian music and a nyckelharpa with American Old Time music, four and five string fiddles and a jazz and bluegrass guitarist. The result? A contemporary string band filled with epic triple fiddles, catchy melodies, and driving rhythms full of raw energy and mashy quirk.
Admission is $17 for adults ($13 for seniors and children under 12) in advance and $20 ($15) at the door. Tickets are available at Village Square Booksellers (Bellows Falls), Toadstool Bookshop (Keene, NH), Brattleboro Books, Misty Valley Books (Chester), and at www.brattleborotix.com or available at the door. For more information, please call 802-463-3100.
• BMC concert benefits Student Scholarship Fund: On Sunday, March 13, at 4 p.m., members of the Brattleboro Music Center Music School faculty will present a program of Beethoven, Moyse and Brahms at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro.
Each year, faculty members gather to perform chamber works together as a gift to support the BMC's Student Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund enables children and adults, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to study music and participate in classes and camps throughout the year. Participating in Sunday's concert are Alex Ogle and Robin Matathias, flutes; Jean Jeffries, French horn; Kathy Andrew, Michelle Liechti and Moby Pearson, violin; Peggy Spencer, viola; David Tasgal, cello; and Bruce Griffin, piano.
The concert will open with a much-loved quartet, Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 18, No. 2 in G major. Louis Moyse's Suite for trio of two flutes and viola, follows. It is a piece he composed in 1957 for the Moyse Trio, whose members were his father Marcel, his wife Blanche, and himself. The final piece in the concert, Johannes Brahms' Trio for Horn, Violin & Piano in E-flat, was written in 1865, reportedly in honor of his mother.
Tickets are $15. For more information visit www.bmcvt.org or call the BMC at 802-257-4523.
Visual arts
• Student art month in Newfane: The Crowell Gallery of the Moore Free Library, 23 West St., is featuring the art work of the children of Newbrook School for the month of March.
Student Art Month is always in March and the children have painted oodles of snowmen created from torn paper cups, made designs using their names, and thrown in a few surprises to boot.
Under the direction of Newbrook art teacher Jenn Towle, the Crowell Gallery is alive with creative artwork of children from first to sixth grade. The show opens March 5 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and will run through the month. For more information, contact Meris Morrison at the library, 802-365-7948.
• Liz deNiord exhibit opens at All Souls: In March and April, the gallery spaces at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in West Brattleboro are hosting an exhibit of selected and new works by Liz Hawkes deNiord. These large abstracts, says the artist, represent a “response to world events and personal reflections; they present a visual interpretation through vivid color.”
Hawkes deNiord majored in fine arts and Asian studies in college and developed her sometimes edgy, sometimes sublime painting style originally in oils; now she works with viscous acrylics and metals. She also trained as a ceramicist and printmaker, both of which enter into her painting as “different ways of thinking” about problem solving and paint application. She shows her paintings regionally and in journals, and they have been selected for use on several book covers. They can also be viewed online at www.lizhawkesdeniord.com.
The All Souls Arts Committee invites church members and friends, as well as the general public, to an opening reception for the exhibit on Saturday, March 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. Stop by for refreshments and a chance to speak with Hawkes deNiord about her work and her creative process. In addition to the reception on March 12, the church is open for gallery visitors from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, during Sunday worship and other public events, as well as by appointment. For further information, call the church office at (802) 254-9377.
Performing arts
• VTC to hold Shakespeare auditions: The Vermont Theatre Company is pleased to announce auditions for its 22nd annual Shakespeare-in-the-Park Production, Much Ado About Nothing, directed by James Gelter. Auditions will be March 17, at 7 p.m., in the NEYT building, 100 Flat Street, Brattleboro.
Performances will be June 23-26 at Living Memorial Park in Brattleboro.
Much Ado is one of the Bard's most beloved comedies, telling the story of two soldiers who return home from war to discover love - one the easy way, the other the hard way.
Roles are available for anyone of nearly any age, with one role for a 9- to 12-year-old child. Those auditioning will be asked to read from selections from the script. The selections can be found at the show's blog, vtcmuchado.blogspot.com. No memorization is required for the auditions.
If you wish to audition but cannot make the scheduled audition time, or have any other questions, contact James Gelter at jamesgelter@gmail.com. More information about the Vermont Theatre Company can be found at www.vermonttheatrecompany.com.
• BFUHS presents Annie: The Bellows Falls Union High School Drama Club presents Annie, on March 11, at 7 p.m., and March 12, at 2 and 7 p.m.
The musical is about an orphan named Annie, played by Rachel Greenburg who is placed in the lap of luxury for a week as a part of a publicity campaign for Oliver Warbucks, played by Dylan Ward. However, Annie's stay turns out to be much more than anyone had bargained for as she works her way into everyone's hearts and learns a few things for herself. Miss Hannigan is played by Courtney Perry, Rooser is played by Sam Empy and Lilly is played by Stephanie Muller.
Annie is a musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It has music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan.
Other cast members include Katie Szuch, Date Tuller, Abbey Fuller-Braodley, Allegra Maskell, Johanna Parker, Kimberly Lawrence, Bridget Hodsden, Madison Joy, Emily Vaccaro, Anna Barry, Brittany Laurendeau, Erik Warden, Ashley Palmisano, Addie Terrell, Scott Martin, Lucas Cushman, Denise Kingsbury, and Matt Willis.
Dance
• Guilford 250 Dance Series goes Norwegian: The town of Guilford's 250th anniversary celebration, a year-long series of events in 2011, features a dance each month at Broad Brook Grange. The series continues with an evening of Norwegian Telemark dancing on Saturday, March 12, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Admission is free with donations welcome.
Featured musician is Loretta Kelley, Hardanger Fiddle, and she will begin the evening with a short concert to introduce this little-known instrument. This will be followed by dancing in the Telegangar and Telespringar tradition. There will be some experienced dancers to watch, and those interested are also encouraged to attend as spectators.
For fiddlers and those with some experience in this dance tradition, there will be a series of workshops earlier in the day: Loretta Kelley: Hardanger fiddle, 10 a.m.-noon; regular fiddle 1:15-3:15 p.m.; dance review led by Annamarie Pluhar with Telegangar and Telespringar Dance, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Fiddle workshops are $25 each and the dance workshop is $10. For those spending the day at the Grange, there will be a potluck supper from 5:30-6:30.
To register for workshops, contact Annamarie Pluhar at 802-451-1941 or 579-5975 (cell). Again, the 6:30 pm short concert and dance are admission-free with donations to the Guilford 250th welcome. Information about the celebration is at www.guilford250.com.
• “Bollywood” dance lessons at MSA: East meets West when the dance techniques featured in India's “Bollywood” films come to Main Street Arts in a workshop Friday, March 18.
Gretchen Abendschein will teach the basic steps of this stylistic fusion of westernized contemporary funk with semi-classical folk dances of India that are key elements in many of the films produced in Mumbai, home to Bollywood and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.
No experience is necessary for the workshop, which will run from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The fee is $9 for members and $12 for non-members. Abendschein is also offering the workshop three other times: April 8, May 13 and June 10 at the same time and fee. Participants may attend any or all of the sessions.
Participants can register by contacting MSA at (802) 869-2960 or e-mailing MSA@sover.net. . Further information and a complete schedule of MSA's fall classes is available at www.MainStreetArts.org.