Posted July 9, 2009

{Lenox, Mass.}—Shakespeare & Company ’s exciting new Spherical Sounds series kicks into high gear this weekend, with three very special performances—two of which are free! Spherical Sounds is a summer-long journey of sound and music with Resident Composer and Music Director Bill Barclay. It includes a free, weekly concert series (every Thursday night in July and August), two specially prepared musical lectures, and two performances by the stunning ensemble AUREA, combining great music and great poetry into an unforgettable synthesis. Spherical Sounds is generously sponsored by a Meet the Composer grant from MetLife Creative Connections, awarded to create this unique programming.

Throughout this special, three-month series, Barclay leads an exploration of sounds both distant and familiar. A series of eight free, Thursday night concerts anchors the series, with additional special events including Composing with Shakespeare, a musical talk about writing music for Shakespeare’s plays on July 9; The Music of the Spheres, a special musical presentation with actors and singers in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on July 19th; and appearances by the performance ensemble AUREA this Sunday, July 12 and September 6.

Barclay’s work for Shakespeare & Company spans nine seasons and includes music for this summer’s Twelfth Night and Toad of Toad Hall, last summer’s All’s Well That Ends Well, The Mad Pirate & The Mermaid and The Goatwoman of Corvis County, and several other scores and performances for productions on all our stages including Antony & Cleopatra, Rough Crossing, King John, and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to a Meet the Composer grant, Bill is the recipient of a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, the nation’s largest grant for actors, for his work developing creative partnerships with theatres in England, France, Indonesia, and the US.

Schedule

First off this weekend is Barclay, who presents Composing With Shakespeare, a musical talk featuring the members of 2009 Eliot Norton Award-winning, Boston-based theatre company Orfeo Group. This special presentation is part of S&Co.’s always-free Bankside Festival, and is held at the Rose Footprint Theatre at 5:30 pm on July 9. Tickets are free but required, and can be picked up at the Box Office beforehand.

Each Thursday through August 27, a free, cabaret-style concert will enliven the scene at “EBTSs” (the Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar). Performances begin every Thursday at 10:15pm and festivities continue until 12:15am. Food and drink are available at the full-service bar. The Spherical Sounds series kicked off in grand fashion last week with a collection of the songs of Cole Porter, performed by Barclay and fellow Company actors Peter Davenport and Alexander Sovronsky. (Sovronsky appears this season in Hamlet).

This week’s free performance, The Rubber Violin, also features Sovronsky, with Barclay accompanying on piano. Sovronsky, an actor on the rise as well as a fiddle phenom, has graced the stages of Broadway, The Public Theatre in New York, and Shakespeare & Company with a thrilling range of techniques and styles on the violin. This celebration of the violin/piano repertoire features works by Piazzola, Gerswhin, Bolcolm, Bach, Vivaldi, Kreisler, Tartini, and Heifitz. This performance is free, and happens in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre Lobby on Thursday, July 9 at 10:15pm.

Sunday, July 12 marks the first of two performances this summer at S&Co. by AUREA, a well-respected and talented performance ensemble engaged in a joyous pursuit to investigate and invigorate the harmony of music and the spoken word. The troupe features Company actor Nigel Gore (appearing this season in Hamlet and Twelfth Night). AUREA: Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known weaves a rich and varied emotional tapestry from music of Dohnanyi, Rebecca Clarke, Martinu and virtuosic harmonica improvisations of Chris Turner and the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Auden, Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Ted Huges, Mark Strand and others. The performance features Nigel Gore (reader), Chris Turner (reader), Charles Sherba (violin), Consuelo Sherba (viola), Ted Mook (cello), and Chris Turner (harmonica). AUREA: Strange Fite of Passion Have I Known is performed at Founders’ Theatre on Sunday, July 11 at 8:30pm. Tickets are $20 or $10 for patrons under 25, and available on the day of show or in advance from the Box Office at (413) 637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org.

Spherical Sounds Events
(all events free unless otherwise noted):

Too Damn Cole! with tenor Peter Davenport and Bill Barclay, guitar.
Thursday, July 2nd at 10:15pm in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Cole Porter aficionado and company artist Peter Davenport sings new versions of his favorite Porter songs from the catalog of a great American icon and one of the most important song writers of all time.

Live Music for the Declaration of Independence Reading
Saturday, July 4th at 3:00 on The Founders’ Theatre Hill and Meadow
FREE

Bill Barclay leads the company and audience on banjo in a celebration of Americana featuring bluegrass and patriotic favorites. Also featuring Robert Biggs, guitar, Alexander Sovronsky, fiddle, and the choral group Berk-Shira.

Composing with Shakespeare, a musical talk with Bill Barclay
Thursday, July 9th at 5:30 at the Rose Footprint Theatre
FREE

"If music be the food of love..."

Shakespeare's 37 plays have over 50 songs and a myriad of musical moments. How does a composer write music to Shakespeare's poetry and also create incidental music to evoke the world of the play? What instruments, styles, skills, and performers are needed? Bill Barclay talks about his scores for All's Well That Ends Well, Antony & Cleopatra, this season's Twelfth Night, past collaborations with the Tanglewood Music Center, the challenges of a musical Bard, and the beautiful results that happen when it really works.

Stay to see Othello at 7:30 and come down to EBTB’s for The Rubber Violin!

