Fun out of the sun – summer 2012 performing arts offerings in and around Ulster County

The first event in the festival is a free work-in-progress performance on Saturday, June 9: dancer/choreographer Clarinda Mac Low’s The Pronouns (Experiment #2). Another dance event on June 23 – this one a $50 benefit for Mount Tremper Arts — begins with a toast in the garden and continues with a trio of duets by Kimberly Bartosik titled You are my heat and glare.

On July 7 you can see a free theatre and installation piece by Jim Findlay titled Dream of the Red Chamber: a performance for a sleeping audience, which is based on an epic eighteenth-century Chinese novel by Cao Xuequin. On July 28, a musical performance by Cynthia Hopkins titled This Clement World addresses the global climate crisis by interweaving footage of the artist on an Arctic expedition with avant-folk opera and storytelling. Admission costs $15.

Dance returns on August 4 with Kota Yamazaki’s IRUKA and July 13, 1987. On August 11, you can catch the world premiere of Ursula Eagly’s Self Made Man Man Made Land, a construction project built by two dancers and a musician using movement, voice and live recording as their materials. Tickets for both of these dance events go for $15.

Extending the MTA barbecue tradition, there will also be a Friday art barbecue series, featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble on July 20, Christian Bök’s The Xenotext on

July 27, readings by Brooklyn Arts Press and Friends on August 3, and Kohji Setoh on August 10. The world premiere of Setoh’s Elegy for Graveyards will follow on August 11. Admission to art barbecue on Fridays is $15, which covers both the performance and dinner.

June 30 to September 16

Maverick Concerts

Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock

Box office: 800-595-4849

https://maverickconcerts.org/schedule.html

Most venerable among all the summer performing arts festivals in the mid-Hudson is the Maverick Concerts series, which has been going strong since 1916. Though it’s mainly known for the classical musicians of international stature who play here each summer, the 2012 series kicks off on June 30 with a more local group: Actors & Writers, who will perform Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. Admission is by contribution only.

Ticket prices for classical and jazz concerts are typically $40 for indoor seating, $25 outdoors. The Imani Winds blow into town on July 1, with a program titled “Duke Ellington, Paris and New Orleans.” July 7 brings Steve Gorn, Allyn Miner and Samir Chatterjee for a concert of Indian classical music. On July 8, pianist Pedja Muzijevic will join the Shanghai Quartet. On July 14, in its Maverick debut, the Four Nations Ensemble will present a special Bastille Day concert celebrating the French Baroque. The Latitude 41 Piano Trio performs on July 15.

Local favorite Peter Schickele will perform in a benefit concert for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild on July 21, titled “The 2012 Woodstock Beat.” That’ll be a tough act to follow, but the Leipzig String Quartet will do its best on July 22. Cellist Zuill Bailey plays on July 29, with Robert Koenig on piano. On August 5 the Amernet String Quartet rolls in. And on August 12, Trio Solisti will put on a show that includes a sixtieth-anniversary performance of John Cage’s notorious “silent” piece 4’33”, which premiered at the Maverick in 1952.

The Ébène Quartet performs the classical side of its repertoire on August 19. Frederic Chiu and Andrew Russo play piano duos on August 26. On September 1, a chamber orchestra concert titled “La Bonne Chanson: A Celebration of French Song” will feature Mary Nessinger,

Andrew Garland, Alan Murchie and the Sequitur Ensemble conducted by Alexander Platt. September 2 will bring in the Jupiter String Quartet with Ilya Yakushev on piano. A “Concert for Friends of the Maverick” on September 9 features Tim Fain on violin. And on September 16, the Tokyo String Quartet will close out the Maverick season.