The Rubber Violin with Alexander Sovronsky. Bill Barclay, piano
Thursday, July 9th at 10:15pm in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Fiddle phenom Alexander Sovronsky has graced the stages of Broadway, The Public Theatre in New York, and Shakespeare & Company with a thrilling range of techniques and styles on the violin. Join us for this celebration of the violin/piano repertoire featuring works by Piazzola, Gerswhin, Bolcolm, Bach, Vivaldi, Kreisler, Tartini, and Heifitz.

AUREA: Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known
Sunday, July 12th at 8:30pm in Founders’ Theatre
Tickets $20 Adult, $10 under 25

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known weaves a rich and varied emotional tapestry from music of Dohnanyi, Rebecca Clarke, Martinu and virtuosic harmonica improvisations of Chris Turner and the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Auden, Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Ted Huges, Mark Strand and others. Nigel Gore and Chris Turner readers; Charles Sherba, violin, Consuelo Sherba, viola, Ted Mook, cello, Chris Turner, harmonica. More at www.AureaEnsemble.org

Crazy for Gershwin with Joelle Lurie
Featuring Alexander Sovronsky, violin, and Bill Barclay, piano.
Thursday, July 16th at 10:15pm in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

The unforgettable soprano and cabaret artist Joelle Lurie joins with violinist Alexander Sovronsky and Bill Barclay at the piano to bring a truly American song catalog to life. Featuring songs from Crazy for You, I Got Rhythm, and Porgy and Bess, don’t miss this gutsy, jazzy, and sultry evening of iconic melody.

The Music of the Spheres
A special lecture event with Bill Barclay featuring Company actors and singers
Sunday, July 19th at 8:30 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Tickets $20 Adult, $10 under 25

In this singular 90-minute presentation, Bill Barclay will guide the audience on a journey that tackles the ageless question, ‘Is music a universal language?’ From acoustics to astronomy, Kepler to Cleopatra, Bill will use the science and philosophy of ancient beliefs in planetary harmony to bring together musics around the globe. Returning to Shakespeare, the audience will view the human experience through the Elizabethan World Picture to understand Shakespeare’s critical role in the long-lasting view of music as the perfect metaphor for the order of the Universe.

The Bowed Metal Ensemble
Thursday, July 23rd at 10:15pm in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Truly a Spherical Sounds event! Join Matt Samolis, Peter Warren, Thadd Comstock, and Bill Barclay as the Bowed Metal Ensemble from Boston takes you on an aural ride of the ethereal senses. Creating rich, shifting, resonant, and other-worldly textures with artfully bowed cymbals, bells, rods, and tuned glass to just intonation (the Music of the Spheres!), this program will redefine how you perceive acoustic vibration and its relation to time!

Tongues and Bones: The Music of Bill Barclay - a CD Release Party!
Thursday, July 30th at 10:15 in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Join Bill Barclay, Nigel Gore, Alex Sovronsky, Peter Davenport, and others to celebrate the release of Barclay’s first full-length CD crafted from the romping songs that rocked last summer’s musical hit, All’s Well That Ends Well. CD’s will be for sale as Shakespeare & Company celebrates the work of our Resident Composer.

The Pretty Pennies!
Thursday, August 8th at 10:15 in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Boston folk-rock outfit The Pretty Pennies, fresh off releasing their first full-length album, E Pluribus Unum, join us at Shakespeare & Company to create a fun atmosphere of Americana, bluegrass, new tracks of their first album and vintage covers. Learn more at www.theprettypennies.com

The Shakespeare Songs by Roger Quilter
Featuring baritone Alex Lawrence from the Tanglewood Music Center
Thursday, August 13th at 10:15 in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Lyric baritone Alex Lawrence, a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow and Finalist in this year’s Metropolitan Opera Competition sings both sets of the classic Roger Quilter settings (opus 6 and 23), which the 20th century English art song composer penned while deeply inspired by Shakespeare’s most famous lyrics. Including “Hey Ho, the Wind and the Rain,” a chilling “Come Away Death” and a jubilant “O Mistress Mine,” all from Twelfth Night with the luscious “Take, O Take Those Lips Away” from Measure for Measure, and more. Bill Barclay accompanies on piano.

Open Mic Cabaret!
Calling all Company friends and Fall Festival Alumni!
Thursday, August 20th at 10:15 in EBTB’s (Elayne Bernstein Theatre Bar)
FREE

Come one, come all, for a musical celebration of the many musical gifts within the Shakespeare & Company community. Singalongs, rounds, originals and familiar covers will represent a cross-section of our large extended family. Dance music will follow - all alumni of the Fall Festival of Shakespeare are encouraged to come and spread the word!

AUREA: Under a Latin Moon
Sunday, September 6th at 8:30pm in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Tickets $20 Adult, $10 under 25

Under a Latin Moon, includes music of Ginastera, Villa Lobos, Piazzolla, harmonica improvisations by Chris Turner, and poetry of Neruda, Lorca, Jimenez and Andrade. Performers: Nigel Gore, Diego Arciniegas, Chris Turner, readers; Charles Sherba, Katherine Winterstein, violin, Consuelo Sherba, viola, Ted Mook, cello, Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano, Chris Turner, harmonica. This program will feature readings in Spanish and English, as well as the rarely performed Villa Lobos songs for violin and mezzo-soprano in Portuguese.

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